About

Offbeat Festival: Supporting Oxford’s Emerging Talent since 2016

Offbeat began in 2016, from a partnership between Old Fire Station, Oxford and Oxford Playhouse. Since then it’s gone from strength to strength with New Theatre Oxford coming on board in 2022.

The festival supports emerging talent, encourages local artists, provides a platform for new voices, and gives the public a chance to see bold new performances that take risks and push boundaries.   

“It was great to get to platform our work without a hire fee and getting the financial support. As an up-and-coming company, it truly means the world to have these opportunities.”

– Offbeat 2023 performer

Artists' Funding, Workshops, and Networking Opportunities

We’re here to support new, established, local and national talent get their shows to the stage by offering funding to artists to develop new work, facilitating skill-sharing sessions and workshops, and offering networking opportunities to meet other artists. We’re keen to hear new voices in theatre, dance, comedy, music, spoken word or any other performing art, and we especially welcome local artists hoping to take their first steps onto the stage.

Supported artists

Offbeat has been supporting artists with seed funding since 2019 and in 2024 introduced a series of free workshops for supported artists to help them build skills and take the next step in their performing careers. Workshops cover everything from lighting and sound, risk assessment and technical riders, to marketing, budgeting and planning a tour. Read more about it on out Supported Artists page.  

“You are the only festival that actually supports the artists. You offer a paid guarantee, you do lots of local marketing, members of the team come to see the shows. It's just a really supportive festival to be part of.”

– Offbeat 2023 performer

Introducing the Offbeat Selection Panel

Our selection panel carefully read through every application, considering their merits and making difficult choices about how to combine shows to make Offbeat a vibrant, diverse and engaging showcase of talent.

  • Award-winning actress with many years experience of stage and television. Founder and Artistic director of Kuumba Nia Arts and passionate about creating and sharing work through an African-Caribbean lens.

Amantha Edmead

Actress/ Storyteller/ Singer/ Writer

  • Credits include: Wendy: a Peter Pan Story, Afraid to Ask, Innocentville (the egg, Theatre Royal Bath), ...if we've never been to the Moon?, Return of the Unknown, Lemn Sissay's Warrior Poets (The Marlowe), Match Fit (the Old Vic), Meet the Meat (Barbican) and Doctors (BBC Drama shadow scheme). James is Artistic Director of Toucan Theatre, productions include The Naughty Fox and Getting There (with deafinitely theatre and Oxford Playhouse). Awards include: The Walter Tull Playwriting Prize, The Lilian Baylis Award for Theatrical Excellence and multiple Koestler Awards for radio dramas created in prisons.

JAMES BALDWIN

Writer and theatre maker

  • Valentine Sithole is a South African artist and Goldsmiths University of London Drama and Theatre Arts graduate based in Oxford. From her studies on practical and academic aspects of theatre, she seamlessly merges performance art with visual creativity in music, movement performance, gallery and social media curation.

Valentine sithole

Producer

STEPHEN BAILEY

Artistic Lead for Vital Xposure,
Freelance Director,
Oxford Playhouse EVOLVE Artist

  • Stephen has just taken up the post of Artistic Lead for disability-led touring company Vital Xposure. He won the Royal Theatrical Support Trust Sir Peter Hall Director's Award in 2022. Directing work includes freelance productions with ASYLUM Arts and work with Graeae, The National Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre.

  • Clara is the CEO of Arts at the Old Fire Station. She is an artistic producer, theatre-maker and facilitator whose career has taken place at the intersection of the arts and social justice. She is passionate about storytelling, connection, creativity and community. For nine years, Clara was the Head of the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg, a division of the world-famous Market Theatre.

CLARA VAUGHAN

CEO The Old Fire Station

  • Antônia Spohr Moro is an experienced producer well-versed in various areas of the performing arts and major events. She produced widely across the performing arts, including dance performances, theatre productions, music concerts, and arts festivals. Before settling in Oxford in 2022, she toured internationally across Latin America and Europe. Back in her native Brazil, Antonia produced the concerts of top-tier artists such as Roger Waters, Katy Perry, Coldplay, and Shakira. She also served as logistics manager at the 2014 World Cup and as a regional manager for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relay in Rio de Janeiro.

ANTÔNIA SPOHR MORO

Offbeat Producer

 Thank you to the supporters of Offbeat 2024: