Meet the team

Gill Simmons (artistic director)

Gill is a former drama teacher, and has 13 years experience of working in schools and is trained in all levels of Arts Award. She devises and delivers a lot of our education and community workshops. She does a fair bit of the scriptwriting, often directs the shows, is sometimes in them too, and brings musical expertise to the company as she can compose, sing, play piano, flute, ukulele and is currently playing a lot with a loop pedal. She played the Stepmother/Witch in our recent production of Hansel and Gretel, and will perform again as Bobby, Hetty and Gertie in our forthcoming tour of Alf the Highwayman.

Paul Lawless (actor, lyricist, producer)

Paul is an experienced actor, singer & workshop facilitator. He has worked extensively as an actor, and previously appeared as Vincent Van Gogh in our pop-up shows The Paintstripper Monologues. He will be playing the title role in the forthcoming tour of our award-winning family show Alf the Highwayman. Paul also facilitates drama and singing workshops in schools, and has particular expertise in working with young adults and adults with learning disabilities. He is highly instrumental in marketing and producing our shows when we go on tour, and produced our Christmas 2016 production of Hansel and Gretel. He also often writes lyrics for our songs.

Rachael Moon (actor, writer, workshop facilitator)

Rachael is an experienced actor, workshop facilitator and writer. She has recently written and performed Mary-Ann: life on a rope, a partner-piece to our production Alf the Highwayman designed for performance in cafes. She co-wrote Hansel and Gretel with Gill. Rachael played Tamara de Lempicka in The Paintstripper Monologues and Peter Pan, and played Gretel in Hansel and Gretel on our Christmas 2016 tour. Rachael is also an expert school and youth theatre workshop facilitator, and is also fantastically creative when delivering our workshops at community events and festivals.

Nat Ward (Arts Award intern, 2016-2017)

Nat works with us regularly as front of house and technical support, and also gets involved creatively in our productions and workshops. All the work Nat does with us is credited towards her Arts Award Gold, a qualification that will give UCAS points and help her on her way when she leaves for university in 2017.

Meet the team

If you are between 16-24, you could be our next Arts Award Intern! More details here.