Debs Newbold is a multi-award winning storyteller, director, performer and playwright who creates fresh, playful work that gets deep under the skin.
As a performer, Debs has made work for venues such as the Royal Opera House, the Southbank Centre, Hay Festival and Shakespeare’s Globe as well as many other theatres, festivals and community spaces both in the UK and internationally.
Debs is one of the UK’s foremost performance storytellers and her genre-defying collaborations with renowned director John Wright (Told by an Idiot) have helped re-define contemporary storytelling, resulting in two acclaimed shows: Under Her Skin & Lost In Blue. A third, Outrageous Fortune, which was due to go on National Tour in 2020 before COVID-19 hit, has now been made into a film. Debs tells myths, folk tales, legends and new stories and her celebrated solo adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedies have toured internationally.
As a director Debs has made work for: Shakespeare’s Globe Education; Creation Theatre; Komola Collective; Mr. Wilson’s Second Liners; Half Moon Young People’s Theatre; Rose Theatre Kingston. She has a particular love of working with live music and often uses clowning and devising techniques as part of her creative process. Her most recent production, a musical adaptation of Bleak House for Creation Theatre, garnered multiple 5 Star reviews.
Debs recently wrote and performed the text for Will Pound’s much-lauded gig theatre tour Through The Seasons. She also wrote and performed the monologue I Cannot Sleep, part of Rusty Quill’s chart topping podcast series for Historic Royal Palaces. Her play Rising Up, inspired by the legacy of the 1819 Peterloo massacre, opened at HOME in Manchester in October 2019 before going on national tour.
Fellow of the Young Foundation, FUSE playwright at Leeds Playhouse and winner of the Summerhall Acting Award at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, Debs is a passionate story maker and collaborator. And she makes ever such a good cup of tea.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “one unfeasibly talented woman” – Views from the Gods
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “pulls down the spirit of Shakespeare” – StageTalk Magazine
★ ★ ★ ★ “Newbold is charismatic” – Reviews Hub
★ ★ ★ ★ “one of the UK’s top storytellers” – Broadway Baby
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