Liz Pugh is Co-founder and Creative Producer for one of North West’s most exciting arts organisations, Walk the Plank, creators of outdoor performance, event engineers, and operators of the UK’s only touring theatre ship.

A long time before setting up Walk the Plank and waving goodbye to dry land, Liz worked for various touring companies, local authorities & venues – including the Royal Exchange Theatre, Welfare State International, Barrow Borough Council, Theatre of Fire and as press officer for the Pleasance Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival.

As co-founder and producer for Walk the Plank she has helped grow the company to its current status as one of the leading producers of large-scale outdoor work in the UK with a turnover of nearly £1million, and a network of artists whose skills span both visual and performing arts, as well as production and pyrotechnics. Walk the Plank owns and operates Britain’s only touring theatre ship, now based in Liverpool, and delivers creative events, working to a variety of briefs and budgets within both the public and private sector. Recent commissions have included work for the Toronto Winter Festival, the Thames Festival, Girl Guiding UK, Liverpool Capital of Culture, Centerparcs Ltd, and Manchester’s Diwali celebrations; and the company is currently working with a number of artists and partners to create the UK’s first Art Car Parade in Manchester in September.

Liz is on the board for Xtrax, responsible for the Northwest’s street arts showcase and has delivered training for ISAN, the Independent Street Arts Network and for a number of universities and colleges in the North West. She is also on the board of artgene, Cumbria’s contemporary visual arts research facility, and Collective Encounters, theatre for social change, based in Liverpool.

Liz graduated from Manchester University in the 1980’s and has been based in the North West ever since. She is a ticketed Merchant Navy deckhand, and has never yet been seasick.