Soap Soup Theatre became a Community Interest Company in February 2023, so that we could better serve our local community, creating accessible, innovative theatrical experiences and educational programmes for children and young people in the South West.

Tomasin Cuthbert Menes MA (Hons)

Artistic Director and Producer

Tomasin is a Theatre maker, Artist, and Illustrator. She has developed a bold, unique visual language, which she has deepened through her collaborations with the other exceptional artists she works with.

Her work celebrates the imagination, creativity, connection and relationship. Each piece of work is a labour of love, combining the many talents of her close collaborators with her unique vision.

Awarded 14 grants from the Arts Council in the last decade, Tomasin is dedicated to creating startling work that invites her audience to co-create the worlds her stories inhabit. In the last 12 months, Tomasin has been exploring how Augmented Reality can bring Theatrical and Creative experiences to a wider audience, and is currently working on a picture book that exists on a page, a stage and in the digital realm through AR.
Tomasin has trained at Falmouth University, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and Nottingham Trent University. She is a Resident Artist of The Studio, Bath, and Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, UK, a creative technologies collaboration with Watershed, University of the West of England and University of Bristol.

To contact Tomasin email her on soapsouptheatrecompany@gmail.com

Sarah White - Assistant Producer

Sarah is a producer based in the South West. She is passionate about creating engaging and exciting theatre experiences and working with young people and communities to foster creativity and confidence.

In 2013 she co-founded immersive, site-specific theatre company Four of Swords, producing and performing in all 11 shows while partnering with organisations such as English Heritage, National Trust, Exeter RAMM, Exeter Cathedral, Exeter, Plymouth, Marjon and Cambridge Universities.

She is an Associate Artist with Exeter Phoenix & produces their Summer Film School, taking it to Shanghai in 2018. She has also worked as Associate Producer for Devon based companies Common Players and Links to A Life.

Stephanie Kempson - Director of Minny Stynker

Stephanie is a director, writer and dramaturg, who, like all freelance artists, also sometimes workshop leads, programmes, storytelling, markets, project manages, and produces. Largely in theatre, but often beyond or on the strange projects that float between forms.

She makes theatre for traditional theatre contexts, museums and archives, online, festivals and more.

Stephanie trained in theatre with Bristol Old Vic’s brilliant Made in Bristol scheme and have since been working full time in it. She assistant directed on the Bristol Old Vic’s Jane Eyre, which went on to become a co-production with the National Theatre and has since toured and streamed extensively, and adapted Stephen Collin’s graphic novel The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil for Bristol Old Vic’s Young Company. She attended the National Theatre’s Emerging Director Scheme, was a Leverhulme Scholar with Bristol Old Vic in 2019, and is a resident at the Pervasive Media Studio.

Stephanie has a chronic illness (ME/CFS) which is generally mild, but it means she is particularly interested in access (physical and financial) to the arts.

You can find out more about Stephanie at www.stephaniekempson.co.uk

Saikat Ahamed - Deviser/Performer for Minny Stynker Research and Development

Saikat is a Bristol based British Bangladeshi writer, actor and theatre maker. As an actor, he has worked in all parts of the industry over the last twenty years; roles include Tinkerbell in Peter Pan at Bristol Old Vic and then The National Theatre, television series regulars Vince Arya in Monday Monday for ITV and Mr Chadley in Pennyworth for HBO. His film work includes Aladdin directed by Guy Ritche, This Must be the Place directed by Paulo Sorrentino and the British smash hit East is East. Most recently he has been appearing in Life of Pi at Wyndhams Theatre in The West End.

As a writer, his work includes three autobiographical solo shows, The Tiger and the Moustache, Strictly Balti and In Search of Goldoni, Christmas shows for Travelling Light Theatre Company - Three Kings – and Insane Root – Hansel and Gretel - and most recently a play called Book Club which deals with conversations around race. He is also currently working on an epic poem, Bristol Argonautica.

Saikat is an Associate Artist at Bristol Old Vic.

More details about his work can be found at www.saikatahamed.com

Tom Ball - Composer for Minny Stynker

Tom is a composer, sound designer, producer, songwriter and occasional performer based in Bristol. Tom's long and varied career in music includes a gig up the Eiffel Tower, composing a score for the circus big top at Glastonbury Festival, writing and producing many albums including two with Marthas & Arthurs ("Belle & Sebastian meets ABBA" according to The Guardian) and performing at various music festivals across the UK. His music has gained radio approval from the likes of John Peel, Jarvis Cocker, Cerys Matthews, Marc Riley, Mark Radcliffe and Steve Lamacq, on Radios 1,2,3 and 6Music. He likes to combine elements of electronica, folk, pop, ambient and whatever else takes his fancy at the time. Tom has been creating music for theatre for 15 years and is an artistic associate of Angel Exit Theatre. He is excited to be setting out on his first adventure with Soap Soup Theatre.

Some of his music can be found at tommytiger.co

Over the years we have collaborated with some incredible artists. Here are some of the wonderful people we have worked with…