Rosa Postlethwaite or Possy (they/she) is a queer performance artist and dramaturg. They work across live art, dance, socially engaged art and theatre. Their work is visually bold, humorous and whole-hearted.
“A Shame-Smashing Delight Of Hilarity” ★★★★★ The Indiependent
“Spellbinding” ★★★★ The Stage
“An intelligent, bold and thought-provoking look at the act of feeling” ★★★★ Liam O’Dell
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Rosa’s performance works span a wide range of themes; illness, repair, conversation, institutional violence, ecological ruin and colonialism. It is usually site- and self-conscious, pointing to how the artwork is in a process of emerging with the audience and aims to reimagine ways of relating to one another. They follow a tradition of queer practice to question the taken-for-grantedness of the way things are. Two of their most significant projects are Composed, their solo live art show about a spokesperson and their institution which toured nationally in 2019, and PUG performance club night which they co-founded and produced (2016 – 2020).
In 2025 Rosa completed a PhD at Coventry University (UK), and Aarhus University (Denmark). They explored the ethical questions formulated through explicitly multi-species practice. They regularly deliver workshops that use meditation and writing exercises to attend to other-than-human bodies that the participants share space with.
They co-devised and performed in, Gamble with Hannah Walker, which toured nationally in 2024. This performance is about Hannah’s lived experience of being a partner of someone with an online gambling addiction and was made with insight from effected communities.
Rosa’s dramaturgy practice considers context, working conditions, positionality, methods of practice and the potential social-ecological intervention of the overall project. They mobilise conversation, collective dreaming, and impulsive play. They are experienced in making captioned, audio described, integrated BSL interpreted, and Relaxed work in collaboration with consultants and focus groups with lived-experience from a project’s inception.
They have worked with artists and theatre-makers: Hannah Walker, Exodus Crooks, Priya Mistry, Louise Orwin, Laurie Ramsell, Nicola Singh, Tessa Parr among others. They have an on-going collaboration with choreographer, Lizzie Klotz as a dramaturg.
Rosa has presented at GIFT, CLAY takeover at Edinburgh Fringe, Summerhall, Northern Stage, Ikon Gallery, Pleasance Theatre, Bio-arts Birmingham, Muffatwerk Munich (Germany) and ICA Cape Town (South Africa) among other venues. They have facilitated events and workshops at Baltic Contemporary, Vivid Projects, Socially Awkward – The Newbridge Project, Gylleboverket (Sweden) and Peopling the Palace.
Possy 