Podcast Podcast Episode 56: Simon Startin Taking early inspiration from Wayne Sleep and Les Dawson, relishing the art of mockery and the importance of being a constantly dripping tap. All of this and more is discussed in this episode of Regrets I’ve Had A Few, featuring director, writer, performer and activist, Simon Startin. Listen, download and subscribe via Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts here, available on Acast here or watch on youtube here. Read the full transcript of this episode here. About Simon Startin Simon is a disabled theatre maker and activist, seeking to make dissident performance that challenges the so-called ‘normative’ hegemony that pervades our current theatre making practice. From 2020-23 he was artistic director of Vital Xposure Theatre Company, a disabled led theatre company making work around issues of social justice and political agency. Here he instigated the acclaimed VX Labs to innovate theatre making practice for disabled theatre makers and is currently exploring Decolonising Disability and Creative Captioning. He has been a director, actor, playwright and disability rights activist for over 30 years. He is an associate artist of TRSE, London Bubble and Graeae. He is an alumni of the Battersea Art Centre 21st century leadership scheme, Young Vic director's placement and the China Plate Enhanced Optimists course. As an activist he has worked with many organisations including the BBC, National Theatre, RSC, Creative Diversity Network, and London Theatre Consortium to increase disabled representation on stage and screen. As an actor he has appeared in 29 professional productions most recently at the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Arcola and Birmingham Rep, as well as TV roles on BBC, Channel 4 and Paramount. He has directed at the Young Vic, RSC and Nottingham Playhouse, and his 2015 production of “Cinema” for Zendeh was awarded British Theatre Guide’s Best Small Scale touring production. As a published playwright, he has 21 professional commissions under his belt, 5 of which were Time Out Critics Choice. In 2023, he was awarded the Olwen Wymark Award by the Writers Guild of Great Britain for his working in supporting Disabled, Deaf and Neurodivergent playwrights. His most recent acting work has been playing McLeavy in Joe Orton’s Loot at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch and Tiresias in Bacchae at the Royal National Theatre. Currently, following a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England looking at Artificial Intelligence, he is exploring how artists might mitigate the worst catastrophe mankind has ever faced.