Meet The Team
ON STAGE
Wiebke Acton
(idea, text, performance)
Originally from Berlin, Wiebke has been a theatre performer for 19 years, her work spanning a wide range of theatre forms including classical, immersive, physical and children’s theatre. As a long-term member of the groundbreaking site-specific theatre company Das Letzte Kleinod, she worked with many international creative practitioners, touring Germany and Greenland. Since 2019 Wiebke has been an associate artist at the Berlin Globe, With collaboration and interdisciplinary at the centre of her practice, Wiebke has recently moved to devising and co-producing her own work such as her autobiographical gig theatre piece As The Crow Flies which opened in Germany before touring to England. or the interactive clowns performance Hiks&Vlek which premiered in 2024. www.wiebke-acton.com
Orla Collier
(dance, choreography)
Orla is a freelance dance and physical theatre artist from Cumbria and based in Leeds. She trained at Rambert School and Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and now works as a performer, teacher, and choreographer. Orla is inspired by the capacity that dance and theatre has for emotional expression, and how it allows experiences to be explored in both real and absurd ways. Some of her work highlights include creating and touring a solo piece, ‘Are you Local?’, which explores Orla’s experience of growing up in a rural area and working with Displace Yourself Theatre on a number of projects, most recently an outdoor piece involving dance, theatre, and aerial. www.orlacollier.com
Brian Acton
(sound, music)
Brian is a musician, composer, and sound artist from Ireland who now lives in Calderdale. He blends electronic music with traditional forms including string instruments, voice and sampling. Brian has toured extensively internationally in theatre, as a session musician and with his tongue-in-cheek vintage jazz band Black Sheikhs. More recently, Brian formed a company called We Are Stems Ltd., which is dedicated to reflecting social structures through musical forms, specifically in development of a novel, multi-source audio system called Fl0ck, which makes its theatre debut in Phobia. www.wearestems.org
BACK STAGE
Sam Ward
(director, dramaturgy)
Sam is the founder and artistic director of the award-winning theatre company YESYESNONO. Previous work includes ‘we were promised honey’, ‘the accident did not take place’ and ‘Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist’ which Sam devised and performed. In 2023 YESYESNONO was shortlisted for the OffWestEnd Award for best production. in 2019 it was shortlisted for the Total Theatre Award for Innovation. In 2017 Sam won the Total Theatre Award for Best Emerging Artist. He has toured work nationwide and in 2023 had his US debut in New York City and European debut at Dublin Theatre Festival. www.yesyesnono.org
Andie Mills
(lights)
Andie is a multi-disciplinary creative based in Leeds, specialising in lighting design, composition, writing, and photography. His work in theatre lighting focuses on the interaction of light and form, enhancing performance. His poetry has been featured in workshops at the University of Leeds and internationally, while his recent exhibition, I Miss You and Have Taken to Walking with My Camera, showcased street performers in Leeds. As a musician, he has toured Europe and the UK. He's passionate about blending artistic disciplines and am excited to collaborate on this project, bringing together light, movement, and sound in an immersive experience. www.lacostarasa.co.uk
Liza Butakova
(project management)
Liza has been working in the arts for over 15 years producing exhibitions, events and live art performances for diverse audiences. Her particular area of interest is in interdisciplinary and research-driven approaches. She has managed projects with a variety of partners including academic and commercial partners and arts venues, including Rich Mix, London, Calvert 22 Foundation, London, UCL, London, and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton.
Prof. Vincent Deary
(phobia expert, project adviser)
Vincent is a professor of psychology at Northumbria University and a practitioner health psychologist working in the UK’s first trans-diagnostic fatigue clinic. With a background in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and an ongoing interest in researching new interventions, he has extensive knowledge of phobias and other related anxiety disorders. Vincent will advise the team on the sociological and academic context of the work and assist Wiebke during the writing workshops.
This is Phobia - 2025