Reece McMahon (he/him)
Director
Reece is an interdisciplinary arts producer specialising in theatre, dance, live and outdoor arts. He became Director of Chisenhale Dance Space in 2022 and has also served as Interim Director of Chisenhale Art Place since 2025. Chisenhale Art Place is the umbrella arts charity that holds the lease on the shared building housing Chisenhale Dance Space, Chisenhale Gallery and Chisenhale Studios, which comprises 40 artist studios.
Previously, he was a Producer at New Diorama Theatre (NDT), where he helped plan and deliver NDT Broadgate, a rehearsal and artist development complex in the City of London. He also oversaw a season that contributed to NDT winning Fringe Theatre of the Year 2022, including the Royal Court and West End transfers of “For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy.”
From 2020 to 2023, Reece co-founded and ran The REcreate Agency, raising £1 million for arts projects and supporting over 550 creatives.
Reece began his career as an Assistant Producer at The Place after graduating from London Contemporary Dance School. He has worked with Avant Garde Dance Company, Rural Touring Dance Initiative, Outdoor Arts UK, and Museum of Homelessness. He is currently an ISPA England Fellow 2025-2027.
Contact Reece here
Frances Morgan (she/her)
Associate Director
Frances is a producer, facilitator and artist from East Yorkshire, living in London. She has been part of the CDS Artist Community since 2015, and have worked as part of the staff team since 2018. Her role has recently focussed on working with members to develop artist leadership at the organisation, experimenting with more equitable selection processes, and advocating for marginalised artists.
Collaboration is at the heart of Frances’ artistic practice, and she has co-led participatory, curatorial and discursive projects in response to diverse interests: queer and post-work futures, nightlife, magic, improvisation, and trans experience. As a self-producing artist she has performed and exhibited her work across the UK and internationally, including The Place, Wellcome Collection, The Yard Theatre (London), Yorkshire Dance (Leeds), Dance4 (Nottingham), Vivid Projects (Birmingham), and La Fete du Slip (Switzerland).
Contact Frances here.
Sam Burkett (they/them)
Venue & Events Producer
Sam is a producer, choreographer, movement director, and comedian. They have been in the Artist Community at CDS since 2019. Originally from Texas, they moved to the UK in 2013 to study politics. Their role focuses on supporting artists to engage with CDS and get their ideas off the ground alongside overseeing the day-to-day operations of the building.
Sam’s artistic practice sits in between dance and comedy, and their work has been shown in theatres across the UK and in the US, and their solo show, Crop Tops Make Me Feel Vulnerable, won the Best of Anything Goes Award at the 2018 Houston Fringe Festival. As a movement director, Sam specialises in working with comedians: helping them to develop their stage presence and physicality and giving them tools to develop new material and engage audiences.
Sam’s work has been supported by Arts Council England, Scottish Ballet, Dance Base (Edinburgh), Yorkshire Dance, and Leeds City Council among others.
Contact Sam here.
Sonya Woodruff (they/them)
Artist Community Producer
Sonya Woodruff is an artist, curator and community organiser based in South-East London, whose work focuses on facilitating communication between people to help the achievement of collective cultural goals.
They graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2023, and have spent the past few years as a venue director at the Piehouse Co-Op, a grassroots DIY music venue + arts space in Deptford.
They have experience collaborating with a range of grassroots cultural organisations in London, spanning the London Community Video Archive, Sister Midnight, House of Annetta, Avalon Cafe, Deptford Dub Club, Lewisham Commons, and Our Bloc.
Contact Sonya here.
Ruth Phillips (she/her)
Associate Producer
Ruth is a theatre maker, movement director, choreographer and producer. At CDS, she oversees marketing, social media and supports producing and events across a range of projects.
Ruth’s practice is rooted in collaborative theatre-making, movement and inclusion. She has worked as an Associate Artist with SpeakUp Theatre, directing and co-producing work presented at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, NSDF and Vault Festival. Her show LOVE (Watching Madness) was selected as one of The Stage’s “Best shows to see at London’s Vault Festival 2020”. She also founded Size Inclusivity Org, supporting organisations and individuals to challenge size bias and create more inclusive environments where people of all body sizes are represented and valued.
As a movement director and choreographer, Ruth has worked across theatre and film, with credits including Almeida Young Company, National Youth Theatre, Historical Royal Palaces, Mercury Theatre, LAMDA and Guildhall. She completed an MA in Movement: Directing and Teaching at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and teaches actor movement and dance across London conservatoires. Her practice focuses on actor movement, impulse, devised work and expressive practices. She also runs weekly commercial dance classes in south-west London, centred on empowerment, inclusivity and the joy of movement.
Contact Ruth here.
Michael Picknett (he/him)
Lead Technician
Michael is a composer, technician and performer specialising in music for dance, stage and film. As a composer, Michael’s work explores tactility and presence in performance, and this is reflected in his sound design – often using sounds on the edge of perception, or creating moving sound through multi-speaker set-ups.
As a technician he has worked extensively in the UK and Belgium, creating and relighting works for theatre makers, as well as running shows for scratch nights. He is the lead technician for TripSpace as well as Chisenhale. He is also a specialist in audio for film. Especially cleaning audio, composition and mixing.
He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama gaining both a masters and a doctorate in music composition. More information can be found at: www.michaelpicknett.com
IT Support Robert Filkins
Website Design & Hosting Hans de Kretser Associates
Finance / Bookeeping Blackdot
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Image Credit: Chisenhale’s Winter Gathering, 2023. Photo by Lucy Hayes.