Stomping Ground relaunched in Autumn 2023, and we are keen to meet more brilliant artists and practitioners who are resident in the East of England.
If you like the sound of our work and are interested in working with us, drop us a message.
Our Team
Sian Burford-Thomas: Creative Director
Sian launched Stomping Ground in 2012, having worked with both professional theatres and schools in London as a freelance director and theatre practitioner since 2006.
After a successful couple of years embedding Stomping Ground in Shetland, Sian took up the role of Creative Communities Producer at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, where she stayed for nearly 9 years.
Two children, five cats and numerous chickens later, Sian has now relaunched Stomping Ground as a company dedicated to working with young people and communities in the East of England.
She lives with her wife and the above brood in Manningtree.
Sian’s creative background is in theatre directing, and her artistic practice is informed by this. She is dedicated to working in participatory theatre, and has run numerous youth theatres, community projects, schools residencies, digital participation projects and more, and has directed a range of productions. She was responsible for family programming at The New Wolsey Theatre for 6 years, and has produced many successful funded projects, one of which was award nominated.
As well as running Stomping Ground, Sian is currently lead practitioner for the Mercury Theatre Young Company 13-17 groups, as well as for their Adult Carers Project and multiple other workshop projects. She also runs theatre based workshops for the New Wolsey Theatre and Suffolk Libraries amongst others.
Work as a director includes:
Dark Sky Reserves (a radio play), The Twits, Through the Looking Glass (And What Alice Found There) (all for New Wolsey Youth Theatre), Earth Hour (Stomping Ground community event, Mareel, Shetland), The Birthday Party, Vote Earth!, Dick Whittington & his Cat (Stomping Ground Beginners group, Shetland), A Doll’s House, Gargantua, There is a War, Lay Your Sleeping Head, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Cautionary Tales for Children (all for Rose Youth Theatre, Kingston), Brokenville and Where Are We? (both for Farnham Maltings Young Company), King Lear (Rose Theatre Kingston, Versophiles); Not to Be (Riverside Studios, Off Cut Festival); Last Orders (C Venues, Edinburgh Festival), Dorothy and the Land of Roz (Phoenix Theatre Artist’s Club); Maya (Hampstead Theatre Start Night); Gladstone in the Park and Treasure Island (Brent Arts Council) Let us Know (White Bear); Legends of the Tube (Greenwich Playhouse); The Taming of the Shrew and Mrs. Sorken (Bridewell Theatre); The Wood Piper (The King’s Head Theatre). Assistant director credits include: Blok Busta & The Pretender Agenda (New Players Theatre); The Little Prince (Hampstead Theatre); I’m A Minger (Arts Theatre/ Latitude Festival); Cosi Fan Tutte (National Tour, Opera UK); Rough Music Showcase, Road to Nirvana, A Right Royal Farce (King’s Head Theatre).
Sian has also worked as Schools Audiences Practitioner for Hampstead Theatre, Residency Director & Facilitator for Almeida Projects, Young Company Director for Farnham Maltings and has led workshops for the Young Vic.
Chloe Atkinson: Theatre Practitioner
Chloe started her journey as a freelance facilitator in 2015 at the young age of 19, whilst still studying for her degree, and she never looked back! Starting at the Pauline Quirke Academy Colchester as an assistant for their class of 4 and 5 year olds, Chloe still works for the Academy today, teaching the Comedy and Drama module as well as holding the role of Vice-Principal. Through PQA she has directed multiple large scale youth productions, two of which have taken place at His Majesty’s Theatre in London.
Chloe furthered her training as a practitioner with the Mercury Theatre Colchester, where her autism diagnosis sparked an interest in taking on new work with the SEND community. During her time with the Mercury, Chloe has delivered holiday clubs for young participants with SEND, Arts Award for SEND participants, and most recently the Mercury Young Company SEND group for young adults with disabilities. Chloe is also currently a beneficiary of the Mercury Creatives programme.
Sian and Chloe met whilst both working for the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, where Chloe now runs their two youngest Youth Theatre groups and is also about to start an exciting new project in collaboration with a local charity. Also in Ipswich, Chloe runs classes on behalf of The Actor’s Training Academy, a new and independent youth theatre company.
Chloe lives in Ipswich with her partner, who is also a huge theatre fan, and in her spare time she enjoys video games, singing and audiobooks.
Joanna Dodd: Dance & Theatre Practitioner
Joanna graduated with a BAHons Degree in Physical Theatre from East 15 Acting School in 2012. She has since performed and worked as a choreographer on various shows but found she was most happy when sharing her passion for theatre when teaching. Having been on both sides of the stage working as Client Services Manager for C-Venues at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, touring a show across Europe, performing at the Edinburgh and Brighton Fringe Festivals and working on an in-house theatre Pantomime, Joanna has a well-rounded knowledge of the theatre industry.
After deciding that she wanted to share her passion of theatre and her love for working with children, she took up a role at a primary school as a HLTA teaching PE, Drama and Dance and also assisting in the classroom. Here she set up a dance classes which were oversubscribed, and for which she was committed to providing quality dance training and performance opportunities which included performing on stage at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford.
Joanna has two children and is currently working with a broader range of ages as a Freelance Dance and Theatre Practitioner. She currently teaches Musical Theatre Adult Dance, Mercury Young Company Musical Theatre and assists on various classes for Mercury Theatre.
Our Partners
We work closely with and are grateful to be supported by Manningtree Arts. We work with their team to develop creative projects for the local community. For more info, see our project pages.