Oxton Playwrights Cic
Theatre - Corporate - Schools - Health
Oxton Playwrights CIC is a dynamic community interest company led by professional actor Pauline Fleming, best known for her long career on stage and screen, including her role as Penny King in Coronation Street. She works alongside her daughter, Cornelia Cannell, who is co-producer of the organisation.
Proudly family-led, Oxton Playwrights is built on collaboration, trust, authenticity, and a shared belief in the power of performance to connect people and create change.
Originally founded in 2014 as Depth Training, the organisation began with a funded WWI commemoration project, bringing together community members, some with no previous performance experience, to perform for HRH Prince Edward. Since then, Oxton Playwrights CIC has delivered a wide range of Arts Council England, Heritage Fund, and Awards for All-funded projects, with a strong focus on accessibility, social issues, confidence-building, and supporting underrepresented communities.
Today, Pauline and Cornelia use theatre, storytelling, and actor-led training to support communication across healthcare, education, corporate, and community settings. Their work is engaging, empathetic, and practical, helping people build confidence, develop essential skills, and make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.
About Pauline
Actor, Writer, Director & Founder of Oxton Playwrights CIC previously known as Depth Training CIC
Pauline Fleming is a professional actor, writer and director with a career spanning stage, screen, roleplay and communication training. Best known to many for her work in Coronation Street, Pauline has spent her career bringing people, characters and stories to life with honesty, depth and emotional truth.
Alongside her acting work, Pauline has developed extensive experience in communication training, using performance techniques to create realistic, scenario-based learning for public, private and community organisations. Her work explores how difficult conversations can be handled with greater confidence, empathy and clarity.
Pauline has now expanded her creative practice into writing and directing, drawing on her years of experience as an actor to shape original work rooted in real lives, local history and human experience. Her approach combines careful research, strong characterisation and accessible storytelling.
Through Oxton Playwrights CIC, Pauline continues to create theatre that celebrates overlooked voices, connects communities with their heritage, and brings powerful local stories to new audiences.
About Cornelia
Cornelia Nelson is Co-Producer at Oxton Playwrights CIC, bringing a blend of organisational acumen, educational insight, and creative energy to the work she shares with Pauline.
Beyond her role in Oxton Playwrights, Cornelia works in Higher Education, supporting students’ skills development and career readiness, by designing opportunities that help them translate academic learning into practical strengths. She collaborates with academic staff, employers, and student support teams to create pathways into graduate employment, focusing on building confidence, transferable skills, and professional networks.
At Oxton Playwrights, Cornelia is integral in strategic planning, project coordination, stakeholder liaison, and ensuring that programmes are responsive, well-structured, and high quality. She contributes to translating the organisation’s vision into impactful workshops and training interventions that help participants strengthen their communication, confidence, and capacity for challenging dialogue.
Her interests lie in merging creative practice with social impact - she is especially drawn to participant-centred, inclusive approaches that empower people to speak with clarity, listen with empathy, and act with presence in their daily and professional lives.
Cornelia’s dual engagement in the higher education sector and in community-based training gives her a unique vantage: she understands institutional settings and constraints, while holding firm to Oxton Playwrights's ambition to be accessible, transformative, and human in its approach.