Announcing our 2025 Associate Artist: Sam Gilroy

Joining the esteemed ranks of Exeter Phoenix’s associate artists in 2025 is comedy-dance-theatre practitioner Sam Gilroy.

Sam creates intimate and humorous classes, workshops and performances that build a sense of belonging and acceptance, using movement, writing, voice work, and inviting people to play and reconnect with their own bodies, and with those around them. Her work is often myth-busting and taboo breaking, in order to laugh and celebrate the everyday failures. Sam is drawn to ask questions about ageing, feminism, equality, periods, and since becoming a mother in 2023, matrescence.

Past shows and workshops have amplified female voices and underserved communities, including m/others, adults with dementia, and young people and children, using real-life stories and autobiographical experiences.

Developing a bespoke package of support is a core part of the support Exeter Phoenix offers creatives working in theatre and performance in the South-West. This could include training, mentoring, access to rehearsal space, and special opportunities to perform or share their work with our audiences.

Sam says: "I am excited to be an Associate Artist with Exeter Phoenix. I will be able to develop my one woman show Belly Flop, and accompanying workshops for adults and children, to reach wider communities and utilise this supportive environment."

We’re looking forward to seeing how Sam’s practice develops over the coming year!

Find out more about Sam here >>

Associate artists are chosen by Exeter Phoenix’s performance programmer, Katy Danbury who is always on the lookout for emerging talent.

"We are very excited to welcome Sam as our new Associate Artist and support the development of her multidisciplinary performance practice. Sam’s latest work-in-progress draws from her own lived experience as a new mother, utilising music, dance, comedy and poetry to connect with the audience, and celebrate and empower some of the most unseen and unsupported members of our society.

Belly Flop is bold, unapologetic, deeply moving and charming in its delivery, offering the audience a glimpse into the social, physiological and psychological transitions people go through when becoming mothers. I am very much looking forward to seeing how the show takes shape over the next year, as well as invite people from the local community to engage with her work, whether through participatory workshops or feeding back on shared extracts of the show throughout the creation process."