Board of Trustees
China Plate’s Board of Trustees provide essential leadership, expertise and guidance, collaborating with our Co-Artistic Directors and Executive Director to shape and guide the company’s artistic mission and business strategy.
Trustees meet four times a year to review and progress the company’s performance against its mission to develop a new model of creating and producing theatre that opens up the way performance is made, who makes it and who its experienced by. Trustees also provide individual support on discreet projects and specific aspects of the business plan.
China Plate is seeking new relationships with artists, entrepreneurs and professionals who can help shape the company as we seek to work as part of creative communities (outside of and within the arts) which could include artists, organisations, freelancers, community groups, participants, and audiences, as we explore our new model for making theatre.
If you’re interested in finding out more, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact our Executive Director Chloe Courtney.
Raidene Carter
Trustee
Raidene Carter
Trustee
Raidene has been a cultural leader and creative producer for over 20 years. In this time, she has worked for Talawa Theatre Co., the Lyric Hammersmith, Birmingham REP, the Albany, Deptford, and Theatre Centre, before taking up the role of Executive Producer (Cultural Programmes & Live Sites) for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Here, she led the Birmingham 2022 Festival, the 6-month festival of creativity wrapped around the Games, oversaw the city’s Festival Sites and delivered the Prize Medal design and fabrication project.
Following this, Raidene became Creative Director for Birmingham Festival 23, a free, 10-day celebration of Birmingham’s creativity and culture, marking the one-year anniversary of the Games. She is currently Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Artsadmin, which runs Toynbee Studios, and produces a range of hyperlocal and international artists projects, and artist development initiatives.
Raidene was an inaugural MOBO/LTC Executive Fellow (2016) and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2021).
Photo © Jas Sansi
Indy Datta
Trustee
Indy Datta
Trustee
Indy has spent more than 20 years working in legal, business and commercial affairs in the TV and film industries, spending a large part of his career at the BBC.
He is currently head of legal and business affairs at Objective Media Group.
Cerian Eiles
Trustee
Cerian Eiles
Trustee
Cerian is the Executive Director of Intra Community Trust, a newly formed organisation that preserves, regenerates and develops the Old High Street Intra conservation area in Medway through community interventions, arts and cultural activity and heritage revitalisation to foster economic development, environmental sustainability and placemaking.
She is also an independent consultant with 20 years’ experience working across the arts sector and with a range of art forms in roles that include strategic fundraising support, organisational development and business planning. She has worked with organisations that include the National Theatre, the Old Vic, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Talawa, the Royal Court, National Centre for Writing, Apples and Snakes and Mosaic Rooms, but specialises in working with grassroots organisations, as exemplified by her long-term relationship with The People’s Orchestra.
She has worked on numerous capital projects across the arts and cultural sector, now focusing these skills in her adopted hometown of Medway.
Photo © Nia Rose Branding
Christina Elliot
Trustee
Christina Elliot
Trustee
Christina Elliot is Head of Programming & Producing at The Place, London’s creative powerhouse for dance development.
Christina leads a team of producers to deliver The Place’s theatre programme, artist development initiatives and new producing and touring projects. Her areas of specialism include project development, partnership working and fundraising.
Key recent projects include the development of the third phase of the Rural Touring Dance Initiative, the expansion of The Place’s in house producing team and the growth of The Place’s Festival of Korean Dance into a national touring programme. Christina has had the pleasure and privilege of working alongside many brilliant artists and companies at The Place (including Requardt & Rosenberg, Igor x Moreno, Lost Dog, Sivan Rubinstein, Extended Play & SAY) and previously whilst producer at Fuel (2006 – 2014, including Inua Ellams, Will Adamsdale & Clod Ensemble). Christina was on the board of Bristol based Uninvited Guests from 2014 – 2023.
Photo © Nici Eberl
Paul Hewlett
Trustee
Paul Hewlett
Trustee
Paul is the Chief Operations Officer for the CORE & Co Foundation, an education charity that provides social justice solutions for children and young people. Foundation projects include SAFE Birmingham, a Department for Education backed initiative designed to reduce children’s vulnerability to serious youth violence and Raise My Game, an LTA funded tennis programme that supports secondary school students to build resilience, wellbeing and fitness through access to high-quality coaching.
As Director of Content for Into Film, Paul led content production and curation for the BFI’s 5-19yrs film education programme. In his early career Paul worked in film and television production before joining the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, supporting new talent partnerships with FILM4, Sight & Sound, Dazed magazine and BBC Film.
Prior to joining CORE & Co Paul had the privilege of being part of the China Plate team, working as their General Manager between May 2019 and September 2021.
Sarah Preece
Chair
Sarah Preece
Chair
Sarah has been in senior leadership roles in top UK companies for the past 27 years. She worked in the arts, health and education sectors and has expertise in strategy, finance and funding, across the charitable, voluntary and commercial sectors.
Sarah worked on three capital projects, most recently as Joint Chief Executive at Mountview Academy delivering a new facility for the drama school. Sarah was awarded an Olivier Special Recognition Award in 2020 and was Southwark Business Woman of the Year in 2020. Mountview received a RIBA London Award in 2021.
Sarah now works as a consultant supporting transformational change. She is the Liberal Democrat Cornwall Councillor for the Lostwithiel & Lanreath area, and a Cornwall Council Cabinet member, and portfolio holder for Tourism, Localism and Planning.
Sarah was born in Birmingham and grew up in the South West. She is a graduate of Goldsmiths College, London – holds a Masters in Organisational Development, and was a Clore Fellow in 2007/08.
Kaya Stanley-Money
Trustee
Kaya Stanley-Money
Trustee
Kaya is the Executive Director & Joint CEO of Camden People’s Theatre, a studio theatre in London dedicated to supporting early-career artists and its local community with radical engagement initiatives. Before taking on the role at Camden People’s Theatre, Kaya was a producer with China Plate where she developed and toured the work of artists and companies including Caroline Horton, Inspector Sands, Ben Wright and Chris Thorpe.
In her early career, Kaya worked as the Production Coordinator for Little Angel Theatre, touring pieces such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Kneehigh) to children and families throughout the UK. Kaya is also a trustee of Marlborough Productions, a leading UK producer of queer-led, intersectional performance based in Brighton.