Springboard is a platform for neurodivergent performers of all kinds to share their work, experiment and try out new ideas in front of a friendly and supportive crowd, and for audiences to enjoy a night of exciting performance in an accessible and inclusive space - all whilst supporting and celebrating neurodiversity in the arts.

We’ve also made a social story for the event, which you can see by clicking the button below. Have a read to find out what will happen on the night, and about any potential triggers in the acts. We will also have this information printed in the programmes on the night.

Featuring…

Mykadelica - Live Atmospherics

Mykadelica is an experimental electronic musician and illustrator who has over 10 years experience playing live and DJing in and around the London area. He is interested in live sampling as well as music, and is currently learning how to make his own electronic instruments.

The act: Mykadelica will be playing an electronic atmospheric soundscape as you arrive and mingle.

Sahera Khan - Am I Dulhan (Bride) Yet?

Sahera is an emerging British South Asian Muslim Deaf actress. Her native language is British Sign Language and she is currently a freelance writer, artist/actress, filmmaker and YouTuber. Her website is https://sahera1.tumblr.com and you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @sahera04.

The act: A short play in BSL about a Muslim woman who is telling her childhood to adulthood story and well-known love stories, and is seeking the right Muslim man to propose to.

RobinPlaysChords

Robin Jax's exploits as RobinPlaysChords have been built on a slow but steady sonic development. New single Miroslava, an 'Anglo-Ukrainian love song', is out now via Tiergarten Records, a record label run by Robin for neurodiverse artists.

The act: Robin will talk about being in and around the music industry whilst autistic, before performing an acoustic version of the new RobinPlaysChords single Miroslava.

Catherine Wynne-Paton - The Lost Library

Catherine is an artist based in Abergavenny in Wales and she sees her practice as a kind of listening, whether she is painting, printing or performing. She's building an archive of resonant words, creating paintings from this collection. She ponders questions of individuals and society through The Lost Library.

The act: The experience of joining a library is morphed into a ritual to include filling in a registration form for The Lost Library on which you can pose a question. Anything you'd like to know the answer to she'll mind/body ponder a while before giving you your loan.

Michael Mendones - Oscillations

Michael is a multi-genre multi-instrumentalist operating under the artist name 'Frequency.Fixer', and he has released several albums. He is a former Senior Occupational Therapist on a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit in the mental health centre he was once a patient in on a number of occasions due to his bipolar disorder.

The act: A mixture of field recordings from around London, images, spoken word and live music, Oscillations will portray the extreme ups and downs of the bipolar experience.

Libby Mai - History

Libby, 22, is currently going into her second year of actor training at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In her first year she was identified as having ADD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. She feels it's so important that we celebrate neurodiversity and the qualities neurodivergent people can offer as performers and creatives. She is excited to continue to make her own work, through spoken word, movement and devising, alongside her actor training at Central.

The act: 'I wrote these words about my family and our attachment to a place in Cornwall that I only knew when I was really little. I wrote this to find a way of being a part of its history.'

Sumita (Unjumbled)

Sumita is a writer/arts-maker, currently London-based whilst studying Creative Arts and Mental Health. She likes to use creativity to express and translate various mind-things in various ways - to communicate with herself as much as to other people.

The act: Diary-like unjumblings through probably-awkward self-rambling mumbles about adult-child stuff like friends/worrying/worrying about friends (or the lack of them), possibly with a couple of little piano songs to help me express some of the ongoing ingoings of my jumbly mind (a work-in-progress experiment).

Alex Leggett - I Can Make You Brand New

Alex is a London-based autistic performance artist and PhD student. Alex's work as an artist is participatory and explores ideas of autistic interventions into neurotypical logics. For his PhD, Alex is researching autism and relaxedness in contemporary UK performance, specifically exploring ideas of noise, movement and quirkiness.

The act: I Can Make You Brand New is a participation-based 'performance seminar', exploring ideas of passing, social scripting, and the relationship between neurodivergence and text. The aim is to see what happens when these social scripts fail, and the social stakes attached from that failure.

Francesca Newbold and Steve Barbé - Tinny Potty Din Dinz

Steve and Francesca began working together earlier this year, as they enjoy pairing odd songs and weird rhythms, finding that they both share a beautiful obsession with creating bizarre and wonderful sounds. Steve is also a solo artist and you can find him at https://roywellscollageofmusic.org.

The act: 'We will be creating quite a din as we bang on tins and pots. We also use our voices. Tinny Potty Din Dinz. We hope you enjoy our potty performance.'