Simon and Mal

I've just got back from afternoon tea in the Lichfield Garrick Green Room with Simon Quinn and Mal Dewhirst, two lovely gentlemen who areas  passionate about community arts as me. Brilliant!
Simon is Director of Fired up Theatre, devising and delivering performance projects with people who do not usually access the arts. They do lots of intergenerational work breaking down social barriers and challenging perceptions and are very keen on partnership working. Amongst many other projects, together with Mal Dewhirst, Simon was responsible for The Wall, Tamworth's largest community production to date based on Pink Floyd's album and they are now both working on Quadrophenia as a community piece for performance in May 2013.
Mal is a poet, writer and film maker and is Staffordshire's first Poet Laureate. Mal's ideas for poetry in Staffordshire are really innovative and accessible.
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Together they make a great and multi-talented team.We had a lovely chat about multi-disciplinary art works; they have used projections, sound installations and textile work in previous projects, all of which would be an exciting new adventure for Lichfield Mysteries. Being well established in Tamworth they have made lots of contacts with all kinds of people and are thinking about potential participants and work which we could do in partnership to extend community engagement with Lichfield Mysteries in the Tamworth area.

I like nothing better than a cup of tea and a good conversation about community arts!