Jill Dowse (Co-Artistic Director)

Jill Dowse is a theatre, voice and music practitioner. She trained in theatre at Exeter University, with Monika Pagneux in Paris and as a voice practitioner at the Central School of Speech & Drama. Jill has worked in theatre for the last 28 years, co-founding Foursight Theatre (1987-2012) with whom she created and performed many shows, first as an artistic director and then as an associate artist.

Jill  co-creates and performs in most of The Bone Ensemble’s work. As a freelance artist she recently finished tours of The Boy Who Bit Picasso (with Untied Artists – retouring in Spring 2016) and The Hundred Years’ War: From the Somme to Afghanistan (MCP/Belgrade Theatre), and was a performer-researcher on Yvon Bonenfant’s Uluzuzulalia, a playful interactive vocal environment for 6-10 year olds and their families. In Autumn this year, she appeared in Frozen Light’s The Forest (for audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities), and  in Platform 4’s Memory Points at the South Bank Centre (also in 2014!).

Jill’s work and interests spans a wide range of activity, from intimate pieces for adults (Bedtime Story) and families (Caravania!), to pieces for empty shop windows (Window Dressing, with The Windows Collective). Jill also co-founded Foursight Theatre (1987-2012) and devised and toured in many of their pieces. She has extensive experience in teaching drama, voice and performance at numerous universities, conservatoires and schools, and as a songwriter.

Songwriting commissions include Soundscape of Our City (Humber Mouth Festival); Thatcher: The Musical (Foursight Theatre), Again (The Bone Ensemble), The Snow Queen (Foursight Theatre) and Alice Through the Looking Glass [St Albans Festival], and she has MD’d various shows.

Jill has also worked for companies including Red Shift, Theatre Alibi, Talking Birds, Kindle (now KILN Ensemble) and Stan’s Cafe.