Community Ambassadors
Curve Community Ambassadors work with us to help us find new ways to connect with our local communities, ensuring our audiences reflect the diverse population of our city and county.
Using their local knowledge and expertise, they support us in identifying, building and sustaining new audiences from a range of backgrounds, as well as removing the barriers to attending and engaging in theatre.
Our current ambassadors – Barbara Grant-Bennett, Stacey McCarthy, Farhana Shaikh and Donna Elliott– have been part of our team since February 2021, where they helped us to distribute free tickets to stream our production of The Color Purple – at Home following sponsorship from PPL PRS and their Restore the Rhythm campaign. Since then, they have worked with us on a number of opportunities around our productions of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (pictured) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, plus off-stage activities such as our Diwali Family Day.
Scroll down to find out more about our Ambassadors!
Barbara Grant-Bennett
Barbara Grant-Bennett has over three decades of experience of working with Leicester’s diverse communities, developing projects and programmes to benefit particularly those most vulnerable and in need.
A double Alumnus of Leicester’s flagship University, DMU, with BA (Hons) in Performing Arts and subsequently MA in Community Education (with Professional Qualification), Barbara currently works as a Community Engagement Officer for the Charitable Incorporated Organisation, St Matthew’s Big Local, which is having a significant impact on local people’s lives.
Barbara has recently joined Curve’s Community Ambassador Team. Her intention is to reach out to and galvanise support from Leicester’s ethnically diverse communities, particularly first-time theatre goers.
Stacey McCarthy
Stacey McCarthy is a choreographer, movement director and practitioner. She trained at De Montfort University and graduated with a BA Hons in Dance in 2006.
Stacey is a qualified Youth Worker and became a Specialised Senior Youth Worker in Dance for Leicester City Council, where she created dance projects and opportunities for young people city-wide, which led to her working in Youth Dance and Youth Theatre.
Stacey has performed and choreographed professionally in the music industry, for corporate events, and festivals. These skills, in conjunction with business courses, allowed her to provide young people with an insight into the world of work as a professional dancer. She is now a guest lecturer at De Montfort University, has presented at dance colleges, and provided consultation workshops for professional dancers on how to set up their own business ventures.
Whilst working creatively within a range of communities, Stacey has learnt and developed a number of skills, which have always influenced her dance work, and will continue to do so. Stacey’s style reflects her journey, which started as a young person exposed to the performing arts via art-forms inspired by Black culture. This passion then progressed into studying contemporary dance and on to commercial styles, which have all fused to inform her diverse practice and current work in movement direction and choreography.
Stacey understands the positive impact of theatre and the importance of telling stories, her aim is to work with various community groups and create a space for them to share their stories.
Follow Stacey:
Instagram – @_staceymccarthy
Stacey is also a Curve Resident Creative.
Farhana Shaikh
Farhana Shaikh is a writer and publisher born in Leicester. She is the founding editor of The Asian Writer, an online magazine championing Asian literature. She established Dahlia Publishing to publish regional and diverse writing and the Leicester Writes Festival to celebrate local writing talent. In 2017 she won the Penguin/Travelex Next Great Travel Writer competition. She has been longlisted for the Thresholds International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition and the Spread the Word Life Writing Prize. She is the author of From Imposter to Impact: Arts Leadership in the 21st Century, a book she wrote during her time on the Curve Cultural Leadership programme. Her first short play, Risk was developed by Kali Theatre and a staged at Curve.
Farhana lives in Leicester but can be found on Twitter talking about books and publishing @farhanashaikh.
Donna Elliott
Donna Elliott is a dedicated community advocate and the recipient of the High Sheriff Award 2024, recognised for her impactful work as chairperson of the New Parks Community Mission Food Bank and Support Services, where she manages projects to support diverse individuals.
She also runs the online forum “Don’t Be a Punk, Recycle Your Junk,” promoting environmental awareness and sustainable practices. With thirteen years of experience as a childminder and four years leading the New Parks Community Mission, Donna prioritises inclusivity and accessibility. Living on the borders of Braunstone and the Western Ward, she has established a collaborative network with stakeholders, schools, and community organisations to address isolation in lower socio-economic groups.
As a partially deaf and registered disabled individual, Donna brings a unique perspective and empathy to her work, believing in the power of collaboration and community engagement to create positive change and uplift lives.