Hi I’m Sophie McKeand and this will be my second year on TEAM Panel. I’m a poet from Wrecsam in North Wales and love love love being part of TEAM. I originally wanted to join Panel because I want to connect more with my community and bring more NTW events to this little part of Cymru; I also want to create great art and meet other likeminded people, and TEAM gives me the opportunity to do all of these things.

In 2015 I was lucky enough to make it to NTW Summercamp. It was a lifechanging experience. I met so many amazing people including a wonderful movement artist - Eunjin Choi from Korea. We collaborated on a piece and, later in the year, the poem I wrote as part of our performance won the OUT SPOKEN award for Innovation in Poetry 2015.

What else did I do in 2015 with NTW? I’ve been representing TEAM at the Pioneer meetings for the Culture/Poverty fusion project led by Wrecsam Council; I was a writer for Stories of the Streets in Cardiff; I've produced and hosted two Word4Word events in Wrecsam, one of which was in support of/to raise awareness of the plight of refugees; and I also produced the TEAM Performance Party in Wrecsam - which was a whole heap of fun.

I’d highly recommend you just get stuck in and start looking at what TEAM has to offer. I immediately took advantage of Critical Chinwag. It’s a great idea from Buddug Jones and means you get to see a show for free and waffle on about it afterwards. I can’t wait to get my next one sorted.

This year I’m planning to continue spreading the word about TEAM and NTW in north Wales. I’m hoping to bring Stories of the Streets here and have some ideas for a few new events/projects, which I don’t want to jinx by talking about them just yet.

2016 is already looking bright and shiny and I can't wait to meet our new panel members. I'm genuinely delighted to be back this year and am looking forward to being a small part of National Theatre Wales and TEAM.