TOTNES LEADERSHIP TEAM

  Danielle McIlven is the Festival's Creative Director and Producer

 She is a theatre director, educator, and Director of the Festival's legal entity. Withh almost two decades of experience working across the UK and internationally. She trained at Birkbeck, University of London, completing an MFA in Theatre Directing, and was resident assistant director at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre. Her directing work spans new writing, devised performance, and community-led projects, and she has held roles including associate director at The Space Arts Centre in London. Danielle has delivered theatre projects with young people in schools, youth theatres, and alternative education settings, as well as with refugee and Traveller communities. She has led international work in Bosnia, Kolkata and Beijing. Now based in Totnes- where she grew up- she founded Moveable Type Theatre Company and is a teaching fellow in Acting and Drama at the University of Plymouth.

    Susie Hudson is the Festival Operations Director

She has held a number of senior roles across Project Management, Strategic Marketing, and Fundraising. She is a Director of the Festivals legal entity and a member of the operations team behind Totnes Fringe Festival, focusing on strategy, systems, operations, marketing and digital. She brings a commercial perspective to the festival’s growth, with a focus on building something that is both creatively ambitious and practically sustainable. Her theatrical ambitions were largely satisfied by understudying for Starlight Express. 

She has an MBA from Exeter and is a fellow of the CMI.

    Lucy Mathews is the Festivals PR lead

With a background in drama and professional acting, Lucy brings a strong understanding of performance and a long-standing love of theatre to the Fringe.

She later moved into PR, building a successful career helping businesses and entrepreneurs raise their profile, communicate clearly and reach new audiences. She is also the author of a best-selling book on using PR to stand out and be heard.

Lucy leads PR for Totnes Fringe, building the Festival’s media profile, developing press opportunities and helping us tell the story of the Fringe beyond Totnes. 

Lucy played an important role in securing sponsorship for the 2026 Festival.

  Ceni Wyatt leads event fundraising and audience experience. 

Ceni was trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and works as both an actress and director. She is a member of the programming team. A long-standing and much-valued member of Dartington Playgoers, she brings energy, experience and real commitment to every project she’s part of. A founding member of Totnes Fringe, Ceni is someone who gets things done. . She combines practical delivery with a deep understanding of theatre-making, and is known for her ability to hold both the creative and logistical sides of a production in balance.

Whether on stage, behind the scenes or driving a project forward, she brings focus, generosity and a clear sense of purpose.

Claire Bennett is the Festivals Volunteer Lead

Recruits, welcomes, and coordinates Fringe volunteers, ensuring people are assigned to appropriate roles and know where they need to be when. With over 110 volunteers, this is a significant challenge! 

Most volunteers work within an identified team and report directly to their relevant Team Leadert. The Volunteer Lead is the first point of contact for general volunteer queries, schedules festival shifts and changes, manages gaps, and addresses issues that need resolving.

 Claire also coordinates artist accommodation, including managing host availability, matching artists with hosts and acting as the main liaison between the Fringe and our accommodation hosts.

Katherine Bourke leads Sponsorship for the 2027 Totnes Fringe Festival 

Katharine brings extensive experience in business development, consultancy and supporting organisations to grow. A co-founder of South West Growth Service, she has worked with businesses and leaders across the region for many years, helping them develop opportunities, build strong relationships and turn ideas into action.

For the 2027 Fringe, Kath will lead our approach to sponsorship – developing relationships with existing and potential partners, shaping sponsorship opportunities that work for both the Fringe and the businesses supporting us, and helping to build a stronger and more sustainable commercial partnership programme.

Kath has been volunteering with Totnes Fringe since 2025, supporting the box office, venues and leafletting.
 

Mark Hubbard is the Festival’s Production Lead.

Mark brings extensive experience in team development, facilitation and operational planning, with a strong focus on building effective teams and improving how things work in practice.

For the 2027 Fringe, Mark will lead the development of our production and technical operation. He will focus on building and supporting the technical team, working with them to review the overall technical offer across our venues and identify gaps and improvements. Mark will help create a more consistent, resilient and well-coordinated production model for the Fringe.