We are GymJam Theatre.
Not like pyjama ‘jim-jams’.
Like a creative workout. Like having a jam, and feeling the freedom
to make mistakes and play.
Or we can be your favourite jam on toast, whatever you prefer.
We create and tell stories that are visually stunning,
that are movement-led and contextualised with social soundscapes.
We tell stories that challenge the expected, and are urgent in nature.
Hello there,
Meet Our Team
Gavin Maxwell
Co-Artistic Director
Gavin is a neurodivergent Theatre-Maker and Movement Director and is the Co-Artistic Director of GymJam Theatre. For GymJam Gavin Co-directed the companies OFFIE winning choose your own adventure film 'Anthropocene: The Human Era' a co-production with Oxford Playhouse.
He is a graduate of the East 15 Contemporary Theatre course and holds an MA in Collaborative Theatre Making from Coventry University.
Gavin has worked as a practitioner for Frantic Assembly for 5-years and has delivered workshops & residencies sharing the Frantic method of devising all over the UK and all over the world. In addition Gavin has co-directed the company's flagship outreach project Ignition in 2019 & 2022. He was an Associate Director of Frantic's 2021 production of 'I Think We Are Alone'.
Currently, Gavin is working with Vamos Theatre on their 2024 touring production of 'The boy on the Roof' he is excited to do a bit of performing again - even if it is with a bucket on his head.
gavin@gymjamtheatre.com
William Townsend
Co-Artistic Director
William is the Co-Artistic Director of GymJam Theatre. He is a theatre maker, facilitator, wellbeing practitioner and humanistic counsellor. His values of balance, compassion, audacity, and service underpin his work and life.
He has worked and collaborated on projects around the UK and in the EU. He has co-led on all of GymJam’s projects, like their international collaboration with DOGMA in Milan, Inverness and London. William has also worked on shows with companies such as Babel Theatre, Undercover Theatre and more, in London, Norway, and Australia.
As a creative, he is fascinated in movement that tells a story with depth that words can’t, and ‘social soundscapes’ that can contextualise the world on stage. His focus on collaboration means all the work is co-created and his attention to what lies underneath enables stories to emerge. His training is in European ensemble physical theatre, and he integrates his wellbeing practice into his artistic approach.
William has an insatiable appetite for play, games, and challenges. He is fascinated in crafting movement that speaks more than words can. To create his work William uses somatic and sensory movement, metaphor, clowning and satire. His work is known for shifting between worlds of reality and fantasy, discovering fleeting human moments, and zooming out of the story to view the bigger picture.
As a counsellor and wellbeing practitioner he trained for one year at the Gestalt centre, and three years in Humanistic counselling (Person-centred, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis) at the renowned Metanoia Institute. His attention to curiosity and empathy can enable those he works with to build awareness and hold adversity with the care it requires. His willingness to offer experiments and appropriate challenge can integrate the work into daily life, and make bold discoveries.
william@gymjamtheatre.com
Meet Our Associate Artists
Emilie Largier
And her company, Ruckle Theatre
Bar Groisman
And her company, Sababa Co.
Michael Lynch
And his company, Project Lockout
-
Risha Silvera trained with Fourth Monkey Actor Training Company.
Theatre
Includes Black Women Dating White Men at Drayton Arms; Jack Frost for Moon on a Stick; and Starcrazy for Miracle Theatre. As a puppetry performer, work includes The Hatchling for the Queen’s Jubilee; and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Athletes Welcome Ceremony.
TV
Includes This is Going to Hurt.
Film
Short films include Anthropocene: The Human Era.
-
Michael is Artistic Director of Project Lockout, a performer and Associate Filmmaker of Frantic Assembly.
Specialising in movement direction, he graduated BA Physical Theatre at East 15 Acting School (2019) and Frantic Assembly’s Ignition project back in 2015. Since founding Project Lockout, he has been both director and movement director for company shows and digital projects since establishing itself in 2017; he has also led workshops for Oxford University (2018) and headed movement direction at Theatre Royal Stratford East (2019) for their National Connections company.
Michael believes in empowering people through movement practice in conjunction with freewriting; supporting this belief through the creation of short art documentaries from company workshops.
As a performer he toured with Justice In Motion in On Edge, a parkour performance piece highlighting the issue of modern day slavery. This year he directed and filmed 30 dance-narrative videos and a short film for their Moving Together project.
Often seen wearing a hat.
-
Emilie Largier is the artistic director of Ruckle Theatre, and a French, queer & neurodivergent theatre-maker, performer and practitioner / workshop facilitator as well as a support worker.
After several years working as a Costume Maker & Designer, she trained in acting, physical theatre and dance in London. She studied acting at The Salon Collective and graduated in 2020 from Fourth Monkey Actor Training Company. Since then, she regularly keeps training with Ensemble based theatre companies such as Theatre Re, GymJam Theatre, Temper Theatre and recently Frantic Assembly, to name only but a few. She also works for screen. Credits include: Silk City ft Ellie Goulding, Heartstopper (Season 1), The Bastard Son and The Devil Himself.
In her own words : “I strongly believe in theatre as a transformative experience. I want to make radical theatre, challenging societal norms & (re)explore inclusive theatre practices empowering people, from artists to audiences.”
-
Bar is a Choreographer and Movement Director based in Cambridge, UK. She first trained at DanceEast Centre for Advanced training and the National Youth Dance Company, before graduating from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2019 with first-class honours degree. During this time she worked as a performer with many established artists and organisations including Protein Dance, Michael Keegan-Dolan (Teac Damsa), Joss Arnott, Sharon Watson, Tim Casson (Casson & Friends) and Ruby Portus at the Sadler’s Wells Young Associate Programme.
Bar founded Sababa Co. in 2019 – a contemporary dance theatre company creating physical and theatrical dance works that push the boundaries between movement, text, music, and set. Through her work, she endeavours to share personal insights into everyday human struggles, creating a platform to tackle undervalued and under highlighted issues. Current production ‘Coiled Up’.
Her choreographic work includes: ‘Aize Balagan’ performed at the Resolution Festival at The Place, ‘Coiled Up’ funded R&D by Arts Council England and ‘Chameleon Life’ for the Sommarlund Arts Festival in Lund, Sweden.
She has Movement Directed for Award Winning Edinburgh Fringe show ‘This Is Not A Show About Hong Kong’, OFFIE nominated show ‘In This Smoking Chaos’, Junction Young Company’s production ‘Re-do’ and Vault festival running one woman show ‘SAD-VENTS’.
Bar is a placement trustee on the Sadler’s Wells Board of Trustees, sits on the National youth Dance Company’s Young Person’s Board and is an Associate Artist with award-winning company GymJam Theatre.
We are incredibly proud to have our Associate Artists as part of our team.
We want to champion their work, their companies, and their ethos in the industry.
If you want to learn more about them, or get in touch with them,
click their name, or read about them above!
What does being an Associate Artist mean?
We are interested in providing our Associate Artists with time to connect, to ask questions, to reflect, and focus on whatever part of their practice they want to work on with us.
Whether it is about negotiating funding applications, company guidance, or having a sweat with us.
We offer opportunities, support, and mentorship in the direction they want to head in.
