Starting Blocks is a flagship programme championing solo artists or independent small groups; inviting and giving space for artists to take risks, strive for innovation and utliise a peer-peer network to encourage exciting new collaborations. Over ten weeks, these six artists or companies will meet weekly to share their practice and developing ideas.

Artistic Director Rio Matchett says: I'm so excited to be working with these six artists as my first ever Starting Blocks cohort! As ever, we had a huge amount of exciting, provocative and deserving applications, and the selection process was so difficult. This group were selected not only on the quality of their proposed ideas, but also on the synergy between them - each of the pieces we're developing is doing something interesting and unusual with its audience in terms of dramaturgically driven participation or agency, and all of the artists have a practice rooted in archival work, identity and restorative politics. The beauty of Starting Blocks as a scheme is how the artists challenge, hold and support each other, and I can't wait to share more about each piece - they're truly exceptional in terms of both content and craft. 

Artist: Sam Rees

Sam Rees is a critically acclaimed theatre-maker whose work has been staged at leading UK venues, including Summerhall, Oxford Playhouse, Soho, Norwich Theatre, and Jermyn Street. His recent projects include Edinburgh Fringe 2024 sell-out show Lessons On Revolution, praised as ‘compelling and galvanising’ (James Graham), ‘one of my favourites of this year’s fringe’ (Natasha Tripney),‘a heartfelt paean to the politics of hope ★★★★★’ (The Scotsman), ‘the best thing we’ve seen this year ★★★★★’ (The Morning Star), ‘intelligent, questioning documentary theatre ★★★★’ (The Stage), and ‘one of the most talked about shows from this year’s festival’ (The Conversation), and The Food Bank Show, called  ‘utterly magnetic ★★★★’ by Broadway Baby, a show which ‘creates space for radical conversation to happen ★★★★’ by A Young(ish) Perspective), and ‘an exemplary production that defies the rules of the genre’ by Theatre Weekly. 

Insta: @samrees9259

Artist: Nomakhwezi Becker 

Nomakhwezi Becker is a South African – German interdisciplinary performer and writer, creating through theatre, poetry and storytelling. Her practice explores collaborative intimacy across distance, finding, reclaiming, and creating home in the in-between spaces as a woman raised by multiple homes, heritages and languages. Her work hopes to create worlds that hold space for claiming ‘in-betweenity’ as a place of belonging.

Becker's original theatre work includes When Coasts Meet, a collaborative piece awarded an Ovation Fringe-Award at National Arts Festival (RSA, 2019) and Waiting for Lift Off published by the University of Johannesburg (2024). Her poetry has been featured at Poetry Africa (RSA), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (US), Translationale Berlin (DE) and she is a 2023/24 Barbican Young Poet. An MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths University of London opened up her practice to the wisdom of Call and Response from South African storytelling as a tool for creative world building.

Insta: @nomakhwezi.becker

Artist: Matthew Schwarz & Cecilia Thoden van Velzen 

Matthew Schwarz (performer/writer) and Cecilia Thoden van Velzen (director/writer) are a theatremaking collective from the Netherlands. They met studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and have since developed a keen interest in placing politically charged archive material within the fictional constructs of theatre. 

During Starting Blocks, they will be developing Good Judgement as their first piece of documentary theatre.

Artist: Martin Moriarty

Martin Moriarty (he / him) is a writer-performer making new work that blends personal biography, community history and queer archive. His first solo show, Virginia Woolf’s Dog Training Academy, premiered at CPT in January 2024. A tribute to his dog Lucky, the show asked what would happen if we re-thought the relationship between dogs and humans using the queer principles of freedom and fulfilment.

Insta: @_martinmoriarty

Artist: Tim Hopkins

Tim Hopkins is a theatre maker and experienced interactive performer, emerging since 2009. His debut show ‘Burger Van’, a multi sausage exploration of imagination amid the depths of dull work, was cancelled on the opening night by short lived Edinburgh Fringe venue, Phones4U. During a widely-toured promenade show, he adeptly led the audience to an A road where the finale was upstaged by an elderly woman picking up dog poo. More recently he curated a family funeral that was reviewed as ‘hilarious’ and ‘an immaculate mix of mourning and the lash’. 

For Starting Blocks Tim is making a minimalist show about hoarding. It will feature existential dread and possibly music from his brother Alex, if he can talk him into it.