Sarah Argent
Sarah is an award-winning freelance artist specialising in theatre for the very young.
From 2001 to 2018, she developed all of Theatr Iolo’s work for the under fives, while maintaining, as she still does, a busy career devising, directing, and writing. Sarah has been commissioned to create productions for acclaimed theatre companies across the UK, Ireland and beyond, including Welsh National Opera, Sherman Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Cwmni’r Fran Wen, the National Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Polka Theatre, Derby Theatre, Theatre Hullabaloo, M6 Theatre, Haya Cultural Centre, (Amman, Jordan), Barnstorm Theatre (Kilkenny, Ireland), ThinkArts (Kolkata, India) and Companyia Frec a Frec (Barcelona).
Her productions for these companies have been invited to prestigious festivals and venues worldwide, touring extensively across the UK and Ireland, Europe, Canada and North America, Australia, India, and the Middle and Far East.
She has been the recipient of a number of awards from Welsh, European, and world organisations in recognition of her practice. A prestigious Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales in 2007 kick-started her journey into making theatre for babies, an area in which she is now considered to be one of the UK’s leading practitioners. Her first production for babies Out of the Blue (created with and performed by Kevin Lewis, former Artistic Director of Theatr Iolo), was programmed at Sydney Opera House, inspired artists in India to create their own theatre for babies, and lead to commissions from and residencies at the Unicorn Theatre and Polka Theatre.
For many years, Sarah taught acting and improvisation at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and University of South Wales. She is now increasingly invited to run workshops, give guest lectures and keynote speeches, and mentor emerging artists and theatre companies on aspects of creating theatre for the youngest audiences. She also translates Danish plays for young audiences into English.