The Fireside Folktales Fringe: Barnes’ Brand New Theatre Festival!

After two wonderful summers performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, my small but perfectly formed theatre company, Shadow Road, has decided to stay closer to home next year - and create something magical of our own.

Introducing 'The Fireside Folktales Fringe': a brand-new, independent mini festival of storytelling and theatre, taking place in Barnes, South West London, on 23rd & 24th May 2026!

We're aiming for:

• 🌿 Intimate shows in unexpected spaces (no big stages, just big heart) 
• 📖 Classic stories reimagined for a modern audience 
• 🎟️ Affordable tickets and accessible venues
• 🌍 A celebration of community, creativity, and connection

It’s inspired by our own 'Fireside Folktales' series: a collection of small but mighty shows that bring powerful myths, legends, and classic tales to life in a wide variety of venues, with no fancy tech - just four actors, live sound and music, simple props and costumes, and a whole lot of imagination.

This time, we’re throwing open the doors and inviting other wonderful artists in too. And that’s where you come in.

• 🎭 Are you a performer or theatre company who might want to take part?
• 💛 Are you a long-time friend of Shadow Road, who believes in what we do?
• 🙌 Are you someone who wants to support independent theatre with soul?

We’ve just (this very hour!) launched our Crowdfunder campaign to make the festival a reality and we’d love your help in spreading the word.

Would you like to take part, as a performer or production company? Do you know someone who'd be interested in sponsoring a venue, or an individual show? Whether you donate, share the link, or just loudly cheer us on, you’ll be helping us create something really special from the ground up, and we would be so grateful.

Our campaign is taking part in the 'Built by Her, Backed by Us' initiative - a brilliant programme supporting female-led projects. If we raise a minimum total of £1,000 from at least 25 different backers, by 31st July, we’ll be eligible to enter their competition and be in with the chance of winning extra match funding and other opportunities that could totally transform the future of the festival. Whether you can give £5 or £50, your donation gets us one step closer - and sharing the campaign helps more than you know!

We'd absolutely love you to help us build a festival that puts people and stories first, concentrating on the simple, shared experience. No headsets. No holograms. No horrific overpricing, or awesome, spaceship-worthy technology. Just theatre, the way it began - and the way it still moves us most...

✨ The Fireside Folktales Fringe Crowdfunding Link ✨

Thank you SO much for any help you feel able to give! 🙏❤️🥰

The Shadow Road Writers’ Retreat: Now a Monthly Event!

We had a full house for our very first Shadow Road Writers’ Retreat on May 31st - and what a day it was! As you can see in the photo collage above, the studio was buzzing with creativity - from quiet writing sprints and character-building exercises, to an Inspiration Walk through the beautiful, sunlit churchyard, and some really wonderful shared work and reactions at the end of the day.

Everyone who attended brought something unique to the table, and it was a great joy to spend the day writing, reflecting, and connecting with fellow storytellers. It was, in fact, such a success that we are delighted to announce that the Retreat will now become a regular event, running on the last Saturday of each month (with the exception of July, when it will be on the final Sunday of the month instead), other than August and December! 🥳

There are only 5 places available for each Retreat, and with several participants already planning to return on different dates, you may wish to book soon - tickets for each Retreat until the end of 2025 are now available on our TicketSource page here: 

www.ticketsource.co.uk/shadowroad

Whether you're working on a novel, a play, a podcast script, children's book, or screenplay - or even if you're just craving some space to reconnect with your creativity - we'd love you to join us! 📚🎭🎬 

My First Writing Retreat for Shadow Road!

 

Are you a writer in need of some time to focus on that script, novel, or idea that’s been nudging at you? Have you always wanted to write, but never quite known where to start - or had the time to do it? If so, why not join me for a gently structured, welcoming Writers’ Retreat Day, hosted at Shadow Road's cosy rehearsal studio in Barnes, South West London! 

A traditionally published children's author and theatre professional, with over 15 years of experience writing and directing performances across the UK, I have written numerous plays and adaptations for Shadow Road, as well as short film scripts, fundraising events, and works commissioned by other organisations such as the Barnes Literary Society, the London Wetland Centre, and the National Trust's Morden Hall Park and Ham House. I have also run writing workshops in both Richmond and Surrey, and provided dramaturgical help to playwrights and authors submitting work to the mixed arts mental health awareness festival, UNBROKEN.

Now I am delighted to open up the Shadow Road Studio to writers of all kinds - playwrights, novelists, children's fiction authors, screenwriters, and more 📚🎬🎭 - for a whole day, offering space to develop your project, get words on the page, gain fresh perspective, and connect with fellow writers. The day-long retreat will include:

• Quiet, focused time to work on your own writing project
• Optional creative exercises, including character work (my specialty!), writing prompts, and 
• A short Inspiration Walk in the local churchyard
• Optional sharing of work with the group and gentle feedback
• Free tea, coffee, and biscuits! 

There are only 6 tickets (£55 each) available for this retreat, so if you'd like one of them, do please book HERE as soon as possible! I'm excited to meet you and help you get that project off the ground!✨ 

Secret Storytellers - The First Broadcast

 

Secret Storytellers: The First Broadcast is now complete, and available to watch online! 🥳

Following a call out for actors in the Shadow Road email newsletter last month, twelve fabulous actors came along on the 18th and 19th March to film with us. It was such fun making this short with them - and lovely to welcome a few new members to the Shadow Road family, along with some old friends and familiar faces! Even more of a delight to then host a screening of the film at the Shadow Road Studio on the 8th April, so that we could raise a glass to all their hard work and enjoy the results together! 🍾🎬👏

This short film was created as part of the Musicbed Challenge 2025 and is part of the larger, cross-platform Secret Storytellers project - the next part of which is a planned test version of a live immersive event, where audience members will have the opportunity to join the resistance for themselves and to make choices and decisions that will not only influence their own personal experiences, but may also even change the outcome of the show itself! 

More news coming soon... 😍