About us
Folio is a new writing and development company, proudly based in Wiltshire.
Folio Theatre is a female-led company dedicated to commissioning, developing and producing original work across theatre, and increasingly digital and broadcast platforms.
Our debut production, Unearthed, was named by The Guardian’s readers as one of their favourite shows of the year, establishing Folio as a distinctive voice in new writing. Over the past decade, we have developed the debut productions of celebrated writers including Alys Metcalf and Sarah Gordon and have built a reputation for championing emerging artists – especially female artists – and stories by and about women.
We work to ensure that geographically isolated communities have access to excellent new plays and high quality creative engagement opportunities. We design scalable productions meaning we can tour our work to a wide variety of venues whilst establishing local and national partnerships, to help build a better connected creative ecology across the UK.
Proudly based in Wiltshire, Folio’s long-term vision is a world in which artists from rural areas can live and work on world-class new writing in the places they call home.
Our Mission
To increase access to and engagement with excellent new plays that reflect and serve the diverse communities that make up Wiltshire, inspiring artists and audiences to re-connect with arts and culture in the place they call home.
Our Vision
Wiltshire is a thriving hub of theatre making, recognised nationally as an exciting place to live and work, where everyone has the opportunity to access, participate and work in theatre.
Our Programme
Productions
Our unique development process puts Wiltshire at its heart. Supporting communities and theatre makers across the county to invest in a creative process and make work together, we produce new, contemporary and relatable plays, redefining how Wiltshire is portrayed. We design scalable productions meaning we can tour our work to a wide variety of venues, reaching rural and culturally underserved audiences (inc. schools) across Wiltshire and the UK. Our work inspires local artists to make theatre in, inspired by and for the communities of Wiltshire – the place they call home.
Participation
Engaging local communities is integral to the development of our work, on and off stage. Through creative workshop programmes, we develop audiences and artists for new writing and increase opportunities for cultural engagement amongst communities across Wiltshire, inspiring the audiences and artists of the future.
Artist Support
We connect with and support the development of emerging artists in and from Wiltshire and the wider South West, increasing talent retention across the region. This is achieved through employment opportunities within our programme, mentoring, and participation work.
If you are an artist interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Partnerships
Our History
Folio was founded by Lizzie Stables, in order to address the vast lack of provision of new writing in the region, particularly for the county’s rural audiences, and to support local theatre makers.
Folio’s debut show, ‘Unearthed’,by Alys Metcalf, received critical acclaim and was listed in The Guardian as one of their readers favourite stage shows of that year.. Since then, Folio have worked with partners including Salisbury Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Pound Arts and English Touring Theatre (ETT) to create new plays rooted that reflect contemporary life in the South West for tours and digital production. Until 2020, Lizzie Stables ran Folio single handedly before appointing Liz Vogler as Exec Producer. Under their joint leadership, in 2021, the company was granted Charitable Status and Charlotte Geeves appointed as Folio’s first Chair of Trustees. To find out more about our previous work, check out the past productions on Our Shows page.