How We Work.
Interplay has a 50 year history of working with marginalised young people . We work all over the country engaging children and young people with performing arts and help them to realise their potential by giving them to opportunity to get involved and tell their own story.
Sensory Theatre
Interplay specialise in working with a range of ability and age ranges and our performers and staff are also all highly trained in working with young people with a range of complex needs.
We tour annually nationally with a new show each year. With a strong aesthetic and touching narratives our performances explore themes that resonate with our audience. We strongly believe that everyone should have the chance to experience high quality theatre, our aim is to challenge and motivate the young people we perform too.
Performances that place the audience at the centre of the experience, we create immersive environments, tour with unique structures, in which the world of the play unfolds. Colour, light, live music, one-to-one interaction audiences can explore and discover a ‘total theatre’ on every level.
Our Community
From our home in West Leeds we give our community the opportunity to tell their own stories through a variety of different media; encouraging them to explore theatre, film, drama and music to create work of an extremely high standard.
Our ethos is to guide people through projects that explore their creative strengths, working around subjects and within genres that are of interest to them. Projects in the past include a wide range of alternative education programmes that give young people the chance to write, direct and star in their own films, organise cultural events, perform, record and process their own music.
Meet our core team, artists & associates.
Kirsty Pennycook
Artistic Director
Kirsty is a theatre director and facilitator specialising in community engagement, and is passionate about removing barriers to the arts for communities around the UK. She is experienced at creating arts programmes that centre people first, and that aim to make people’s lives more enjoyable! She creates sensory theatre for audiences with complex disabilities, and for early years audiences too. With particular focus of working with learning disabled participants, looked after children and intergenerational groups, Kirsty’s work always responds to the people she is working with.
Miranda Debenham
Executive Producer
Miranda is a theatre producer and disability advocate with more than a decade of experience working in the arts. She has recently worked with Ramps on the Moon, advocating for disabled people in theatre, and brings a wealth of experience in accessibility and anti-ableism. She is an experienced venue manager, programmer and mid-scale producer, having previously worked at Sheffield Theatres, Theatre Deli and the Local Theatre Sheffield. Her practice is informed by her experiences as a queer disabled woman, and she aims to centre care and generosity in all her work.
Lizzy Whynes
Associate Director
Lizzy is a theatre maker, dance artist, director, and facilitator. She has worked within community, education, theatre, and dance settings on a range of scales. Lizzy has an expertise in curating and delivering arts projects with a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach. She is an experienced director and loves to tell stories. Lizzy creates work to change, challenge and inspire. Co-creation is embedded into her practice, and she champions the idea that everyone is an artist.
Jessica Sweet
Associate Producer
Jess is a producer, curator and creative based in West Yorkshire, she is also chef and a ceramicist. She has a specialism in developing artist led projects, integrated access producing. She started as an independent producer going on to found CLAY: Center for Live Art Yorkshire working as the Artistic Director there until 2024. Since CLAY closed she has focused on larger scale delivery with some time at Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.
Meet our Freelance Team.
Elizabeth Key
Biography incoming…
Florence Vallis
Florence is a conceptual artist working in sculpture and installation, exploring themes of identity and living with chronic illness. She also is a freelance set dresser and mural artist, transforming spaces into immersive and magical worlds. Flo is also a learning facilitator where play and creativity is prioritised for children and young people’s development. Creating safe, fun and accessible environments for children and young people to be themselves and explore their creativity.
Laura Marsden
Laura graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and is passionate about making arts accessible and inclusive for all. She first encountered Interplay as a 16-year-old on a two-week work experience placement and since 2023 has helped deliver the Interplay Youth Theatre sessions.
Lewis Logie
Lewis is a director, movement director and performer based between Leeds and Belfast. His practice is rooted in children’s and sensory theatre, exploring movement, play, imagination and ways of making performance accessible to all.
A graduate of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Lewis also works as a facilitator, teacher and support worker across SEN schools, residential settings and community projects.
Livy Potter
Biography incoming…
Lucy Fisher
Biography incoming…
Mae Milburn
Biography incoming…
Robbie Foulston
Robbie is a community arts practitioner and playworker from Leeds. Trained in improvised performance, storytelling, and general tomfoolery, he has facilitated workshops in theatres, schools, and community groups in Yorkshire and Scotland.
He loves to find playful games in everyday life and will dress up in a costume or sing musicals loudly if given the opportunity. His favorite sensory objects at Interplay are the shiny foil space blankets.
Every young person has a story to tell.
We could not continue to do the work we do without the generous support of funders, friends of Interplay, individuals and company sponsors who donate their time and money to support our ambitious programme of activity.