Alumni

The diversity in education received at Circomedia is reflected in the various career paths taken by our graduates. Some will go on to become world-class performers, whilst others will eschew the spotlight in favour of working as directors, producers, or designers. Circomedia graduates have worked alongside circus and theatre companies both big and small, and others have set up their own. Inspired by the education they received, some graduates have become teachers themselves, helping to inspire the next generation of practitioners.

Whatever the direction taken, Circomedia is proud of all its graduates. The names below are just a few of the many people who spent time at Circomedia now enjoying creative and fulfilling careers in the arts.

Before coming to Circomedia, Alex had studied singing and fine art at university. Once he decided to give circus a go he specialised in aerial and physical theatre. When not designing the custom-build apparatus for which Ockham’s Razor is renowned, he is a consultant for equipment design and creative rigging for other companies who want to do something different to the norm. Alex is currently performing in Tipping Point, one of Ockham’s Razor’s most celebrated shows, and helping to devise new work.

Tom is a writer and performer based in Bristol. His first play, Muscle, developed at Residence, received a national tour from Hull Truck Theatre in association with Bristol Old Vic. Between 2008 and 2010 he developed a multi-media solo show entitled Pedestrian (co-commissioned and produced by Theatre Bristol and Bristol Old Vic) which went on to be a sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010, touring nationally throughout 2011 to critical acclaim.

As an actor Tom has worked for Bristol Old Vic, Tobacco Factory, Theatre Alibi, Bodies In Flight, BBC1, and Radio 4 and has performed with and managed international street show The Big Heads

Matilda studied English literature at King’s College London. In 1998 she then studied at Circomedia, specialising in physical theatre with aerial silks. For ten years she collaborated as an aerialist and actress with theatre, dance and circus companies on diverse productions including The Bird (Mamaloucos, National Theatre); Destination and Romeo and Juliet (Volcano Theatre); Elemental, Rope, and An Evening with Dracula (Company F/Z); Sister Sister (Boilerhouse); The Miserly Knight (Glyndebourne Opera); Pericles (Shakespeare’s Globe); and Egg Dances, Passage and Ascending Fields (Rosemary Lee). She also devised and performed her own work as a solo artist. Her full-length solo show – Line, Point, Plane – was commissioned by the London International Mime Festival and the Royal Opera House, and toured nationally and internationally from 2006 to 2007.

In 2008 Matilda decided to give up aerial work and come down to earth. She retrained firstly at The Drama Centre London and then at Goddard College, Vermont, on the MFA in Creative Writing. She is in the midst of writing her first novel.

2008 was also the year she began working with Improbable and has performed with the company in a number of their shows: Panic; Satyagraha and The Still. She now works as an Associate Director with the company. In 2012 Matilda became and mother and two years later founded ‘Mothers who Make’, a peer support group for mothers and artists of every ilk which has rapidly grown into a national network, running in arts venues across the whole of the UK. In 2016 she directed Me, Mother a show about how circus performers navigate motherhood, commissioned by The Roundhouse.