Ruth is an Edinburgh based director, arts manager and writer who has been working with young people in a theatre setting for 25 years, primarily in Scotland. She co-founded Strange Town and manages it with Steve Small and also runs the Strange Town Young Actors’ agency. She worked in the marketing department at Edinburgh Festival Theatre in 1995, where she established the theatre’s education programme. From 1996-2000 she lived in Tokyo, setting up a children’s theatre company and working in television and the voiceover industry. As a freelancer she has previously worked with Lyceum Youth Theatre, macRobert, North Edinburgh Arts Centre, Scottish Youth Theatre, Perth Theatre, Stirling Youth Theatre, Borderline Youth Theatre, and Dundee Rep.
0131 629 0292
info@strangetown.org.uk
Meet more of the Team
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.
Jenny Anderson
Jenny has worked in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders as a drama practitioner since 2017. Through this work, she helps young people to develop their confidence and perfect their drama skills whilst having fun and making new friends.
She also runs Zoom workshops for young people across the UK with the same rare syndrome (Kabuki) as herself. They gain so much by connecting through drama. She loves all aspects of my work both face to face and in the virtual world and is very much looking forward to this new chapter working regularly with Strange Town.
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.
Katie Fraser
Katie is a playwright, teacher and workshop leader. Since finishing the MSc in Playwriting course at the University of Edinburgh she has been working with Framework Theatre Company to develop her script Play Pretend. She has extensive experience working with young people from 8-18 in schools and in youth theatre groups.
Anna Whealing
Anna is a highlands-born writer, theatre-maker and producer. She has worked with community groups, volunteers, children, artists and industry members. Anna has produced award-winning short films and documentries, run workshops for emerging writers, created several new-writing audio series, organised scratch nights for performance artists in Glasgow and dabbled in stage managment. Basically, she’ll say yes to everything and loves a challange! Anna is currently a creative trainee on textLAB, a writers programme run by Scottish Youth Theatre and Playwrights Studio Scotland. She has acted as Assistant Director for A Play, A Pie and A Pint and Mull Theatre.
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.
