Extant are delighted to announced that Tam Gilbert has been appointed as the second Trainee Artistic Director (TAD2) and will start her role in April 2025.

Our Artistic Director, Maria Oshodi states that “it is with great excitement that we welcome Tam as our second Trainee Artistic Director to Extant –  I am sure she will bring great experience as a director from her participation in  ‘Pathways’, a flagship programme, where our commitment to developing the best visually impaired talent and leadership across the UK has  proven to yield such positive results!”

Tam is a Bournemouth-based writer, theatre-maker and Audio Description Consultant. She is co-Director of Millstream Theatre, a community company of learning-disabled and neurodivergent actors based at the Museum of East Dorset, which she co-founded in 2014.Tam enjoys making hard-hitting, persuasive and historical theatre, which embeds creative audio description as an intrinsic invisible thread, challenging audiences’ perceptions.

Tam has worked with various disability-led organisations including Diverse City and Disability Arts Online and on a number of Extant projects. In recent years, she has provided AD consultancy to mainstream artists, and to organisations Indigo Moon, Valise Noire Storytelling and The Play’s the Thing Theatre Company, where her play ‘Tales from the Confined’ was commissioned as part of their Taking the Stage festival of female writers in Milton Keynes in October 2024.

“I’m very excited about joining Extant as TAD. Having come through Pathways and worked on various projects as a freelancer for a few years now, I’m looking forward to working with the core team and learning the nuts and bolts of how the company operates. Being part of the conversations around ‘Evolve’ is sure to be an interesting process and I’m privileged to be working with the organisation as it moves towards this new era. As an artist and theatre maker, I know I will hugely benefit from the mentoring and creative opportunities that will come my way and will relish time to develop my practice and explore my love of integrated AD with like-minded people in my artistic project. I know that the role will both challenge and give me confidence as an Artistic Leader and Director – bring it on!”

Due to personal health reasons, Tafsila Khan, was not able to continue her role as Trainee Artistic Director.

April 2025