Sharon leads the Creative Fuse North East Project for Teesside University and is currently working as part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority Culture and Visitor Economy Task Force which has been established to support the sector through the pandemic.
Sharon’s current role involves working with creative and cultural organisations at a local, national and international level, as well as working with Teesside University’s network of partner Further Education Colleges.
Before taking up an academic career, Sharon worked professionally as an actor, facilitator, workshop leader and theatre designer and latterly as a creative producer, working with theatre companies across the UK including Live Theatre Company, The Tricycle Theatre, Newcastle Playhouse and Tyne Wear Theatre in Education Company, Northumberland Theatre Company, Pentabus, Oily Cart, The Unicorn Children’s Theatre, Theatre Kit, Tower Hamlets Youth Arts Project, Wandsworth Family Education Unit, Freeform Arts and the Usk Valley Project. Sharon has also acted in an advisory capacity for a number of professional companies including Northern Stage, Theatre Cap A Pie, Open Clasp, The Maltings Berwick, and South Hill Park Arts Centre.
Sharon’s research interests focus on theatre for and with children and young people, interactive theatre and the use participatory performance in a range of community contexts, driven by a fascination with theatre as a collaborative, collective, live experience that enables an audience to reflect, empathise, think, feel and that facilitates creative expression.