Alan is an Edinburgh based playwright who strives to make theatre which is accessible to a wide audience. After graduating from Queen Margaret University in 2009, Alan has produced 4 plays for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has worked with Strange Town since 2011. His plays for Strange Town include Teach Me, which was shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Club Edinburgh Guide Scottish Theatre Award in the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Alan is also one of the Traverse 50 and has been through the Playwrights Studio Scotland Mentoring Scheme.
0131 629 0292
info@strangetown.org.uk
Meet more of the Team
Pollyanna Esse
Pollyanna has worked with Strange Town for 2 years assisting various workshops. She graduated from Edinburgh University in 2022 with a Fine Art degree and is now training to be an Art Physiotherapist.
She has worked in theatre throughout her life and found her love for directing and producing in her final year of her undergraduate degree. In 2022, she wrote and directed her own Fringe show, going on to work for a New York based Theatre company. There she produced a programme for young and emerging playwrights as well as taking their show to Fringe in 2023. Some of the playwrights she mentored have now been commission to write for multiple theatres in New York. She has always had a love for arts education and giving people the space and opportunity to express themselves.
She has worked for Edinburgh International Festival for the past 2 years as their Digital Content Officer. So she has an strong organisation head too as well as being a creative at heart!
She recently set up Ophelia Hare Arts, where she aims to develop creative experiences that challenge the barriers of pay for early career creatives. She believes that no matter who you are, you should have access to the arts and experience the freedom of expression.
Marion Geoffray
Marion Geoffray is a performer, theatre-maker and arts educator with over a decade of experience in the performing arts and education sectors. She’s had the chance to collaborate with leading arts and cultural organisations in Scotland (Imaginate, Lyra, YTAS, Starcatchers, NGS, Fringe Society, EIF and of course Strange Town!) as well as in F.E/H.E (University of Stirling, Edinburgh, RCS, QMU and The Scottish Institute) delivering high quality and engaging artistic projects and acting training.
She has a strong background in youth theatre, community engagement and creative learning. At the heart of her work is a socially engaged practice founded on rights-based and play-based approaches. She likes to use devising, new writing and physical theatre to create performances on the themes of communication, home, and identity, often adopting a multi-sensory and multi-cultural approach. As a migrant artist living and working in Scotland, she is highly passionate about offering a fair, inclusive, innovative and diverse access to the arts for all while championing the next generation of Scottish artists.
Credits include: PROM(ise) an immersive experience about prom night, Where Are You? A multilingual pop up performance commissioned by Imaginate and Arts in Tongues, a mini-web series for families about cultural, artistic and historical heritage in Edinburgh which won the Creative Edinburgh Collaboration Award in 2021.
Sophia Irvine-Fortescue
Sophia is the Workshop Assistant for the Friday 5-7s Intro to Drama and Friday 8-12s Theatre Skills classes.
Victoria Giambalvo
Victoria Giambalvo (she/they) is a previously New York-based, currently Edinburgh-based actor and creator. They have a passion for developing and performing in immersive and interactive experiences, particularly in personal development for audiences of all ages. They hold a BFA in Musical Theatre from Long Island University and MSc in Film Studies from University of Edinburgh, and are one of the co-founders and producers of Play Full: A Scratch Night. Most recently they appeared in Hopscotch Theatre’s interactive children show ‘The Play, Play’ funded by University of Glasgow, and will have been seen touring Scotland in ‘Pinocchio’ during the 2024 Christmas months.
James Beagon
Youth Theatre Manager
James is a director, playwright and creative learning facilitator who has lived and worked in Edinburgh for the past 15 years.
He has worked with Strange Town since 2015 and has written and directed a number of Strange Town productions, most recently Livin’ On A Prayer (Traverse, June 2025). Other Strange Town writing credits include Stolen Futures (Traverse, June 2019) Beneath the Surface (Traverse, June 2022) and My Kind of Weird (Traverse Theatre, June 2024). In addition to his role as Youth Theatre Manager, he currently directs the Tuesday 8-25s youth theatre group.
Previous credits with his own group Aulos Productions include the award-winning Fringe productions First Class (2014) and Gobland for the Goblins (2017) and the award-nominated Women of the Mourning Fields (2015) and Antigone na hEireann (2018).
James has worked extensively as a freelance drama practitioner with companies including East Lothian Youth Theatre, Lyceum Youth Theatre, Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, Theatre Sans Accents and Acting Out Drama School.
He holds an MFA in Directing from Edinburgh Napier and an M.A. (Hons) in Ancient and Medieval History from Edinburgh University and has run workshops and guest-lectured at both institutions.
Daniel Orejon
Daniel Orejon is a theatremaker and performer. He has been commissioned by the Edinburgh Multilingual Stories Festival and collaborated with Scottish Youth Theatre and the Edinburgh International Science Festival. He is the artistic director of the Crested Fools, with whom he has created award-nominated show The Rotting Hart. He specialises in projects that focus on multiculturalism, queerness and mental health, with a special fondness for all things Hispanic.
