Hello!
My name is Josie (she/her) and I 'am' ThisEgg.
I self-produce, co-create & perform shows with a variety of artistic collaborators.
Photo by Jemima Yong
Harry Elletson Photography and Design
Photo by Jemima Yong
Photo credits: Camilla Greenwell, Lidia Crisafulli, Harry Elletson, Heather Pasfield, Jemima Yong & Greta Mitchell.
I like theatre because it brings people together. I like it when it is political, and it’s even better when it provokes an action or change in people. It is live, that's important. Anything could happen.
I like to make theatre that is led by form and theme, not necessarily story.
More often than not, ThisEgg shows are made by the people on stage. That means the shows will be full of them and what they find fun. I like to make theatre from the inside. That means I am usually on stage too.
I won’t pretend that the audience isn’t there (because hopefully they are).
I like to make theatre that is current and is responding to the world now.
(I mostly make under ThisEgg, but sometimes I don't. You can see my non-ThisEgg related work here.)
Past shows:
ThisEgg’s most recent show A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 and received a Scotsman Fringe First Award 2024.
ThisEgg's show before that, dressed. also premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe to critical acclaim, receiving a Scotsman Fringe First Award 2018 as well as a nomination for ThisEgg for Total Theatre Awards’ Emerging Company 2018. During the 2019 national tour, dressed. was nominated for a 2020 Offie Award for IDEA (innovative/ devised/ experiential/ atypical). dressed. returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the British Council Showcase 2019.
ThisEgg won the inaugural Underbelly and New Diorama Untapped Award 2018 for early-mid career theatre companies.
Me & My Bee, ThisEgg's show for family audiences won the inaugural Les Enfants Terribles Stepladder Award 2017 & was nominated for The Fringe Sustainable Practice Award & Brighton Award for Excellence. It completed a national tour of over 150 performances across 100 venues in England, Scotland, Ireland & Wales in 2017 & 2018. It toured again in a pop up tent in Summer 2021, produced by Oxford Playhouse. We then restaged it in Summer 2022 for National Theatre's River Stage before adapting Me & My Bee for screen.
Before that, ThisEgg’s Goggles, won the NSDF Edinburgh Emerging Artists Award 2016.
Other projects:
Whilst government restrictions lifted following the outbreak of COVID-19, ThisEgg & Philippa Hogg created DISMANTLE. When we went back into lockdown ThisEgg & Camilla Clarke began experimenting with a digital design piece, & then everything just-.
the egg, Theatre Royal Bath appointed me a 2019 Leverhulme Arts Scholar. I developed The Family Sex Show as part of their Incubator Programme. This show was also supported by Shoreditch Town Hall and National Theatre Studio's. In 2022, it was canceled before it was seen. You can read more about that here.
ThisEgg started R&D on motherEarth in January 2020. We will continue to develop that when we can. In the meantime, we developed motherEarth international, a ThisEgg project created by teams across the world. It is a series of new dance films and a podcast series responding to the climate and ecological crisis bringing together artists from the UK, Ukraine, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, India, Mexico, Indonesia and Denmark. This was a British Council Creative Commission for COP27. It was screened again at COP28.
To start the year 2024, ThisEgg did some R&D on two new projects, un/fortunately and You Do You.