Taking Flight receives Lifetime Impact Award

Taking Flight Theatre Company is delighted to have been honoured with the inaugural Lifetime Impact Award at the Get the Chance Cultural Impact Awards 2025 last month, supported by Tempo Time Credits, Ffilm Cymru Wales and Porters Cardiff.

Taking Flight makes bold, unusual theatre productions with Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and non-disabled performers. Their work tours Wales and beyond. Alongside touring work, they nurture the next generation of disabled talent, both on stage & behind the scenes. They do this through running inclusive professional training courses & mentoring schemes for people who identify as Deaf or disabled & are looking for the next step into a career in theatre, or to develop existing skills & build confidence. 

With approaching 17 years’ experience in creating accessible theatre, they have become the “go to” organisation in Wales for advice, information or inspiration on integrating access & working with inclusive casts.

Artistic Director Elise Davison said:

“We are absolutely thrilled to have been given this lovely award.  We were rather overwhelmed, and very happy to have our work of the past 17 years or so recognised in this way. We’d like to thank everyone who has made this journey possible and welcome the steps that the industry in Wales is making towards becoming more inclusive for audiences and professionals alike. Let’s keep shouting about access, eh? It really does make the work better for everyone.”

Guy O’Donnell, director of Get the Chance said:

“Taking Flight won the Get the Chance, Lifetime Impact Award because of the ongoing positive change they have led on for the cultural sector in Wales.

They featured strongly in many of the Categories for this year’s awards, demonstrating their reach amongst the arts sector and the public.” 

Sara Beer, director of change at Craidd is also a longstanding member of Taking Flight’s board of trustees. Sara was invited to present the award to the company by Get the Chance, and said:

“Taking Flight creates excellent, accessible theatre and the impact they have had on Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent creatives has been huge, providing brilliant opportunities and raising awareness of the talent that for so long has been overlooked.

The company also provides high quality training for theatre creatives across Wales. This means that there are now many more audio describers available to companies who work in both English and Welsh and a pool of creative enablers to support freelancers and companies to provide inclusive, accessible environments for everyone. 

It is remarkable that the majority of their work has been created on project funding and their determination and belief in making important accessible theatre of the highest quality. Now that they are revenue-funded by Arts Council Wales I’m sure there are going to be many exciting times ahead”.

The award comes at an exciting time for Taking Flight as they enter the production phase of their latest show, a fully accessible BSL/English production entitled Martha that will open at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre this May. Martha is set in the near future, in a world where sign language has been banned and Deaf culture driven underground – a cautionary cabaret about the dangers of oppression and totalitarianism. More information can be found here.