Damselfly and Aviatrix from BikeLights 2017: Laura Frances Martin. Photo: Hana Backland for Wadebridge Creative Hub
As a Spotlight Actress my professional performing credits, skills & showreel are listed in full on SpotlightI've been a member of Equity since 2007.

Background & training 
I really enjoyed dance drama clubs at school, but it wasn't until I was about to head off for a Crafts Degree at Crewe that I tried my first proper contemporary dance classes and also joined the Apprentices drama group at North Devon College. I subsequently switched to a Dance & Visual Arts BA Hons on my arrival at Crewe and, after completing a first year there, transferred to Dartington College of Arts to gain a BA Hons in Theatre with a Dance specialism - where I enjoyed training with some inspirational teachers in a beautiful setting, and had a brilliant 3rd year placement at the Rotherhithe Theatre Workshop in London.
Laura Frances-Martin headshot 2019 by Thom Axon
Landmarks: International TheatreSchool Festival In De Nes: Photo Ami Lee
Physical theatre, film & TV
After graduating from Dartington with a 1st Class BA Hons Degree, I worked as a devised and physical theatre performer in Devon, Scotland, Bristol and Amsterdam and with companies including Theatre of Public Works and Les Anges, and took my own show 'Landmarks' to the International TheatreSchool Festival 'In De Nes'. 
Since moving to Cornwall, alongside other work I've appeared in a range of SW site specific theatre & dance projects, TV & film roles, including the female leads in Gwenevere with award-winning writer/director Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines, Here Lies Arthur) in 2023, and in the acclaimed Cornish feature, Tink's Kitchen with writer/director Henry Davies in 2008.
Dance 
When first in Cornwall I joined a small but ambitious contemporary dance group led by dancer/teacher Jan Man, and I co-founded M-Squared - a performance & training collective that ran for several years, working across dance, visual media & film - with Penzance-based practitioner Caroline Schanche. I also danced with Gill Clarke at Tate St Ives for Partial Sitings, Full View, part of As Dark As Light in 1999, and with Birch & O’Shea's Territory One residency and performance at Falmouth College of Arts in 1998. I performed with Angela Praed Dance Productions in Duets for Unusual Souls in 2008 and in 2009, and again in her Five Songs on the Rooftops project in Truro in 2010 (pictured: photo by Steve Tanner).
Five Songs on the Rooftops: Angela Praed. Image by Steve Tanner
'The Hoss's Lament' ship lantern and figurehead, created and performed by Laura Frances Martin for Kneehigh Theatre's Random Acts of Art 2021. Photo: Steve Tanner
Characters for commissions 
I love adding performative elements in to my large scale commissions, creating characters to appear alongside the sculptural elements where possible. These have so far included an Aviatrix riding a Damselfly (top); a Ring Mistress keeping her cycling circus bear in check; a Mary Poppins-inspired character dressed in the colours of a Cornish Chough to accompany the Early Bird; and the 'Spirit of Ecstasy'-inspired, illuminated cycling Muse, to accompany her giant 'Glamophone'. Most recently, a weathered figurehead, left, accompanying her ghost ship through the streets and the quays of Mevagissey at twilight, as she sings a lament to lost things... (photo by Steve Tanner)

Voice
As well as voice-overs & vocal work on arts projects, adverts and radio shows, I've also sung with several Cornwall-based vocal groups. I was one of the original founder members of Cornish all-female shanty group Femmes De La Mer, led by musical director Claire Ingleheart (pictured here), whose Suitcase Singers choir I also sang with for a time; and I also co-founded and sang with four-part female harmony group The Sound Outfit from 2015-2018. Salt Sisters is a very intermittent ongoing vocal project with performer & vocalist Morwenna Gee.
Claire Ingleheart and Laura Frances Martin of Femmes De La Mer performing at  the International Sea Shanty Festival
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