20 Jan A Sense of Direction – Sita Thomas

Dr Sita Thomas left her native Wales when she was sixteen to pursue more opportunities to work in theatre and the arts. Fifteen years on, she has returned as artistic director of Cardiff-based company Fio Theatre, and is determined to provide aspiring Welsh theatremakers with the opportunities she never had.

“I left Wales because there were just no pathways into the performing arts, particularly for people that looked like me,” Thomas says. “There was so little representation back then. A huge driving factor for me to return home was to make a difference for people like me. It’s really sad that people feel like they have to leave Wales to have a career in theatre. I’m determined to change that.”

Thomas joined Fio in July 2021, after working as a freelance director, movement director and filmmaker for over a decade, and is currently planning what the company will look like going forwards. Making the transition from the fluidity of freelancing to the relative safety and security of a salaried position has been tricky, she says.

“As a freelancer, you learn that habit of always saying yes to everything,” Thomas says. “I’m trying to un-learn that now. I still say yes to some projects outside Fio, of course, but my work with Fio is my priority. That was part of the appeal of the job, actually. The chance to work more regular hours, and not constantly be on that freelance hustle.”

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Thomas was raised in Pembrokeshire. Her “incredibly supportive mum” worked hard to facilitate her passion for performance, and Thomas landed her first professional job at 14 – as a presenter on the CBBC children’s show Stitch Up. It was when she joined the National Youth Theatre at 17 that she discovered directing, though.

“I was never the best actor, but it wasn’t actually being on stage that I fell in love with,” Thomas explains. “It was the rehearsal process. It was being in a room with a team of people working to create something unique and special. When I realised directing was all about that, I didn’t want to do anything else.”

Thomas went to the University of Warwick to study English and Theatre, then to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama to do an MA in Movement Directing, then back to Warwick to do a fully-funded PhD on Cultural Diversity in the Casting and Performance of Shakespeare in Britain. She is sure her extensive academic experience makes her a better director.

“I love learning, and will continue to learn every single day of my life,” she says. “I think to be a really brilliant director you have to love learning about people and cultures and different ways of storytelling. Research is a great way to support representing something on stage if you haven’t experienced it yourself.”

Thomas’ freelance career has seen her work at several major theatres, including the National Theatre and the Royal Court, and assist Jude Kelly at the Southbank Centre. She was also part of Artistic Directors of the Future’s Up Next programme, through which she trained as an artistic director at the Bush Theatre.

It was an invaluable experience, she says, that prepared her for the leadership roles she has subsequently undertaken, as creative associate at Wales Millennium Centre, as a trustee of the Young Vic and Emergency Exit Arts, as co-artistic director (maternity cover) of Common Wealth Theatre, and now as artistic director of Fio. She still presents children’s television, too, and is a familiar face on Channel 5’s Milkshake.

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Under Thomas, Fio will have three priorities: people, projects, and productions. The first, says Thomas, will involve embedding Welsh people from the Global Majority in everything Fio does, including its new young company and soon-to-be-announced artist development programme. The second will involve Fio partnering with other organisations to facilitate activities in its local community. And the third, says Thomas, will involve staging site-specific shows, something about which she is particularly passionate.

“I get frustrated when people refer to theatre as a communal experience that generates conversations,” Thomas says. “Sometimes, when I go to the theatre, I sit down in the dark, watch a show, and go away again, which doesn’t feel very communal. I want to find ways of making theatre more connected, of generating a sense of togetherness, and of diversifying our audience.”

“In my experience, site-specific work encourages that so much more than traditional stagings,” she continues. “We are currently developing a show called Landing Bolts, which will be performed in a skatepark in Cardiff. We will be building totally new relationships with both artists and audiences. There are some challenges to putting on a show in a skatepark, though, including the acoustics being echoey – but it’s so much fun for everyone to get to learn to skate as well as perform.”

Right now, Thomas is trying to get her head around the other side of leading an organisation – the business development, the strategy, the finances, the fiddly bits. When we speak, she has just finished an online communications development session.

“No-one teaches you all of this,” she says. “I don’t think the industry sufficiently prepares freelance directors to become artistic directors. There are so few training opportunities, so few pathways that allow you to progress to leadership positions. It is the reason why buildings and companies are mainly led by people from a similar demographic. It is the reason I look across the country and see so few people like me in charge of organisations.”

“That’s what is exciting about my role now, though,” she adds. “I am now in a position where I can help to change that.”

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Sita Thomas was talking to Fergus Morgan for SDUK.