Mark Ashmore

Hiya

Award winning Producer and Director with over 15 years experience working across the entire spectrum of the arts field (Theatre, Events, Immersive, Film)  – I’ll give some highlights below.

I also work as a social media content producer and I am a social media / digital marketing expert – working across Facebook / Tik Tok / Instagram / Youtube / SEO and Web-design – also 20 years experience is Print media (posters / flyers) and branding – Social media revenues generated in excess of £500,000+ across IP, sell out tours, crowdfunding and merchandise sales – I can self produce, work with funding, and if the project is interesting – work with others.

Currently April 2024 – Dec 2024) on-going producing Tartan Tabletops Never Ending Quest – UK Tour and Edfest 2024 with the Gilded Balloon

R+D ACE (Feb to October 2024) grant to develop comedy theatre and podcasts with South Asian female creatives

——

Tartan Tabletop’s Never Ending Quest – a Dungeon’s and Dragons Comedy.

4.5 / 5 star show – https://glamadelaide.com.au/fringe-review-tartan-tabletop-in-dungeons-and-dragons-comedy-the-never-ending-quest/

I discovered the Tartan Tabletop crew playing on the free fringe at the Brewdog pub Edinburgh in 2022 whilst producing Skank with Clem, – These 4 Scottish locals consisting of Alex, Josh, Lauren and Niall – basically play a game of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS with Josh as the lead writer and games master and our 3 cast members have to improvise through the show on a madcap adventure. I spent 4 months with them prior to a 2023 run I organised at the Gilded Balloon working on the show, creating a tight one hour themed comedy show with a spot for a guest star called Noblin the Goblin – in 2023 the show made its full fringe debut at Gilded and completed a sell out run of 25 shows – this success led me to investing in a small scale Scottish tour which also sold out, and so in March 2024 I took the team to the Adelaide fringe and produced my first international show’s – 14 dates with 6 sell out shows at Adelaide fringe 2024. We return to Edfringe 24 back at the Gilded, with a small tour planned through 2024 and also a Christmas show in Glasgow.. Never under estimate the talent on the free fringe.

Please Love Me (Premiere Edfringe 2023)

An energetic mix of comedy and music, this is a surprisingly moving and emotional tale of women’s identity, expectations and love. 4/5 Star – (Everything Theatre – https://everything-theatre.co.uk/2023/08/review-please-love-me-edfringe/ )

I reunited with creative powerhouse Clementine Bogg-Hargroves to Produce her 2nd show and our 2nd together – I successfully raised £28,000 via an ACE R+D grant and produced the development of ‘Please Love Me’ over a 12 month period, whilst touring SKANK, after scratch previews, Future Artists funded the show to premiere at Edfringe 23 for a 26 date run at the Pleasance  – where the show gained much critical success – funding is pending for a UK wide tour. (The show was nominated for an off-fest Edfringe award 2023)

Stage 4/5 – https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/please-love-me-review

Theatre Weekly 4/5 – https://theatreweekly.com/edinburgh-review-please-love-me-at-pleasance-dome/

The Scotsman – 4/5 – https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/edinburgh-festival-fringe-theatre-musical-and-opera-reviews-lovefool-actually-love-strategic-love-play-please-love-me-4257466

SKANK (2019-2023)

SKANK the play, created by Clementine Bogg-Hargroves – I discovered this work at the Greater Manchester Fringe in 2019 and I have developed the play into an Off Westend Nominated show for Edinburgh 2021, at the fringe it was also named the Times Critics choice of plays to see in Edinburgh, SKANK played at Edfringe21 for two weeks to sell out shows, with extra performances added – this was achieved by a social media campaign and marketing / PR campaign created by myself – SKANK has had two post pandemic tours, and turned a small profit for performer and producer, and was NOT backed by the arts council – my intention with producing SKANK was to see if it was possible to create a sustainable product and model in theatre, and what role would social media play in this.

SKANK has now been published by PLAY DEAD PRESS and available from all good bookstores or online.

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XFfhMFlI-h0

More info https://www.futureartists.net/skank-the-play-by-clementine-bogg-hargroves-is-touring-in-2022

Virtual Reality / New Media Theatre Productions

Virtual Horizons (October 2023)

I was hired by Director Jack Chamberlain to produce his vision of a theatre and virtual reality production based on his original idea, with a script by Maureen Lennon- via an R+D grant from ACE. – Press Release – https://www.hulltruck.co.uk/news/virtual-horizons/

Over 6 months alongside other producing duties due to budget, I helped create a show co-created by the people of Hull, created a VR experience with production company AVImmerse and my own Immersive Arts Lab, and we staged the work to an almost sell out run at Hull Truck Theatre.

The show engaged and was the voice of a under represented local community, the people of Hull and how Climate change might effect them – but this was a story of hope.

This was the first time I used AI to generate the poster image, which could not have been done in real life due to budget (A girl, looking at the camera, part submerged, in the Humber river) and the first time I had used the VR software to sync 15 headsets together as one.

A making of video can be watched here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK7nkdfUK50&feature=youtu.be

LOOKOUT (2019-2021)

Producer for BBC Arts

I was hired because of 5+ years working in the field of virtual reality and immersive theatre (I am in my final year at Liverpool John Moores, undertaking a PhD in Immersive Art) – my job was to take a traditional artist Marnie Simpson and bring her ideas to life in virtual reality – this was then to be a hybrid performance of part theatre and part VR experience.

The theatre element was to be an immersive story, with installations and actors, giving context to the VR story that you are sucked into – Unfortunately Covid19 hit in the middle of production, and our premiere at SXSW could not go ahead – the project ended up being a standalone VR experience, which the BBC has the rights to.

more details here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4XxLHZ18PRQvFnfqF2YklXt/a-slick-and-sugar-coated-future-that-isnt-what-it-seems

I have also founded an immersive arts lab – and our group hang out on Facebook (1000+ members) https://www.facebook.com/groups/1537457282955910

Video trailer to the lab here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogni6e26er0 

I have also had a paper published on performance in VR – From video streaming to virtual reality worlds: an academic, reflective, and creative study on live theatre and performance in the metaverse https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14794713.2021.2024398

My Companies website www.futureartists.net

CV + More info – https://www.linkedin.com/in/markashmore/