Alex Oates
Joint CEO and Artistic DirectorAlex is a Northumberland-based, internationally produced playwright and screenwriter.
His first play FAN FICTION was workshopped with Russell Tovey, Iwan Rheon, and Rebekah Ryan. Alex’s triple offie-nominated play SILK ROAD was a critical success at Edinburgh Fringe and Vault Festival before transferring for a four-week run in London’s West End at Trafalgar Studios. He’s had his work performed with Silent Uproar at Hull Truck, New Diorama, Live Theatre Newcastle, Bolton Octagon, and Southwark Playhouse.
Alex was nominated for Most Promising Playwright at The Off West End Awards for his play ALL IN A ROW, which won acclaim in its European premier at Teatro Tarantana, Barcelona in 2024. His most recent play THE FILLETING APP was selected out of over 2000 plays by the RSC to be part of a new folio of plays representing Britain today. He recently won the prestigious Peter Shaffer Award from National Theatre and Northern Stage.
His radio play for BBC Radio 4, OUR LIAM OF LOURDES, was pick of the week when it aired in 2019. His recent short film MORTAL won the inaugural Northern Film Prize in 2023 and his second short film GIANTS is in post-production. Alex is a writer on attachment at London’s National Theatre and is currently developing TV and Film projects.
Alex grew up in the North East and was involved in youth theatre projects at the Phoenix in Blyth. He views these experiences as formative and understands the importance that art can make to an upbringing. Since moving to Cambois in 2019, Alex has dedicated much of his focus to pursuing causes that can address the social and political problems faced by those living in this deprived area.
He cares about equality, truth and the inherent good that can be stimulated within all aspects of society, believing that culture is an unrivalled tool for doing so.
Esther Huss
Joint CEO and Artistic DirectorEsther is a contemporary dance artist and performance maker. Originally from Germany, Esther has performed internationally for over two decades and co-founded the inclusive company DANDELION COLLECTIVE. She has performed/presented work at the Royal Opera House, Tate Britain, Dance City, Seaton Delaval Hall, Cambois Miner’s Welfare, the Southbank and others. In 2021, Esther was selected for a residency at BALTIC, and has since toured her interdisciplinary performance work STAIRWALL across site-specific spaces in the North East.
In 2023, Esther was commissioned by the North Pennines AONB to make work for an underground lead mine, involving the audience walking through the mine to encounter her piece BENEATH US.
Since 2023, Esther has worked in partnership with Newcastle University, investigating seaweed, coastal communities, and movement. This collaboration led to the creation of the dance film THE SECRET DANCE OF SEAWEED, filmed on the beach and riverbed in Cambois. As part of the heritage festival Cambois Hidden Depths, Esther choreographed THE HEAVE, a dance film projected across 8mx4m, alongside simultaneous live performance.
Esther’s latest work HIPS&SKINS is a collaboration with renowned choreographer Jacky Lansley, addressing the oppression around women’s treatment within different healthcare settings. Esther is joint CEO of The Tute since 2023.
Since moving to the North East, Esther has focused on creating opportunities to bring people from different stands together to experience the joy of movement and self-expression. Esther deeply believes in the fundamental power of coming together, to move and be moved, transcending difference and divisions.
Tim Rubidge
TrusteeTim Rubidge has lived in Northumberland’s North Pennine hills for 35 years. Over a long career beginning in 1975, he has explored and devised many new dance works, presenting solo and small ensemble choreographies and performances nationally and internationally in cities and communities in the UK, Europe, USA and South Africa.
In parallel, he has developed and directed ground-breaking community participatory projects in and around Northumberland, including the three-year collaboration with Miranda Tufnell developing the Body Stories programme of workshops and performances. Much of this work developed in a range of physical and social environments – within both rural and urban surroundings, psychiatric hospitals, prisons, and youth custody.
He has conceived and directed a series of site-specific performances that have developed and drawn on imaginative responses to distinctive physical and social environments, beginning with Footfalls Echo @ Belsay and Figure Moves @ Edlingham – both in Northumberland.
Tim was Visiting Fellow in Performing Arts at Northumbria University from 2008 – 2011; Guest Artistic Director at Dance City in Newcastle; Choreographer-in-Residence with the cultural exchange programme with South Africa; and with Claire Pencak set up and led the makeshift project engaging with refugees and asylum seekers in North East England. During 2017-19, he and Swiss-based Karin Hermes devised and performed Flowing Over the Edge based on choreographer Sigurd Leeder’s experience of fleeing Nazi Germany and becoming a dance refugee at Dartington Hall in England. It toured extensively, including Berlin, Lausanne, Bern, Ascona, Linz, and London.
Tim has frequently collaborated with film-makers, writers, musicians, and visual artists. In 2022, film-maker Christo Wallers made a short film about how Tim uses walking in natural environments to begin the process of improvisation that transfers to his studio to be developed into choreography. (YouTube: Tim Rubidge, Christo Wallers, Middle Wood) www.timrubidge.net
In 2023-2024, Tim brought together UK performers and Ukrainian refugee multi-disciplined artists and devised and directed two performances with them – Departure performed in an old stone quarry in Northumberland; and Arrival performed as part of the Hexham Abbey Festival.
Jennifer Sayako Eddis
TrusteeJennifer is a senior monitoring evaluator and learning advisor at Sight Savers, a leading international NGO operating globally to prevent avoidable blindness and promote equality and inclusion across the world.
She is passionate about the arts, social inequality, and the life outcomes of all people. She lives in the North East and is proud to support the difference The Tute is making in Northumberland.
