Louise Wallwein
she/her Contact PatronLouise Wallwein is an award-winning working-class poet, playwright and performer from Manchester, notorious as an explosive artist who detonates her audiences’ imaginations. Her lauded 2016 show GLUE - a frank and gripping true story of her meeting her birth mother, three decades after being put up for adoption - was supported by Contact and went on to be a bestselling book and hit BBC Radio 4 drama. Louise has long been a passionate advocate for Contact’s work, lending her talents to support them, including headline poetry and mixology event, Cocktails and Cinquains.
"I exploded into my first workshop. I was a volatile child and I had just left the care system. The world was afire with homophobia and youth unemployment. Contact became the place where I could test out my politics and learn to express them through Poetry and Theatre. It threw me a lifeline, and at the same time taught me how to be a collaborator. I wrote my first play aged 17. It took a while longer to become a professional artist, but when I did, I kept on detonating in Contact and many other theatres across the UK and around the world. Most of all though Contact was the first place I could just be Me."
Related items
Lunchtime Lectures
12 May 2023Join us as we showcase our wonderful partnership with the University of Manchester.Announcing the Artists of 50 Hours of Freedom
21 June 2023In celebration of International Non-Binary People's Day on 14 July, Contact and Manchester International Festival are bringing together three local, non-binary artists to create a new piece of work – and you’re invited to the sharing! This…Contact Becomes One of the First Theatres in England to Introduce Auracast
30 January 2025Contact Becomes one of the first theatres in England to Introduce Auracast, a Groundbreaking Accessibility Innovation. At Contact, our commitment to inclusion and accessibility is at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we’re proud…