Projects
Enter The Tempest
Enter The Tempest
Firebird Theatre’s trailblazing ensemble of learning disabled artists will work with creative Technologists and Open Storytellers' Artist Associates to co-create tactile technologies to enrich and develop their production of The Tempest for audiences with learning disabilities and profound and multiple learning disabilities.
Through experimenting with light and sound in our work-in-progress performance of The Tempest (July 2025, Bristol Old Vic), we discovered that an immersive, sensory approach to storytelling suited our vision and appealed to audiences with both Learning Disabilities and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities.
Experiment
£20,000
At Firebird Theatre, we make work by and for people with Learning Disabilities.
Aims of the project
We’re collaborating with our creative team, Creative Technologists and Artist Associates at Open Storytellers to develop ideas for our audiences to test at performances.
We want to develop tactile, sensory technologies – specifically catered to our community – to immerse our audiences in the world of The Tempest.
Meet Firebird Theatre
Firebird Theatre
Firebird Theatre
Firebird Theatre are an intergenerational, Learning Disabled-led company of theatre-makers creating art that stays in people’s minds long after they leave the theatre.
They are a trusted organisation that creates opportunities for Learning Disabled people to lead and take part in high quality art. We share the stories of Learning Disabled people through our work. We are a membership organisation – members make all the important decisions, develop our own artistic ideas, choose what stories we tell and what plays we perform and recruit every artist, collaborator and board member.
- Members: Chris Wiltshire, Kevin Hogan, Daniel Bryan, Olivia Watkins, Tina Kelly, Mol Hutchison, Liam Hudson, Maya Sarosh and Jake Binns.
- Company Producer: Amanda Fawcett
- Pastoral Lead: Isabelle Sallis
- Director: Stephanie Kempson
- Sound Designer: Jack Drewry
- Consultants: Open Storytellers Artist Associates
About Open Storytellers
We are a place where people with a learning disability find their voice and then use it. We offer routes to self-expression, identity and creative community. Alongside this journey of discovery, we create opportunities for that voice to be heard, through performances, conversations, self-advocacy, and real work.
Amanda Fawcett
Firebird Company Producer/ Project Lead
she/her
Firebird Theatre is a learning disabled-led theatre company making ambitious work and building a powerful creative community of learning disabled people in Bristol and beyond.
Firebird Theatre work as an ensemble. We are experienced, Learning Disabled performers/actors with a consistent track record and history of making plays and performances together for over thirty years. We used to be called the Portway Players but we changed our name to Firebird Theatre when we became an independent Company in 2005.
We want to make art and tell stories that will stay in people’s heads long after they leave and go home.
