Hello, I’m Simon Floyd
I am a freelance arts facilitator, community theatre maker and the creative director of multi-award winning participatory theatre company The Common Lot. Making theatre together can do so much for us!
I make shows for, with and about the people of Norwich and Norfolk. I work with academics, private enterprise, local authorities, schools, musicians and charities of all kinds.
Please contact me if you would like to know more – it’s easier by phone ! 07896 781574 or you can email me here.
Here is a taste of some of my work.
2023 100 Years of Mile Cross
2022 – Songs of Hope and Protest with the UEA (Common Lot)
2021 How’s Your Father with the UEA and DadsMatter (Common Lot)
2020 We started the plot (Common Lot)
2019 Stories Down the Line – The Marriott’s Way Community Play (for Nfk County Council)
2019 Anglia Square – A Love Story (Common Lot)
2018 Burnham Norton Pageant with Norfolk Archaeological Trust
2017 1549 – The Story of Kett’s Rebellion Professional Tour
2017 Tasburgh Pageant with Archaeological Trust
Workshop Facilitation performance and presentation skills – various.
HOW’S YOUR FATHER?
ABOUT
About me
As a theatre maker I have worked in prisons, drug rehabilitation centres and with people of all ages in the community. My work spans the Royal Shakespeare Company to the award-winning collaborative community project Come Yew In! I have also developed and performed my own one man shows and story evenings in numerous settings, including a perennially popular Macbeth One Man.
For 14 years I worked in substance misuse as an outreach worker and training manager; designing and delivering training across the charitable, commercial and public sectors. After working in volunteer coordination with an international college I moved into museum development. I am the architect and coordinator of SHARE Museums East, a ground-breaking regional development programme that is helping museums to share their skills, resources and experience to mutual and lasting benefit.
I am now taking the successful principles behind the success of SHARE into making theatre with, for and about local communities.
I aim to:
- ensure the development of effective public engagement in the making of high quality theatre
- provide participants and audience with creative experiences that increase individual and collective well-being and foster positive collaboration and co-operation with others
- support cohesion and understanding in communities
- expand the audience that experiences theatre – especially with people and places of low cultural engagement
- create original work develop employment opportunities for writers and participatory artists working in the region
- support the growth and development of businesses in the region.
I have been very impressed in the production values and artistic outcomes Simon achieves in working mostly with non-actors – supporting their activity through appropriate directing, mentoring and involving other professional practitioners to support the artistic aims of the projects.
“Simon’s passion for community theatre is enormous. His patience and skill in taking non-performers and turning them into well-drilled and confident actors, is extraordinary. Marshalling local people to tell the stories of their own communities and their own histories, he’s created shows of imagination, warmth and wit.”
My approach
My approach is one of belief, inclusion and support. Without the need for great expense or experience together we find the heart and the skills to make bold, original, engaging theatre about the stories that matter to us most. My work stands on three tried and tested principles:
- Everyone must benefit
- Everyone has something to offer
- We have what we need; and if we don’t, we can find it.
I make original theatre that supports well-being and social cohesion. I believe theatre has a responsibility to challenge conventional routes of access, and to develop its audience by actively seeking out new spaces, telling stories that resonate with our common humanity and adopting a style that is immediate, positive and empowering.
Simon has produced some truly memorable performances for Norwich over the years. We always know we’re going to get quality work and really excellent community engagement.
CONTACT
Contact me
I am based in Norwich, Norfolk in the United Kingdom, but am always pleased to hear from anyone, anywhere. You can contact me using the form, email me direct or ring me – details below.
By telephone: 07896 781 574
Email me here.