"It is rare to find an organisation with this
quality, community focus, and ambition"
quality, community focus, and ambition"
- Rob Huggins, Chief Executive Liberdade Community Development Trust”
Mortal Fools is a multi-award-winning theatre, drama and creative learning company based in Northumberland, working with children and young people using drama and creative interventions to support their wellbeing and personal development.
We are a company of participatory artists and practitioners who are committed to co-creating compelling, dynamic, socially-relevant and high-quality theatre-based work with children, young people and communities.
We work with 1,000s of children and young people every year, mostly in the North East.
We started out as a small youth theatre group, running one-off week-long projects from a village hall. Today we have two office bases (in Ashington and Prudhoe), tour our work Nationally, and deliver training to organisations across the country.
In 2018, we were named 'Small Charity of Year' at the North-East Charity Awards, and in 2021 we won 'Best Arts & Business Partnership' with Vida Creative for our work on Melva Digital. In 2022, we were nominated for Uniquely North East in the North East Charity Awards and in 2023 for a National Diversity Award – both nominations were for our high impact work with vulnerable young people, many with intersectional needs.
We are a purpose-driven organisation. Our work must be relevant to and matter in wider society and make a demonstrable and measurable difference to those we work with.
Positive mental health and wellbeing outcomes are an integral part of our work. We use the ratified PERMA Framework TM as our approach to embedding, monitoring, and evaluating the impact of our work against defined wellbeing outcomes. Therefore we can demonstrate that our work brings about changes in behaviour and outlook, confidence, personal accomplishment, personal resilience, positive self-image, and empowers towards a more positive future.
We are working to create a society where everyone is motivated, engaged, and able to bring their unique abilities to help make the world a little bit better. The problems of the world are essentially the problems of individuals. And through supporting individuals to change, together we may just be able to change the world.
We are a company of participatory artists and practitioners who are committed to co-creating compelling, dynamic, socially-relevant and high-quality theatre-based work with children, young people and communities.
We work with 1,000s of children and young people every year, mostly in the North East.
We started out as a small youth theatre group, running one-off week-long projects from a village hall. Today we have two office bases (in Ashington and Prudhoe), tour our work Nationally, and deliver training to organisations across the country.
In 2018, we were named 'Small Charity of Year' at the North-East Charity Awards, and in 2021 we won 'Best Arts & Business Partnership' with Vida Creative for our work on Melva Digital. In 2022, we were nominated for Uniquely North East in the North East Charity Awards and in 2023 for a National Diversity Award – both nominations were for our high impact work with vulnerable young people, many with intersectional needs.
We are a purpose-driven organisation. Our work must be relevant to and matter in wider society and make a demonstrable and measurable difference to those we work with.
Positive mental health and wellbeing outcomes are an integral part of our work. We use the ratified PERMA Framework TM as our approach to embedding, monitoring, and evaluating the impact of our work against defined wellbeing outcomes. Therefore we can demonstrate that our work brings about changes in behaviour and outlook, confidence, personal accomplishment, personal resilience, positive self-image, and empowers towards a more positive future.
We are working to create a society where everyone is motivated, engaged, and able to bring their unique abilities to help make the world a little bit better. The problems of the world are essentially the problems of individuals. And through supporting individuals to change, together we may just be able to change the world.
A Message from our Artistic Director & CEO Kiz Crosbie:
“I’ve been with Mortal Fools since its inception, almost 11 years ago, and my excitement, belief and drive for this fantastic organisation remains unwavering.
We are committed to enabling the delivery of life-enhancing experiences for our thousands of beneficiaries. Young people need more opportunities to use the arts to explore, understand and express their current experiences, questions, concerns and hopes, and I’m excited for Mortal Fools to do this with them, now and into the future.
April 2023 saw Mortal Fools join Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of regularly funded organisations. This signals a new chapter for us as a growing company and on a National stage. Mortal Fools has demonstrated considerable resilience and ingenuity throughout a challenging period for the cultural sector, pivoting our work to keep serving audiences with high-quality participatory arts opportunities, whilst learning and growing through the experience. The 3 years of investment from Arts Council is a welcome addition, which, alongside our other funding supporters, will provide us with greater stability in a tumultuous economic climate and enable us to treat our staff team properly so they can continue to provide excellent services for our beneficiaries and audiences.”
Read more about...
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An overview of our work and what’s on offer for youth workers, education professionals, community groups, creative practitioners, parents, home educating families and anyone connected to children and young people.
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An overview of our work and how it intersects together in the present, alongside a flavour of next 18 months.
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HOW we do what we do...
We use high-quality drama and the process of making and performing theatre as our tools for change, supporting the next generation by focusing on activities with children and young people.
We’re passionate about the arts and know that they have the potential to change and enrich lives, to share and show our potential as human beings and to transform society. Our theatre productions explore contemporary concerns and the realities of the world we’re living in right now – inviting positive change. We believe there is huge value in shared, enjoyable, and entertaining experiences and of group achievement – especially through challenges. The way we work supports achieving excellence in both the process of making theatre and in the end products. Our work with adults and businesses is founded on the same principles and values we apply when making theatre; creating an environment that is genuinely supportive and accessible, where everyone feels valued as an individual, and is enabled to contribute. 
WHAT we do...
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OUR FUNDERS & PARTNERS:
We could not do our work without the ongoing support of our funders and partners. We unreservedly offer our thanks to: Main funders: Arts Council England BBC Children In Need Kavli Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Paul Hamlyn Foundation Northumberland County Council Sir James Knott Bernicia Foundation Community Foundation #Iwill Project/strand of work specific funders: Culture Bridge North East Co-operative Local Community Fund The Ballinger Charitable Trust The Joicey Trust Ashington Town Council National Lottery Community National Lottery Heritage Key Fund Federation Ltd Arnold Clarke Community Fund Asda Foundation Northumberland Children's Trust Prime & Spriggs Family Funds Ridley Family Charity BBC Children In Need Youth Social Action Fund Youth Focus NE Peer Action Collective Kerry Grassroots Fund CURTIN PARP FUND John D Endowment Fund Northern Powergrid Fund Ashington Prime Fund The Ironmongers Foundation National Lottery Awards for All Northumberland Public Health LCEP Northumberland Community Chest Northumberland Education LCEP North of Tyne Creative England Hadrian's Wall 1990 Youth Investment Fund Wellesley Community First Fund 1989 Willan Charitable Trust Healthier Together North East UK Youth Partners & Supporters: Ryder Arcitecture Muckle LLP Cyber North Laura Rothwell Children North East YMCA Northumberland Schools North East Gosforth Civic Theatre & Liberdade Community Development Trust High Sheriff of Northumberland Riding Mill Parish Halls Trust Prudhoe Community Partnership Prudhoe Town Council Northumberland Arts Development Curious Arts Pride Action North Theatre Porto Burnley Youth Theatre Company Three Accelerate Ashington Advance Northumberland Newcastle Gateshead Initiative Virgin Money Trinity College London Highfield Middle School NENC Child Health & Wellbeing Network North East and North Cumbria NHS Previous funders and supporters: Bait – Creative People and Places Barbara Priestman Academy, Sunderland Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust CNL Young People’s Fund Collingwood School and Media Arts College Councillor Anne Dale D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Essity Gateshead Council GEM J H Burn Charity Trust North East Enterprise Agency Ltd North East Fund for the Arts Northern Stage Northumberland Group Fund Northumbria University Ovingham Middle School Queens Hall Arts Riding Mill Drama Club RW Mann Trust Prudhoe Community High School SCA Hygiene Ltd St. Joseph’s RC Middle School The Fuse Media Centre The Rothley Trust Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums Ubiquitous Arts Wunderbar |
