Coney was a charity, and a collection of makers sparking change through play. We made all kinds of play – theatre, games, and adventures – happening wherever people connect and gather, following principles of adventure, curiosity, and loveliness.
I was artistic director and JCEO since 2015, and before that was a runner and co-director from 2007. Coney’s origins are a little hazy, but I was involved ever since 2004 when I answered a phone a stranger gave me.
Coney was intensely prolific. Some projects follow on which I have represented Coney as a maker:
- A Magic Trick
- Adventure Experiment
- The Future Council
- Desire Maps
- The Pop-Up Playhouse
- AHRC Fellowship with University of Bath Spa and Pudding
- Greenpeace Retreat Game, co-made with the executive directorship
There are many more.
Tassos Stevens was Coney’s founder, its creative heartbeat, and responsibly for taking an idea and turning it into one of the United Kingdom’s preeminent creative arts charities. Through, in no small part, his efforts and dedication, Coney established itself as a National Portfolio Organisation and received multiple plaudits for its work. From the intimate experience of Telephone to the wonder of A Golden Key, an extraordinary immersive takeover of the City of London, the breadth of Coney’s work has been astonishing and that’s a direct result of the power of Tassos’s creative mind.
Tassos has a magnetic ability to draw creative talents into his orbit and draw out of them their most imaginative and playful selves. There are many within the UK’s creative community who have interacted, and will continue to interact, with Tassos and they will be all the better for it.
Sydney Nash, chair of Coney’s board