The Vamos Theatre team

Artistic Director: Rachael Savage
After working nationally and internationally for fifteen years, Rachael founded Vamos Theatre in 2006. As Artistic Director, her roles include writer, director, actor, and consultant for change in the care sector; she is a member of the Prime Minister’s Focus Group on Dementia. Rachael trained at Glasgow’s RSAMD, after which she performed with a range of major theatre companies including Birmingham Rep, Northern Stage, Coventry Belgrade, Trestle Theatre and with three international theatre companies. With Vamos Theatre, she has pioneered work with the education and health sectors, led residences in South Africa and China, been Mask Director at The RSC, led mask training at London Business School, created Vamos Theatre apprenticeships and driven the company's artistic and strategic vision, leading to it becoming a regularly funded Arts Council NPO. Since creating Finding Joy in 2013, Vamos Theatre’s award-winning show about dementia, Rachael has continued to create connections with the health and social care sectors to promote the arts as a powerful tool for change. Rachael’s work in the field emphasises non-verbal communication, empathy, listening, trust and truthful connections. 

Creative Producer: Honor Hoskins
Honor joined Vamos Theatre in 2007 and has worked as part of the Core Team as a performer, practitioner, Tour Manager and Marketing and Development Manager. As Creative Producer, Honor oversees the company’s Learning and Participation programme, as well as regularly delivering workshops, training and residencies. Prior to joining Vamos Theatre, Honor worked for The Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury as Outreach Officer. She has also delivered and managed projects with The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham; Snap Children’s Theatre Company; and three County Youth Offending Services; she also trained with TiPP (Theatre in Prison and Probation).

Head of Communications/Associate Artist (Composer): Janie Armour
Janie has been part of the Vamos Theatre  team since its beginnings in 2006, composing the music for all of Vamos Theatre's shows. In 2014 she also took on the role of Head of Communications, where her responsibilities include overseeing the company brand, website and messaging strategies. She also acts as Vamos Theatre's Sustainability Lead.

Health Connector: Hazel Ratcliffe
Hazel is the director and founder of Ratcliffe Training Consultancy and has worked in Social and Health Care for over thirty years. As a qualified nurse, psychotherapist and social worker, she has worked with most client groups, but more intensively with people living with dementia, those with learning disabilities and in mental health. Hazel has been an Associate Specialist in Learning and Development for the Association for Dementia Studies since 2010 at Worcester University. She is a Dementia Champion and has worked closely with communities over the past five years building awareness and reducing stigma around memory loss.  She also co - founded ‘Buddies’, a support group for people living with dementia, run by people living with dementia.

Marketing Officer: Abbie Payton
Abbie started her career in travel and went to many lovely places around the world, after which she studied at Chichester University and graduated with a 2:1 degree in contemporary dance and business studies. After leaving university, she worked in marketing for an outdoor activity centre in Birmingham for 11 years, alongside teaching dance classes and workshops to children. She currently teaches wedding couples' first dances in her spare time.

Office Administrator: Rhiannon Malbas
Rhiannon started her career in the Civil Service, working as a Diary Manager to a succession of senior government ministers. She then moved into the charity sector, working as an Executive Assistant at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and Birmingham Children's Hospital. After a long stint in London, she decided home was calling and moved back to Worcester to start a family. In her spare time Rhiannon runs around after her two young children, enjoys cooking, walking and works as a freelance bridal florist.

Operations Manager: Sarah Hawkins
Sarah made her first professional appearance with Vamos Theatre in Nursing Lives (2010), having trained in Vamos Young People’s Theatre for 3 years. Since then she has performed in Offal Tales (2012), three tours of Finding Joy (2013, 14 and 2016), Sharing Joy (2014, 2015 and 2017), Nursing Lives (2015) and The Best Thing (2015). The call of home comforts led to stage management roles, while the arrival of babies no.1 and 2 now sees Sarah working as Vamos Theatre's Operations Manager. When she’s not at her desk, Sarah is also a trained horticulturalist and loves nothing better than working in the garden.

Creative Engagement Co-Ordinator/Vamos Central Co-Lead Facilitator: Aadil Din
Aadil is a performer and facilitator, having joined the Vamos Central team in 2023. He has recently graduated with First Class Honours with an MTheatre in Touring Theatre at University of Worcester. He is passionate about access & inclusion, having facilitated several mask and sensory workshops with Vamos for people with learning disabilities. His recent theatre credits include The Founder in Night Out in Nature (Frozen Light Theatre), Owen in To the Streets! (Birmingham Hippodrome and China Plate Theatre), Taking Flight (Highly Sprung Theatre Company), and Nibbles in West Side Story (Birmingham Hippodrome). Aadil has also toured his own work across the West Midlands and at various Fringe festivals, devising shows that involve therapeutic approaches to encapsulate the beauty of humanity, particularly encouraging work from fellow queer artists of colour.

Vamos Central Co-Lead Facilitator: Sam Strachan
Sam is a facilitator and theatre-maker based in Birmingham, UK. With a creative background in SEN and the mental health sector, Sam puts participants’ choices and voices at the centre of his improvised practice. His playful non-verbal style is inspired by clown training under Angela de Castro, his time working with Open Theatre and the Vamos Emerging Artists programme. You can usually hear Sam coming before you see him, as he’ll usually be laughing, chatting or making some kind of strange noise. Sam is also a songwriter under the alter-ego Sweaty Wednesday, and regularly plays live in Birmingham and beyond.

Carl Davies: Associate Artist (Set and Costume Designer)
Carl first worked for Vamos on the first tour of Finding Joy in 2013. He trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and was a finalist in the prestigious Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design 2005. He has worked in a huge variety of performance genres including opera, panto, Shakespeare, site-specific performance, and circus; and with companies as diverse as Forest Forge, Hijinx, NOFITSTATE, and Theatre Royal, Plymouth.