Hallo, I’m Rebecca and this website is a space to share my work across the arts, community activism and politics.
I’ve been the Artistic Director at Spare Tyre Theatre Company since 2019. Spare Tyre creates participatory work with people that are underrepresented in arts and culture, and in society’s decision making at large. Most recently I conceived and directed On The Beach, a sensory show for people living with dementia and their carers, first created in 2023 and revived in 2024. I have over 25 years experience making participatory productions and projects for people all over the country, with a political pull to my work. I’m interested in interrogating who gets to take part in theatre, who gets to make theatre, what they want to say, and why.
I was involved in the Women’s Equality Party from its foundation in 2016 to its recent closure at the end of 2024. Being part of WE was one of the formative experiences in my life. I was one of the inaugural London candidates for the Party in the GLA elections in 2026. In October 2016, I stood in the Brockley council by-election as the first ever WE local council candidate winning an impressive 9.6% of the vote. Really not bad for a first-timer. In 2018, I was elected as the Party’s spokesperson for Equality in Health for a three year term. In this role, I worked to campaign for radical reforms to the social care system, to protect people who work (paid and unpaid) and live within it. Also in 2018, 26.1% of voters in Ladywell ward voted for me in the council elections – an astounding result in our first ever campaign in this ward. I was also part of the GLA 2021 WE candidate team.
My work in the arts and activism is informed by my personal life experiences. I have experience of being a family carer and none of what I am doing now would have happened if I hadn’t had those life-changing, hugely challenging and often life-affirming experiences. I am also learning to live with Long Covid. In March 2025 I expect to mark my 5th anniversary of this life-altering condition which has been a dominant part of my life. I’ve had to take a step back from formal activism and civic volunteering roles as a result.
Fuelling my activism and my arts is my commitment to local communities, to equality, to feminism, to Europe, to the environment and to hearing and amplifying the unlikeliest of stories, created by people who don’t always get invited to tell them.
My work is about changing that.
Rebecca Manson Jones 