Debs Newbold is a multi-award winning storyteller, director, performer, trainer & writer who creates fresh, playful work that gets deep under the skin. As a performer Debs has made work for venues such as the Royal Opera House, the Southbank
Centre, the RSC, Hay Festival and Shakespeare's Globe as well as many other theatres, festivals and community spaces both in the UK and internationally. She is currently nominated for both an OFFE and Standing Ovation Award for her performance of Lost In Blue at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre in February 2022.

Debs is one of the UK’s foremost performance storytellers and her genre-defying collaborations with renowned director John Wright (Told by an Idiot) have helped re-define contemporary
storytelling, resulting in two acclaimed shows: Under Her Skin & Lost In Blue. A third, Outrageous Fortune, due to go on National Tour in 2020 before COVID-19 hit, has now been made into a film.

 

Debs tells myths, folk tales, legends and new stories and her highly celebrated solo adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedies have toured internationally since 2014.

As a director Debs has made work for: Shakespeare’s Globe Education; Creation Theatre; Komola Collective; Mr. Wilson’s Second Liners; Half Moon Young People’s Theatre; Rose Theatre Kingston.
She is particularly skilled at incorporating live music in to her work and often uses devising techniques as part of her creative process. Her recent production for Creation Theatre, a site-
specific musical adaptation of Bleak House, garnered multiple 5 Star reviews.

Debs works across genres as a writer. As well as her solo shows, Debs wrote and performed the text for Will Pound’s much-lauded gig theatre tour Through The Seasons. She also wrote and performed the monologue I Cannot Sleep, part of Rusty Quill’s chart topping podcast series for Historic Royal Palaces. Her play Rising Up, inspired by the legacy of the 1819 Peterloo massacre, opened at HOME in Manchester in October 2019 before going on national tour.

In 2020 Debs was commissioned by Peace Child International and the Global Food Security Programme to write four short stories in response to research into the effects of Climate Change on global food production. These stories were presented as part of a United Nations event on early 2021. She is also a writing mentor, most recently working with the award-winning folk artist Emily Portman on her forthcoming album.

Debs is also a highly skilled and experienced trainer and facilitator, working internationally alongside companies such as Shakespeare’s Globe, Bright Torches, the Drive Project, the Southbank Centre and many others.
Fellow of the Young Foundation, FUSE playwright at Leeds Playhouse and winner of the Summerhall Acting Award at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, Debs is a unique story maker and
collaborator.