A theatre company established in Leeds almost 20 years ago has moved its base to Maldon, following in the footsteps of its artistic director.

Jemma McDonnell founded The Paper Birds with Kylie Perry in 2003 after graduating from the University of Leeds, in efforts to create a socially and politically engaged theatre company which provokes change.

Now running the company as artistic director alongside Kylie, the creative learning director, Jemma is excited to relocate its base to Essex, following her move to Maldon in 2016.

"We're quite a small organisation, but one that has a big impact with national and international reach," she said.

"The idea of a nationwide company in a town feels exciting because I think it's a really good representation of who we are - we're small but mighty."

The Paper Birds, renowned for its verbatim theatre, works across the UK and internationally by producing work, collaborating with venues and delivering mentoring sessions and workshops in schools.

The company already has strong links to the South East, having worked with most of the region's cultural hubs - including Marlowe Theatre, Cambridge Junction, The Gulbenkian, Oxford Playhouse, Mercury Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre.

Since 2008, the company has used interviews and workshops with communities from across the UK, including the South East, to inform and shape its shows.

Jemma has a strong affinity to the region, having grown up in Ilford and deciding to move back to Essex after starting a family.

"I really wanted to be back with my family, so we moved back to Essex in 2016," she said.

"We decided that Maldon was very beautiful - we were just quite excited by Maldon when we drove through it.

"We do a lot of touring and a lot of work in schools, we're up and down the country, so I didn't really think about the idea of changing our base from Leeds.

"But once I'd been living here for three, four years, and I was starting to mentor young artists in the area and do more with the Mercury in Colchester - having these really lovely relationships - it felt the right thing to do.

"This is where I live, this is where I'm having impact - these are the relationships, these are the conversations we're having - and then it felt quite exciting."

The pandemic, she says, has transformed the way theatre companies work as they had to adapt to working digitally to continue reaching audiences over lockdown.

"What we realised during the pandemic is how much reach you can have when you're working digitally.

"We ran some teacher training and we had 1,000 teachers book us from around the world.

"More organisations are realising they can be within smaller locations, smaller communities, and have impact on both levels."

The Paper Birds is now preparing for its major upcoming project - Feel Me - which will be a part live and part digital exploration of empathy from the perspectives of young people living around the world.

The company will be working with young people in Essex as part of the research and development for the show.

Ryan McBryde, creative director of the Mercury, said: "The Mercury has been fortunate to collaborate on several projects with the inspiring team at The Paper Birds - most notably their hugely successful international research and development activity, The School Of Hope - and we are delighted that they have taken up residency in the south east of England.

"The pandemic demonstrated how adept The Paper Birds were at pivoting and their use of innovative digital technology to reach new audiences and tell fresh stories in pioneering ways also makes them an exciting company to partner with as we move into our 50th year at the Mercury."

Jemma said: "It's about us really getting our roots into Maldon and Essex in a wider way of saying we're here now, so we're really excited to connect with other artists and organisations who have the same vision we do."

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