Growing Our Own

Growing Our Own is a collaboration between musician and composer Eva Trim, actor and creative Scott Simpson, and filmmaker Sima Gonsai. Highlighting the natural associations we have when we hear the word Spring, nature bursting through, our enjoyment of the weather finally getting warmer, and lighter nights. The piece also strongly focuses on our hopes right now for 2021 and onwards, which are all presented through the lens of the West Midlands region and being a Midlander. Let Eva’s soaring score and Scott’s spoken word appreciation of the West Midlands put a pep in your step as we look forward to hopefully getting back to the many things we’ve missed doing over the past year.

About the collaborators

Scott Simpson - an actor and emerging creative from the West Midlands, Scott is a graduate of acclaimed repertory drama school Cygnet Training Theatre. Performing extensively across theatre, short film, and voice work his credits include Peter Pan for Exeter Northcott, The Roundheads The National Trust, as well as multiple open air Shakespeare touring productions and panto. As a creative, Scott’s work focuses on showcasing and promoting the West Midlands region, it’s dialect, and the many stories it has to offer. Scott’s pieces aim to highlight being a Midlander and often combine his own writing, primarily poetry and spoken word, with his screen and voice acting skills.

“Working on a theme so vivid as Spring’s Calling has been fantastic. I’ve wanted to collaborate with a musician on a piece for a while and delving into Eva’s creative process and incorporating her compositions and styles into my work has been artistically exciting. Additionally, the way the project has given me the chance to work with another Midlands artist to create a piece about the Midlands is really worthwhile I think.”

Eva Trim is a musician and singer/songwriter who performs under the name Eva and The Blue Dive. She explores the use of orchestral instrumentation, in particular, looking at its use for film and television. She has worked with many musicians to produce an E.P, due to be released later in the year which takes acoustic indie folk and blends together multiple genres to create an evocative mix with originality and quality song-writing at it’s heart. Eva’s latest single; “Written in Red” was released in 2020. She draws comparisons from Jeff Buckley, Lucy Rose and Marika Hackman with BBC Introducing describing her as psychedelic folk, likening her vocals to Nico and Bjork.

“This project has meant a lot to me because since lockdown, I have not had many opportunities to work with other like-minded creative people. Having someone to bounce ideas off of is something I’ve really missed and this project has allowed me to express myself with other people in a safe space, allowing them to grow organically into something more than just my own ideas.”

Sima Gonsai is an award-winning creative director, producer and programmer. Originally trained in visual communication, her work specialises in capturing stories told through artistic film and screen dance. Her depth of work explores innovative ways of collaborating artforms, focussing on themes of diversity and accessibility. She has produced films commissioned by 2012 Olympics, Arts Council England, Creative England and BBC Arts and her work has been screened at film festivals globally. As a programmer, she currently works with Flatpack Film Festival and as a facilitator, she is the founder of Screen Dance Co-lab, an initiative for emerging artists collaborating in dance, film and music.

“This collaboration has enabled me to look forward, with hopes for 2021 becoming a year of healing and wellbeing. It been a pleasure working with the artists, to be creative, share ideas and work with a theme that's both inspiring and aspirational.”