Professional Community Theatre Company, Moonstruck Astronaut, has been awarded an Arts Council England National Lottery project grant to deliver a series of vibrant, co-creative drama workshops in Telford Town Centre during the school summer holidays, followed by Saturday and after-school sessions in September and October.
This is the first time professional theatre-making will be made accessible to children and young people in Telford Town Centre. The aspiration of the cross-arts project, called ‘Telford Tall Tales’, is to help put the ‘elf’ back into Telford! ‘Telford Tall Tales’ is to excitingly weave storytelling with puppetry, performance, dance and drama nurturing local children’s co-creative skills and enabling local artists to work together for the first time.
Starting on August 4th, the five-day Storytelling Week will boost the performance skills, self-expression and self-confidence of 8 to 14-year-olds.
During this immersive week, children and young people guided by a team of professional drama, movement, music, puppetry and storytelling artists and enthusiastic volunteers will co-create a bespoke ‘Tall Tale’ performance.
The Telford Tall Tales team will then be back in Telford Town Centre in Autumn with a full-day workshop on Saturday 13th of September, and Thursday early-evening sessions during September and October, again offering rare access to professional cross-arts workshops for Telford’s children and young people.
Last year the theatre company was awarded £7,500 through Postcode Local Trust, thanks to funding raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, to develop the project over this past winter. The delivery of the project has been made possible with £35,785 funding from Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants awarded this May. The project is also supported by Telford and Wrekin Council’s Healthy, Happy and Active Holidays Scheme who have provided places for free to children on free school meals.
Peter Knott, Midlands Area Director at Arts Council England, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Moonstruck Astronaut to deliver drama workshops for young people, with more than £35,000 of funding from the National Lottery. By championing inclusion, accessibility, and professional development, Telford Tall Tales aligns with Arts Council England’s Let’s Create strategy, ensuring a lasting impact for Telford’s young people and artists.”
Laura Chow, head of charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said: “Thanks to support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, Moonstruck Astronaut can extend its reach into Telford Town Centre and bring the joy of creativity and storytelling to even more children and young people, inspiring confidence, imagination, and new opportunities for the future.”
Wayne Jenson, Chief Executive at Meeting Point House, said: “”We are absolutely delighted to be supporting Moonstruck Astronaut, a brilliant professional youth theatre company nurturing creativity, confidence, and talent in young people. Their innovative work aligns perfectly with our mission to foster community, inclusion, and opportunity—and we’re proud to play a part in their inspiring journey.”
One of the artists joining theatre director Hannah de Quincey is award-winning author, performer and storyteller Amy Douglas. Amy has worked extensively with young people as a mentor, workshop leader, performer and project lead. She said: “Shropshire is stuffed full of legends, ghosts, giants, mermaids, monsters and magic. I can’t wait to explore and play with some of those stories as we bring together drama, storytelling, puppetry and fun!”
Hannah de Quincey, Artistic Director, said: “By running our proven workshops at Meeting Point House in Telford Town Centre, our goal is to attract more participants, visibility and increase accessibility to the rich rewards of play and creativity for Telford’s children.”
To book for one, two or all three workshops, go to www.moonstruckastronaut.com and follow the links to the Eventbrite pages. Early Bird prices are currently available.
Notes to Editors:
Moonstruck Astronaut Community Theatre Company
Moonstruck Astronaut is a not-for-profit community theatre company based in Shropshire that is in orbit around children co-creating arts projects that uplift and unite!
Our vision is to help foster a joyful, loving world in which everyone’s creativity is valued and celebrated. We seek to strengthen our local community’s wellbeing by enabling more people to take part in communal creativity in order to increase the bonds of friendship and fun between us all and serve world peace.
Our mission is to bring our local communities together through theatre projects, first with our children and then extending to all ages. In order to achieve this, we co-create drama projects and performances that encounter life from a child’s open-minded perspective of wonder and delight.
Hannah de Quincey is an experienced secondary school drama teacher and theatre director. She set up Moonstruck Astronaut as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company in December 2017.
For more information on the work of the theatre company go to www.moonstruckastronaut.com , watch our films on You Tube (search ‘Moonstruck Astronaut community theatre company’) and follow our Facebook (www.facebook.com/moonstruckastronaut/) and Instagram (@moonstruckastronaut).
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Our vision, set out in our strategy Let’s Create, is that by 2030, we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. Between 2023 and 2026 we will have invested over £467 million of public money from Government, alongside an estimated £250 million each year from The National Lottery, to help ensure that people in every part of the country have access to culture and creativity in the places where they live. Until Autumn 2025, the National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary of supporting good causes in the United Kingdom: since the first draw was held in 1994, it has raised £49 billion and awarded more than 690,000 individual grants. Visit our website to learn more about our work.
People’s Postcode Lottery
Players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised more than £1.4 billion for thousands of charities and local good causes. https://www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes
Happy Healthy Active Holidays runs holiday clubs during the Easter, Summer and Christmas school holidays. There are funded spaces available to children in reception through to year 11 who receive benefit-related free school meals. The scheme is funded by the Department for Education and delivered via Telford and Wrekin Council.
