At the end of November 2012 MED Theatre put on its biennial festival of young Dartmoor people’s playwriting, Dartfest. Five plays were performed twice over two evenings in Moretonhampstead Parish Hall. The plays werere all inspired by Dartmoor’s environment and tackled subjects such as passion, disability, grief, divided loyalties, ethnic conflict, bullying, haunting and superstition. The plays were direct and eye-opening, leavening dark subject matter with humour and tenderness.
Dance artists Rohanna Eade and Charlotte Spencer, musician David Faulkner of Wren Music, stage designer Olivia Young, costume designer Fiona Avis and stage manager Philippa Glanvill gave professional support alongside MED Theatre’s core team. With their mentoring, fourteen young people wrote and directed the plays, as well as creating their own music, dance and floor canvas. Dartfest 2012 formed the culmination of MED Theatre’s year-long ‘Catchment’ Project, supported by Arts Council England and the National Lottery. The Dartfest festival has been running since 2007.