The team

Bethan Kitchen
Exec & Artistic Director/Writer
Bethan is a theatre-maker, facilitator, and company director from Newcastle. She holds a BA and MA from Cambridge University. Her work interrogates teenage experiences of class, gender, and sex & relationship health.
Credits include: Ankles (Live Theatre/VAULT Festival (2022)/Northern Stage (2022); Raising Shame (Northern Stage/ Byker Community Centre/Benfield School); Shoefiti (Northern Stage/Alphabetti Theatre/Salford Arts Theatre); Our City Our Story (Live Theatre);My bed (RIFT theatre); Wean (Old Fire Station); The Moth of August (Edinburgh Fringe), Beauty No. 3 (Northern Stage); Gender the Elephant (Camden Fringe, ADC Theatre, Brainchild Festival); Coco (Corpus Playrooms, The Bridge).
In 2017 Bethan was selected as one of Soho Theatre’s Young Writers, and she has also trained at National Theatre, ITV Studios (Emmerdale), and Live Theatre. Bethan also works as a Facilitator for Girl Kind, a research project co-ordinated by Newcastle and Northumbria Universities to investigate the experiences of girls growing up in the North East, as well as facilitating and directing the Youth Theatre at Customs House. Bethan facilitates young people’s workshops and sits on the Champions Board for City of Dreams, an organisation set up by Newcastle Gateshead Cultural Venues to make the region a great place to be young.

Lydia Brickland
Producer
Lydia Brickland is a theatre performer, producer and facilitator from and based in the North East of England. She has worked with many companies across the North East and beyond such as Live Theatre, ARC Stockton, Northern Stage, Alphabetti, State of Grace, Slot Machine Theatre, The Fabularium to name but a few.
She has also produced for artist Rachael Walsh on the research and development of her new show ‘Girl Beats World’ in collaboration with Northern Stage, Queens Hall Arts Centre Hexham, Arts Centre Washington and Gala Durham. Also, she is one of the founding members of Your Aunt Fanny, an all-female sketch show from the North East. She has toured nationally with Your Aunt Fanny as well as being the all-round admin queen/ producer for the company. Lydia is currently Assistant Producer for ARC Stockton.

Rebecca Johnston
Assistant Producer
Rebecca Johnston is a Theatre Maker, Producer and Solo Artist. They are a queer artist working predominantly with autobiographical politically charged content with a focus on the personal issues that reflect a wider concern or stigma often surrounding LGBTQ+ or feminism politics. Producer of NEST Fest 2019.

Brogan Gilbert
Associate Artist/Project Worker/Actor
Brogan Gilbert is an actress based in Newcastle and is represented by Janet Plater Management. She began developing her skills through Live Youth Theatre, and at 15, went on to perform with the Shakespeare's Globe in London for three years consecutively. In 2017, she travelled to Johannesburg where she performed with ODDMANOUT Theatre Company and The Market Theatre Laboratory in their collaboration piece Encountering The Other. Her recent credits include The Dumping Ground (CBBC), Shoefiti (BRASH), 10 Minutes To...Light It Up (Live Theatre), and Inside Out (BBC). She is part of Your Aunt Fanny, an all-female comedy sketch group who have performed across prestigious local and national arts venues.
Brogan first became part of BRASH through her performance as Courtney in Shoefiti (Northern Stage/Alphabetti Theatre/Salford Arts Theatre) in 2017/8.

Wambui Hardcastle
Actor
Wambui Hardcastle is young freelance theatre maker based in the North East. She works as an actor, writer, producer, and director. She first started performing in Live Theatre's Youth Theatre. She has also been supported by City of Dreams and Eclipse Theatre's SLATE programme for Black Artist in the North. Currently she is part of Northern Stage's Young Company and is on the writing team for the Young Company shows.
Credits include writing and performing a solo response piece for Unfolding Theatre's 'Best In The World' at Alphabetti, producing and performing in an international short film project 'Mayonnaise Girl' with young L.A based director Kanayo Kuchler, and acting in Young Company shows "Where Do We Stand" and "Where Do We Belong".

Melody Sproates
Actor
Melody is a cabaret maker and facilitator. They have starred in shows such as *gender not included, The Pillowman and have performed at various cabaret and comedy nights such as The Stand, PUG & Duckie.

Charlotte Gray
Associate Artist/Actor
Charlotte Gray is a Northern working-class actress, who loves collaborating with local artists. Her work spans across both stage and film. With recent credits include Time to Find (Commercial), Shoefiti (BRASH), THE ALCHEMY BAND (Music Videos), and Ruth (Feature Film). In 2017, Charlotte travelled to Johannesburg where she performed with ODDMANOUT Theatre Company and The Market Theatre Laboratory in their collaboration piece Encountering The Other.
Charlotte became part of BRASH right from the beginning, with our very first performances of ‘Shoefiti’ in our scratch nights in and around London! Going on to perform at Northern Stage, Alphabetti Theatre & Salford Arts Theatre.

Natalie Price
Designer
Natalie is a graphic designer and illustrator, and the master behind all of BRASH’s branding and marketing materials. She previously worked as an in-house visual designer at Monzo, and currently works as a freelance designer.

Francesca Mango
Associate Artist/Actor

Leah Mains
Associate Artist/Actor