Welcome to the Gate
The Gate’s Board of Trustees play a key role in guiding the future of the company. At the Gate, we recognise how important it is to ensure diversity of perspective and experience at every level of the organisation: the Trustees who make up our Board come from a range of different backgrounds, with freelance artists sitting alongside industry experts and leaders in the fields of law, finance and politics. Trustees are asked to input into overall strategy and vision for the Gate. Our current Board is chaired by Shami Chakrabarti.
Hannah Falvey
Hannah Falvey is International Partnerships Manager for Factory International, building and managing co-commissioning partnerships to enable the creation of ground-breaking new work, across a range of art forms, at Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, and for Manchester International Festival.
Prior to Factory International, she spent a decade working for theatres and festivals in London, including VAULT Festival, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the Young Vic Theatre.
David Hill
David is an experienced theatre-maker, practitioner and writer, as well as cultural consultant. He has been – Marketing Director at Birmingham Hippodrome; Artistic Director of Theatre Station (now Headway Arts); an Associate Director at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham; and Founding Director of ArtReach (1996-2019). His role at ArtReach included producing many large-scale outdoor arts festivals, including seventeen editions of Night of Festivals (a London 2012 project) and Journeys Festival International. He has led many European collaborations funded by Creative Europe and produced Three Cities Create and Connect across Nottingham, Leicester and Derby (2005-2007). He produced Rafael Lozano Hemmer’s digital artwork, Under Scan, for presentation in the east midlands and Trafalgar Square. As a consultant (including as an ACE Framework Consultant), David has led development of capital arts projects in Maidenhead, Nottingham and Leicester. He has been a Trustee and Vice Chair of Curve in Leicester, and Chair of Theatre Royal Winchester and Hat Fair. He is currently Chair of the Garrick Theatre, Lichfield and a Director of, From the Other Side (Refugee literature project). His publications include House Clearance (short stories), Draining the Swamp (play) and ArtReach: 25 Years of Cultural Development.
Sara Amini
Sara Amini is a performer, singer and the artistic director of Seemia Theatre.
Sara is from Iran, and is now based in London. She studied BA Theatre Directing at Tehran University and MA Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London. She also trained with Teatr Pieśń Kozła (Song of the Goat) Theatre Company and Ariane Mnouchkine, director of Theatre du Soleil.
For Seemia Theatre, she has Directed different shows including ‘Evros | The Crossing River’, which won Summerhall Lustrum Award 2018, Nominated for Amnesty International Freedom of Expression and featured on BBC world Service. ‘TAKE ON THIS’ which has been chosen by Barbican as part of Open Lab 2022 and has been mentored by Katie Mitchell.
Seemia is an associate theatre company at Oxford Play House on 2024.
Sara was Assistant Director and Accent coach on ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi, a Pulitzer prize winning play, directed by Diyan Zora at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Her first Solo show is going to be at Camden People’s Theatre and A Play, A Pie & A Pint for Spring 2025. She has been commissioned to dixrect a community based project at Arc Stockton Art Centre in summer 2025.
Jennifer Irons
Jennifer Irons, a Canadian now based in the UK, is an international producer and award-winning artist working across the charitable, commercial, education, and NGO sectors.
Jennifer is Co-Director of MakeAmplify, an award-winning arts and technology collective that creates large-scale outdoor events with underrepresented communities. They featured in the opening of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the launch of Hull City of Culture, and received the 2020 ARTSDRIVA Superfused Award.
She is also the founder of ironINC in Africa, arts and cultural exchange program working in Africa and the Middle East since 2009. Jennifer mentors and teaches internationally at institutions like University Arts London, Sadlers Wells Young Associates and the University of Hawaii.
As a choreographer, Jennifer’s credits include the 2019 film Hero, the 2011 UK MVA-winning music video for Wave Machines, and mass movement direction for Akram Khan Company’s Kadamati. Her nationally acclaimed solo show Yukon Ho! was specially commended by Olivia Colman’s Screenshot for TV, and her current project, Bad Immigrant, explores colonialism, immigration, and rollerskating.
Jennifer is currently Engagement Associate with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and a fellow of the 2025 MBA in Arts for Social Innovation cohort at Global Leaders Institute.
