The Team

Rob joined MarketPlace Arts in January 2024. Prior to this Rob was Artistic Director & CEO at Boundless Theatre an Arts Council England NPO and charity, founded in 2001), joining in 2016. Rob led the organisation through a relaunch including full rebrand (working with Spy Studio and an Advisory Group of young adults) which included a radical new audience and talent development strategy and a focus on 15-25 year olds. Rob secured Creative Europe funding for Extended Universe, a transmedia audience development project with theatres in Copenhagen, Barcelona and Athens and directed 4 productions (Natives, 2017, Confidence 2018, Radio Elusia 2020 and Addictive Beat, 2022).

Before this Rob was Associate Dramaturg at the Bush Theatre in London where for three and a half years he ran the Literary Department and was responsible for all playwriting work including the commissioning and development of new plays for production. Rob established ongoing partnerships with Playwrights of New York (PoNY), delivered projects with Kudos Film & Television and established a partnership with Drama Centre London and Oberon Books on the Student Guide To Writing: Playwriting.

Prior to joining the Bush Rob was the first Literary Manager at HighTide Festival Theatre where he supported the expansion of the festival, doubling the number of productions and before leaving the company directed Luke Barnes’ Eisteddfod (Latitude), Endless Poem (London 2012 Festival) and Perish (HighTide & Public Theater, New York).

Rob was one of the first recipients of an Artists’ International Development Fund from the Arts Council and British Council and spent time working in South Africa with playwrights and theatre makers at the Baxter and Market Theatres. Rob has worked as a freelance Director, Dramaturg and writer as well as a creative practitioner since 2011. As a Dramaturg and Director he has worked with playwrights at theatres including The National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Contact, York Theatre Royal and Theatre503.

Rob is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation, the home of creative writing in the UK.

Claire joined MarketPlace Arts in November 2022. She has an extensive background working across the arts and creative industries in project programming and management, event delivery, audience development and marcomms roles.  She has devised and delivered community engagement projects, educational initiatives connecting students across the globe, art exhibitions, fashion shows, film and literary festivals.  Organisations she has worked with include the V&A, Royal Academy, Crafts Council, Cockpit Arts, Cole & Son (Wallpapers). Most recently she delivered Newnham College, Cambridge’s 150^th Anniversary Festival.  She is inspired by the beauty of our landscape, history and heritage.

Maddie is an artist and organiser based in Norwich. She joins us from OUTPOST Gallery, where she was Chair, and Norwich University of The Arts, where she was Project Officer. She has spent over 7 years working in the arts in East Anglia across The Red House museum, Britten Pears Arts, EAST Gallery, Norwich Theatre Royal and Norfolk and Norwich Festival. Maddie finds the space of facilitation to be a ground for collaboration, knowledge exchange and solidarity. Her work has been shaped by various artist development programmes, including University of The Arts London’s ‘The Art of Social Engagement’, Chisenhale Studio’s ‘Into The Wild’ Alternative Art Education Programme, Signals ‘Plug In Creatives’ and Mall Galleries’ ‘In The Studio’ programme. Within her community arts practice, she has been commissioned by Young Norfolk Arts Trust, The Art Station, Mall Galleries, Motion Sickness Project and Spill Festival and supported with funding from A+N Artist’s Information Company, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and Firstsite Gallery

Carly joined MarketPlace Arts in July 2024 following the completion of her PhD at Birkbeck, University of London where she also held an Associate Tutor position teaching English and creative writing. Her research interrogated how a practice of reading experimental literary forms could inspire readers to become engaged with modes of activism and social change. In 2022 she was successful in obtaining Wellcome Trust funding to curate an exhibition and programme of events at the Peltz gallery Birkbeck, on the theme of creativity as reparation. As a writer, creative and lover of books, she is motivated by engaging people with the power of literature and creative practice. Through her work at Cambridgeshire Libraries she runs creative writing sessions and pop-up book club events. She is part of the Neotists collective and most recently was involved in the organisation of the 2024 St Neots Festival, curating and managing the new Theatre Zone.

Kirsten Parriss, Engagement Manager

Kirsten joined the team in July 2025. She worked as a primary school teacher in and around Peterborough, Huntingdon and Lincolnshire for fifteen years before taking on the role of Associate Producer with Peterborough Presents, then progressing to the role of Engagement Manager with MarketPlace Arts. A lifelong musician and lover of literature, she sings with her local choir and has performed all over the UK, including at the Edinburgh Fringe. She is passionate about facilitating engagement with the arts for underserved communities and has a keen interest in accessibility and inclusion, particularly with regard to the disabled and Neurodivergent communities.