About Us

Established for over 40 years, Forest Forge Theatre holds community at the heart of our work: whether touring our own produced shows to venues across Hampshire and the New Forest or creating projects with local community groups and schools.

As the only established self-producing theatre in the area, we are excited to continue developing our creative hub for local, regional and international artists to experiment, develop and perform new work. We’re passionate about forging new links with artists to form inspired collaborations.

Our custom built theatre is also home to our well established Youth Theatre, where 150 young people create theatre every week; The Young Company for emerging artists; our thriving Associate Artist programme; and a wide range of offers for adults including our Act Your Age drama group.

Meet the Team

Everything we do at Forest Forge is created in collaboration with people who love working in the arts and making theatre. From our core team and board; freelance theatre practitioners; workshop leaders; technical gurus; to our awesome ambassadors, volunteers, and dedicated friends in the community – we are all an essential part of the Forest Forge family.

Lucy Phillips
Lucy PhillipsCreative Learning Director
Lucy has been running our creative learning department for over 20 years, and is a legend amongst the young people and communities of the area. A highly experienced and accomplished workshop leader; director; youth theatre director; lecturer; facilitator; and all round shoulder to lean on, she is well known for ‘making proper adults since 1999.’

Lucy has directed shows for Arts University Bournemouth; Tall Trees Theatre; Bumblefly Theatre; to name but a few.

Jo Billingham
Jo BillinghamEducation & Participation Officer
Jo has been working in theatre for over 15 years, and is responsible for developing and co-ordinating the education and engagement programme at Forest Forge. She is an experienced facilitator; workshop leader; theatre maker and director; trainee producer; spreadsheet wizard and creative tidier.

She is currently also working with The Outsiders Project as part of BEAF, and is co-creator of Earth Kin Events. Previous companies include The Birmingham Playhouse; Salisbury Playhouse; Birmingham Stage Company.

Colin Bull
Colin BullBuilding Manager
Colin is the glue that holds our building together. He is responsible for the day-to-day running of the facilities, ensuring we are generally the right temperature and everything works. Colin is also a passionate supporter of the work we do, and is an active member of our Act Your Age adult drama group.
Sharon Toft
Sharon ToftFinance Manager
Sharon Toft is director of SJT Accounts and has been working with Forest Forge for over 10 years. She deals with all things numbers and money related at the theatre- making sure we all get paid and our creative projects run smoothly!

Our team of brilliant outreach workshop leaders and technicians include:

Lisa Halpin, Claudia Friend, Olivia Murphy, Tyler Hoyland, Dom Phillips, Pete Courtenay, Jessie May-Clark, Bonner Cockayne, and many more…

Our Board:

James Hartley-Binns (Chair), Dr Miranda Whitehead, Nicola Wilson, Gill Gould, Megan Purdie.

Funding Representatives:

Cllr Christine Ward (New Forest District Council)