I’m the Company Administrator with a background of HR and Finance working within the Charity sector. I previously worked for Guide Dogs within HR & Volunteering recruiting nationally, implementing new systems and of course getting cuddles from dogs in training.

Being a mum myself I attended several Spark sessions before starting to work with The Spark watching ‘Stickman’ in children centres and libraries which inspired me to work with the Organisation when the role came up. I enjoy working in the background and making the Finance and HR systems work and liaising with various artists, people etc. But the joy that arts bring to a child is what I love to see the most.

Sam is an international award-winning dramaturg, director, librettist, and co-creator with a deep passion for co-creation, climate focused arts practice, and creative democracy. He recently wrote a full-length opera with Laura Bowler, to be directed by Jude Christian, The Girl with a Hurricane Brain, built through eco-anxiety workshops with children around the world. Recently he co-created HOME:Zero, an interactive family theatre installation on sustainability with Nottingham families, Lakeside Arts Nottingham, Makers of Imaginary Worlds for The National Gallery & NESTA.

He is currently producing the Royal Exchange Theatre’s radically community co-created Den Festival in Rochdale and Our Room’s Social Script programme, working on a new opera co-created with the Royal Opera House’s Young Opera Company, writing his first novels, and is funded by Julie’s Bicycle and Arts Council England to investigate community empowerment as a model of Environmentally Sustainable Deep Touring with international partners.

As co-founder of Knaïve Theatre he co-wrote and performed the world-touring, multi-international award-winning Bin Laden: The One Man Show; dramaturged several pieces including War With The Newts (Lustrum Award for Outstanding Theatre); and wrote an interactive, online, game-based environmental schools piece, Antarctica.

He is Associate Artist (Dramaturgy) of Smoking Apples Theatre Company whose Kinder won Ettie and Offie Awards for Theatre for Young Audiences in 2023.

Recent dramaturgy includes: Joshua Val Martin’s Today The Streets Are Ours for Royal Exchange Theatre, Alex Oates’s The Filleting App (RSC’s 37 Plays); Laura Bowler’s Distance with Juliet Fraser and Advert with Decoder Ensemble.

Libretti include: Samhain Bloom (Edward Shilts), Tiresias 2.0 (Dominic Matthews), Cummings & Goerings (Zhenyan Li) and Women Conduct (Laura Bowler).

Directing credits include: Bermondsey 1983 by Rob Reid Allan and Gareth Mattey, Cupboard Love by Madeleine Dring and The Operatists, GOLD, Antarctica, and FFF (movement direction) by Laura Bowler, Module 471 by Lucy Mulgan and The Operatists, The Macclefield Potatot Riot with the community in Macclesfield, and Dead Tree Gives No Shelter by Bysshe Inigo Coffey and company.

Mita Pujara is the Vital Spark Lead, an artist, researcher, educator, and accredited coach with over 25 years in socially engaged arts. Her extensive background spans theatre-making and dance, with performances across the UK, India, Palestine, Kenya, and China (1994-2007).

As Associate Director of Pan Intercultural Arts, she established London’s first intercultural youth performance company and founded two refugee arts programs for children that continue today. After earning a Master’s in Arts, Creativity, Education, and Culture (University of Cambridge), she transitioned into research and evaluation, consulting for arts organisations and theatres like the Royal Court, Kiln Theatre, and Tamasha. She lectures at universities, including the Central School of Speech and Drama and Rose Bruford College, and is currently developing a one-woman show.