About Us
community through creative connection
Ordinary Stories Theatre provide communities across the UK with creative opportunities, fostering connections through theatre and storytelling.
At OST, we believe everyone deserves access to creative opportunity, and we share the ambition to deliver quality arts provision outside of metropolitan environments, namely in rural communities and regional areas like those we have grown up in.
From Greater Manchester, East Anglia and the West Midlands, our team met whilst studying Applied Theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. We formed as a theatre company in 2024, and our studies have formed a strong foundation of our creative practice - implementing ideologies and frameworks of ethical theatre making practices are at the centre of what we do.
What do we do?
At OST, we believe in the transformative power of telling stories. We’re keen for the stories we tell to be playful, rooted in rurality, and working towards increasing social access to theatre and creative opportunity for all.
Embedded in the theatre we make is community engagement. We visit and work with communities across the country and facilitate creative workshops along the way. Our workshops respond to the interests of the participants and tend to be multi-disciplinary. Workshops so far have included arts, crafts, puppetry, creative writing, oral storytelling, poetry, natural dyeing and more.
Alongside our creative workshops, we make theatre! We make performance that is joyful, thoughtful, and rooted in community - we are always informed by the stories of the people and places we meet along the way. Our practice is collaborative, and we enjoy engaging with multiple art forms to bring stories to life.
Meet The Ordinary Stories Team
OST was formed by Jazz Long, Ellie Bibby, Ryan Denton and Ellie Gunning; four graduates of BA Drama, Applied Theatre and Education at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Alongside involvement in OST projects, all members work in the theatre and education industry.
Jazz Long
(she/ her)
Jazz is a producer, theatre maker, facilitator and performer from Norfolk. She currently lives and works in South Wales.
Ellie Bibby
(she/ her)
Ellie is a freelance writer, theatre maker, actor and arts facilitator from the West Midlands, currently based in London.
Ryan Denton
(he/ him)
Ryan is a theatre maker from Suffolk, supporting theatre projects in the commercial and community sector.
Ellie Gunning
(she/ her)
Ellie is a director, actor and facilitator from the industrial town of Leigh. Her arts passion stems from community theatre.