About Naomi
Dr Naomi Paxton is a performer, writer, broadcaster, and researcher.
Naomi is currently employed as Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. She is also a Parliamentary Academic Fellow, and an Associate Fellow of the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Naomi trained as a performer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). After a decade as a professional actor, in 2011 she started a PhD in the Drama department at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research, completed in 2015, explored the work of the Actresses' Franchise League and the contribution of theatre professionals to the suffrage campaign. Naomi is a member of Equity, and The Magic Circle. She is also Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer for The Magic Circle.
Publications
In 2013 Naomi edited The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays (Bloomsbury) which launched at a Platform event at the National Theatre entitled Suffragettes on Stage. In 2018 her monograph Stage Rights! The Actresses' Franchise League, Activism and Politics 1908-1958 was published by Manchester University Press and she edited a second collection of suffrage plays with Bloomsbury entitled The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays: Taking the Stage, which launched at the National Theatre as part of the Courage Everywhere season. She has also written academic book chapters, articles, blogs and more: You can see a complete list of her publications here.
Public Engagement
A confident and creative speaker and presenter, Naomi's extensive public engagement experience includes creating games and educational resources, collaborating with musicians and playwrights to make new work, curating exhibitions at Parliament and the National Theatre, performing and speaking at museums, archives and festivals across the UK, and appearing on radio and tv. She is the regular MC for Museums Showoff and the V&A Museum's Stand Up at the V&A shows, was an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers for 2014-15, and also sometimes presents BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas programme, Free Thinking.
Awards
In 2018 Naomi was nominated for a Parliamentary Diversity and Inclusion Award for her work with the Vote 100 team.
In 2019 Naomi won the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Early Career Research Prize for her body of work on suffrage theatre and performance, and received a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award. Stage Rights! The Actresses' Franchise League, Activism and Politics 1908-1958 was highly commended in the 2019 Women's History Network Book Prize.
Comedy and cabaret
Naomi performs comedy, cabaret, magic and variety shows as her character Ada Campe.
In 2018 she won the prestigious New Act of the Year Show (NATYS), and the Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year competition. In 2019 Ada Campe was shortlisted for the Chortle Awards in the Variety category, and for the 2019 Funny Women awards in the Best Show category.
You can follow Naomi on Twitter @NaomiPaxton, and follow Ada Campe on Twitter @AdaCampe
Naomi is currently employed as Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. She is also a Parliamentary Academic Fellow, and an Associate Fellow of the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Naomi trained as a performer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). After a decade as a professional actor, in 2011 she started a PhD in the Drama department at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research, completed in 2015, explored the work of the Actresses' Franchise League and the contribution of theatre professionals to the suffrage campaign. Naomi is a member of Equity, and The Magic Circle. She is also Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer for The Magic Circle.
Publications
In 2013 Naomi edited The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays (Bloomsbury) which launched at a Platform event at the National Theatre entitled Suffragettes on Stage. In 2018 her monograph Stage Rights! The Actresses' Franchise League, Activism and Politics 1908-1958 was published by Manchester University Press and she edited a second collection of suffrage plays with Bloomsbury entitled The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays: Taking the Stage, which launched at the National Theatre as part of the Courage Everywhere season. She has also written academic book chapters, articles, blogs and more: You can see a complete list of her publications here.
Public Engagement
A confident and creative speaker and presenter, Naomi's extensive public engagement experience includes creating games and educational resources, collaborating with musicians and playwrights to make new work, curating exhibitions at Parliament and the National Theatre, performing and speaking at museums, archives and festivals across the UK, and appearing on radio and tv. She is the regular MC for Museums Showoff and the V&A Museum's Stand Up at the V&A shows, was an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers for 2014-15, and also sometimes presents BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas programme, Free Thinking.
Awards
In 2018 Naomi was nominated for a Parliamentary Diversity and Inclusion Award for her work with the Vote 100 team.
In 2019 Naomi won the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Early Career Research Prize for her body of work on suffrage theatre and performance, and received a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award. Stage Rights! The Actresses' Franchise League, Activism and Politics 1908-1958 was highly commended in the 2019 Women's History Network Book Prize.
Comedy and cabaret
Naomi performs comedy, cabaret, magic and variety shows as her character Ada Campe.
In 2018 she won the prestigious New Act of the Year Show (NATYS), and the Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year competition. In 2019 Ada Campe was shortlisted for the Chortle Awards in the Variety category, and for the 2019 Funny Women awards in the Best Show category.
You can follow Naomi on Twitter @NaomiPaxton, and follow Ada Campe on Twitter @AdaCampe
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About Naomi: RESEARCH
Naomi completed her doctoral thesis: Re-evaluating the Actresses Franchise League: actresses, politics and activism from 1908-1958 in the Drama Department of the University of Manchester in 2015. Her supervisor was Professor Maggie B. Gale.
Her research interests include:
- Performative presentations of feminism and political activism, particularly in the women's suffrage movement
- The involvement of theatre professionals in the suffrage movement
- Networks of suffragist and feminist activists in the first half of the twentieth century
- Cultural histories of political and feminist theatre
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- Actor training, especially physical theatre and movement based practices
- Applied theatre practice, especially puppetry with non-verbal/autistic spectrum participants
About Naomi: EMPLOYMENT
In October 2018 Naomi joined the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London as Knowledge Exchange Fellow.
From April 2017-April 2018 Naomi was the Research Assistant at Parliament on a joint AHRC funded project between Professor Krista Cowman at the University of Lincoln, Dr Angela Smith at the University of Plymouth, and UK Parliament Vote 100.
What difference did the war make? World War One and Votes for Women featured public events and workshops in Plymouth, Lincoln and London, and in January 2018 Naomi created an exhibition in Parliament to celebrate the centenary of the granting of the limited franchise to women.
To see the online exhibition, click here
To find out more about Vote 100, click here
What difference did the war make? World War One and Votes for Women featured public events and workshops in Plymouth, Lincoln and London, and in January 2018 Naomi created an exhibition in Parliament to celebrate the centenary of the granting of the limited franchise to women.
To see the online exhibition, click here
To find out more about Vote 100, click here
From February-June 2016, Naomi was Cultural Engagement Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. From September to November 2016, Naomi returned to SAS as the co-curator of London Hub 'Ministry of Hope and Fear' and London Hub Convenor for the Being Human Festival.
From 2015-2016 Naomi was the Post Doctoral Research Associate for Poor Theatres, an AHRC funded project at the University of Manchester.
She contributed to the process of documenting the work of local, national and international theatre initiatives working in the area of economic justice and/or addressing poverty. This included carrying out and editing online interviews with international theatre practitioners, and the documentation of a homelessness theatre project and theatre entrepreneurship project with young people in Manchester.
She contributed to the process of documenting the work of local, national and international theatre initiatives working in the area of economic justice and/or addressing poverty. This included carrying out and editing online interviews with international theatre practitioners, and the documentation of a homelessness theatre project and theatre entrepreneurship project with young people in Manchester.
About Naomi: PRODUCTIONS and EXHIBITIONS
Naomi is an excellent communicator with highly developed creative, production and curatorial skills.
She has worked in London's West End on over 30 plays, musicals, operas and events both front and back of house, predominantly in Wardrobe and in Box Office.
Naomi produced Knickerbocker Glories, a triple bill of Suffrage plays that ran at the Union Theatre in London in June 2010, and has co-produced three Living Literature Walks with feminist production hub Scary Little Girls: Stage Rights! A Living Literature Walk (April 2013 and May 2016); A Particular Theatre: Shakespeare, Suffragists and Soldiers (November 2016); and Women and War: the West End and the Western Front (November 2017).
In 2018 Naomi was commissioned to create a special interactive performance for the launch of the University of London's Leading Women programme, and subsequently for the Senate House Open House London in 2018.
In 2018 Naomi curated an exhibition about women and WW1 as part of the UK Parliament Vote 100 project.
She is also the curator of Dramatic Progress, an exhibition that ran at the National Theatre from October 2018-January 2019.
She has worked in London's West End on over 30 plays, musicals, operas and events both front and back of house, predominantly in Wardrobe and in Box Office.
Naomi produced Knickerbocker Glories, a triple bill of Suffrage plays that ran at the Union Theatre in London in June 2010, and has co-produced three Living Literature Walks with feminist production hub Scary Little Girls: Stage Rights! A Living Literature Walk (April 2013 and May 2016); A Particular Theatre: Shakespeare, Suffragists and Soldiers (November 2016); and Women and War: the West End and the Western Front (November 2017).
In 2018 Naomi was commissioned to create a special interactive performance for the launch of the University of London's Leading Women programme, and subsequently for the Senate House Open House London in 2018.
In 2018 Naomi curated an exhibition about women and WW1 as part of the UK Parliament Vote 100 project.
She is also the curator of Dramatic Progress, an exhibition that ran at the National Theatre from October 2018-January 2019.
About Naomi: TEACHING
University Teaching
2019 London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Workshop Leader 'Public Engagement'
2017-18 V&A/RCA, MA History of Design – Performance, Guest Lecturer for ‘Class, Culture & Hierachies’.
2017-19 School of Advanced Study, University of London. Workshop Leader ‘Impact and Public Engagement’.
2018 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Gender and Sexuality on the Twentieth Century British Stage.
2017 University of Manchester, Visiting Practitioner, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2013-16 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Texts in Rehearsal/Texts in Performance.
“Engaging. Entertaining. Enthusiastic. I would really recommend this course to others purely based on Naomi’s teaching.”
Student feedback, 2014
2013-16 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2012-14 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 1.
2015 University of Glasgow, Guest Speaker – Performance, Music Department
2014 University of Hertfordshire, Guest Lecturer – English
Other Teaching
2017-19 Comedy workshops for City Academy, London
Actor/Trainer for Extreme Psychiatry, King's College London
Suffrage theatre workshops for secondary schools
Puppet workshops for secondary schools
GSCE and A Level Drama teaching experience
Naomi is a mentor for Arts Emergency
Naomi was the first Actor in Residence at Christ's Hospital School, West Sussex in 2002.
She then spent five consecutive summers in Romania working in state run orphanages for special needs adolescents and developed a drama workshop programme that used puppetry to facilitate communication and creative work with non-speaking, autistic spectrum participants.
2019 London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Workshop Leader 'Public Engagement'
2017-18 V&A/RCA, MA History of Design – Performance, Guest Lecturer for ‘Class, Culture & Hierachies’.
2017-19 School of Advanced Study, University of London. Workshop Leader ‘Impact and Public Engagement’.
2018 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Gender and Sexuality on the Twentieth Century British Stage.
2017 University of Manchester, Visiting Practitioner, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2013-16 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Texts in Rehearsal/Texts in Performance.
“Engaging. Entertaining. Enthusiastic. I would really recommend this course to others purely based on Naomi’s teaching.”
Student feedback, 2014
2013-16 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2012-14 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 1.
2015 University of Glasgow, Guest Speaker – Performance, Music Department
2014 University of Hertfordshire, Guest Lecturer – English
Other Teaching
2017-19 Comedy workshops for City Academy, London
Actor/Trainer for Extreme Psychiatry, King's College London
Suffrage theatre workshops for secondary schools
Puppet workshops for secondary schools
GSCE and A Level Drama teaching experience
Naomi is a mentor for Arts Emergency
Naomi was the first Actor in Residence at Christ's Hospital School, West Sussex in 2002.
She then spent five consecutive summers in Romania working in state run orphanages for special needs adolescents and developed a drama workshop programme that used puppetry to facilitate communication and creative work with non-speaking, autistic spectrum participants.
About Naomi: COMEDY
As well as MC-ing nights like Museums Showoff and the V&A Museum's Carry on Curating as herself, Naomi performs professionally as her comedy character Ada Campe in comedy, variety, magic and cabaret shows.
Ada Campe won the prestigious New Act of the Year show (NATYS) in 2018 and the 2018 Old Comedian of the Year competition. She was shortlisted for Best Variety Act in the 2019 Chortle Awards, and Best Show in the 2019 Funny Women Awards.
Click here to find out more about Ada Campe and her upcoming gigs
Ada Campe won the prestigious New Act of the Year show (NATYS) in 2018 and the 2018 Old Comedian of the Year competition. She was shortlisted for Best Variety Act in the 2019 Chortle Awards, and Best Show in the 2019 Funny Women Awards.
Click here to find out more about Ada Campe and her upcoming gigs
About Naomi: ACTING
Naomi trained in Acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). She has been working professionally as an actor since 1999 and has appeared in the West End and on tour in the UK and Internationally. She is also an Associate Artist of feminist production hub Scary Little Girls.
Click here to see her Acting CV (Spotlight link)
