Meet The Team
Marie Fortune Helen Foan
Artistic Directors
Foan & Fortune is a creative collaboration between theatre makers Helen Foan and Marie Fortune. Our passion is to play with puppetry to create meaningful new work for a diverse range of audiences.
We have been directing, making and performing together on puppetry projects since 2012, engaging a wide range of audiences; from interactive puppetry for Shakespeare 400 World Book Night at the British Library to staged productions for Suspense, Mimetic and Latitude Festivals. We founded Foan & Fortune in December 2018.
We are always developing our practice and see our rehearsal room as a place to experiment with new techniques and play with new ways to tell stories.
As highly experienced facilitators we regularly run workshops on a variety of topics including Puppetry, Making, Shakespeare, Storytelling and Drama in the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Japan and the USA.
We love to collaborate with other companies and artists to weave puppetry into their storytelling.
If you would like a workshop or to chat about using puppetry in your play, we'd love to hear from you.
Charlotte Lund
Producer
CHARLOTTE LUND is an independent creative producer & consultant, specialising in artist led, contemporary performance. She has worked with some of the UK's leading companies including Tall Stories, Fuel, English National Opera, Punchdrunk and The Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, as well as producing large scale community projects with The National Trust and with remote communities in Spain.
Charlotte specialises in artist development & is often a guest speaker on panels & workshops encouraging young people into the arts. Making theatre accessible to all audiences is a key component of Charlotte's work; from designing & implementing access strategies, working with Mousetrap Theatre Projects on their relaxed performances in the West End and producing work with and for neuro-diverse artists & audiences.
Amelia Vernede,
Chair
Amelia has spent the last seven years since graduating from a BA Theatre and Performance at The University of Cape Town working within the arts and creative industries. A history in Theatre, Film, Dance and Immersive events has given her a plethora of useful storytelling tools. As the assistant to Sonia Friedman, she has opened Olivier award winning shows including The Inheritance, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and The Book of Mormon on West End, Broadway and beyond. In 2020 she formed Crunchy Leaf Productions a multi-media production company telling vital and entertaining stories of our time.
Currently assistant to the Directors of Development at the Royal National Theatre, she has built strong relationships as the lead contact to the Development Board and other committees generating the income for the theatre and its shows. During her time in this role, she has played an integral part in securing funding for campaigns such as Speak Up, a programme which works with young people across the UK who have been most affected by the pandemic.
Amelia is a true believer in the power of the arts as a tool for entertainment, transformation and healing. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing on her longboard, surfing, snowboarding and Muay Thai.
Johanna Taylor,
Treasurer
Johanna is a Producer and Project Manager with a BA in Dance and Arts Management from De Montfort University and a MSc in Management from the University of Nottingham's Business School.
Johanna has worked in various roles in organisations such as Dance4, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Arts Council England, Keneish Dance Company and is now the Culture Mile Coordinator for the City of London Corporation.
Johanna produces new theatre works independently and in 2018 set up No Stone Theatre Ltd and produces for exciting artists such as director Nicholas Pitt and writer/dancer Debris Stevenson.
She is also a proud mentor with Arts Emergency and a delegate on Stage One's Bridge the Gap programme for emerging commercial theatre producers.
Becky Harper,
Secretary
Becky trained as a performer at Oxford School of Drama and NIDA in Australia. An Actor and Voice Over artist, she met Helen and Marie (Foan & Fortune) as a performer in children's theatre, working with puppets herself!
In addition to acting and puppeteering, Becky worked for MVF specialising in performance marketing. She enjoys using this experience to support puppetry, theatre and creatives as well as discovering new and exciting artistic ventures.
Phoebe Gardiner,
Board Member
Phoebe has spent the eight years since graduating from Southampton
University working within the arts and creative industries, carving a path in PR, media relations and creative communications. Currently Press Manager at Southbank Centre, Europe's largest arts centre situated on the south bank of the River Thames, Phoebe is responsible for promoting the contemporary music and gigs programme, and festivals. She has led international campaigns for high profile festivals including WOW - Women of the World, Meltdown and Imagine Children's Festival, working with notable artists and creatives such as Jude Kelly, Robert Smith and Annie Lennox, and managed events from the launch of the first Family Arts Campaign, to the WOW London 2018 reception at Clarence House, hosted by the Duchess of Cornwall. Phoebe would like as many people as possible to experience the transformative power of the arts in their lives, her favourite example of which is the work of the Koestler Trust (Google them). She used to sing in, and lead choirs (misses it a fair bit), is a keen runner and is training for her orange belt in kickboxing.