Pilot Theatre
Menu

Our Board

  • Tom Bellerby

    Co-chair

    Tom is a freelance theatre director and dramaturg. He started his career at Pilot Theatre and went on to become the Resident Director at the Donmar Warehouse and Associate Director at Hull Truck Theatre, where he was a key member of the team who planned and delivered the theatre's programme as part of Hull 2017 UK City of Culture. Alongside his directing work Tom regularly teaches at some of the UK's top drama training institutions including Arts Ed, RCSSD and Leeds Conservatoire.

  • Stephen Mason – co-chair

    Stephen is enraptured by theatre, its processes and potential, and directs plays himself (though not at the level of Pilot Theatre!). He is also a Trustee of Ilkley Playhouse. In his other life Steve is a solicitor, no longer practising but enjoying bringing his legal skills to the benefit of Pilot.

  • Amanda Smith

    Mandy is Executive Producer/Joint CEO of Pilot. She is proud of working for and being a Trustee of a company known to inspire and connect with its audiences of young people and participants across the country. She enjoys continuing to develop the company’s international work and profile, having worked on 25 years of Creative Europe projects and on productions and exchanges in Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Canada and Russia.  

  • David Collins

    David is the Executive Director of Northern Ballet.  Previously he was he was Executive Director and Deputy CEO of Opera North where he led the fundraising campaign for the company’s major capital project and prior to this he was Head of Marketing at the RSC.  David served as a Board member for Opera Europa, the association of European opera companies, and is a parent governor at his local primary school.

  • Eliza Beth Stevens

    Eliza is a director of theatre and comedy from Yorkshire, now based in South East London. She is the Associate Director for Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch and her debut play Fair Cop is currently in development. She is also the Artistic Director of Out The Attic and host of the Grafters Podcast.Credits as Assistant Director; Ballad Lines (Southwark Playhouse Elephant), Mary and the Hyenas (Hull Truck/Wilton’s Music Hall), A Song for Ella Grey (UK Tour), Handbagged Workshop (National Theatre/Queens Theatre Hornchurch), Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch (Southwark Playhouse Elephant), Henrietta (NYMT).As Director; Anna Hale; Control Freak (Pleasance/Edinburgh Fringe), Curly; C U Later Simulator (Edinburgh Fringe), Twelfth Night (Fleshment Theatre), …that’s what she said (Unity Theatre Liverpool).

  • Esther Richardson

    Esther Richardson is the Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Pilot Theatre. She has directed many of the companies recent productions including: Noughts and Crosses (by Malorie Blackman/Sabrina Mahfouz), Mary and the Hyenas (by Maureen Lennon), A Song for Ella Grey (by David Almond/Zoe Cooper), The Bone Sparrow (by Zana Fraillon/S. Shakthidharan), Crongton Knights (by Alex Wheatle/Emteaz Hussain) and Brighton Rock (by Graham Greene/Bryony Lavery).  Esther also recently directed Expendable (by Emteaz Hussain) for the Royal Court Theatre in London.Esther believes theatre in the 2020s is a vital route to help us “think harder” and “feel more”, keeping us powerfully connected to our essential humanity in an age of advancing technology. In addition to her work at Pilot, she is a Clore Leadership Fellow and a Trustee of Stand and Be Counted Theatre, the UK’s first theatre company of sanctuary. Over a twenty-five-year career, Esther has directed and/or produced over thirty productions, new writing festivals and short films, and she continues to work extensively across the UK and internationally.

  • Gareth Burrow

    Gareth is the Head of Finance at York Archaeology, and an experienced chartered accountant and former auditor, with a particular interest in the charity and not for profit sector.  As a long-time admirer of Pilot’s work and ethos, Gareth is delighted to be able to bring his financial skills to the Board.

  • John R. Wilkinson

    John is a theatre director and dramaturg, working freelance and as Artistic Associate at York Theatre Royal. He is the tenth recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic. Most of his directing credits are focused on intense, modern classics, though he has also worked on large scale musicals and festivals of new work for young people.

  • Katy Dartsch

    Katy is part of the senior leadership team at CAPA College, Wakefield.  She has been part of the team since 2012 as they strive to deliver high-quality arts training to 16-19 year olds across the north of England.  Katy is passionate about promoting the huge range of employment opportunities within the arts to the students.

  • Shannon David

    Shannon is a freelance Casting Director and Writer from the West Midlands and she formed Elise Casting in 2020 focusing on discovering fresh talent to tell Midlands and Northern based stories. Alongside her freelance practice Shannon has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Company & Stage Management department and prior to that in Production for Derby Theatre.

    Shannon has worked as part of a Race Equity working group at the Royal Shakespeare Company in partnership with Race Reflections, work which saw the development of content and training packs on micro-aggressions in the workplace - rooted in the lived experience of racism.

  • Sophie Buckley

    Sophie is an employment and discrimination law specialist. She was a principal legal officer at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and is now a fee-paid employment judge.

  • Tracy Mosley

    Tracy has over 25 years of experience in marketing and communications, primarily in the arts/cultural, educational and charitable sectors. Tracy has previously worked for Audiences Yorkshire, Yorkshire Dance, and for a wide range of organisations nationally and internationally as a freelance consultant.

  • Victoria Blakey-Archer

    Vicky (Vic) is an experienced charity leader, currently working as the CEO of St Nicks, a York based environmental charity.
    With a career in the voluntary sector spanning almost 20 years, working with organisations ranging from grassroots community groups to national organisations and federations,  she is well versed in all things charity governance.
    Vic firmly believes in the power of communities and the arts to make positive change!

  • Violet Scantlebury

    Violet is an experienced teacher of 18 years and started her journey in drama and education as a performer before becoming a freelance Drama practitioner with the Nottingham Playhouse Participation Programme. Here she was able to develop a learning system to help engage participants with Drama, stimuli and hard-hitting topics. Her role now not only focuses on the development of the Drama Curriculum but also on teaching and learning from a whole school perspective. Having taught in mainly inner-city settings, Violet is keenly aware of the role education can have on young lives and the power of strong leadership in the drive to give a voice to all and she believes that the arts must continue to push boundaries to empower everyone to use their voice!