Graeae, the UK’s leading disabled-led theatre company, has unveiled an 11-week programme of online activity aimed at providing audiences with a rich variety of work while the country remains in lockdown.
Launching on 20 April 2020 Crips Without Constraints – A Play, A Podcast, A Picture will celebrate the creativity of Deaf and disabled artists across the nation with new digital programming across Graeae’s website and Facebook pages.
The first of three strands of programming is Plays – a collaboration between acclaimed screenwriter, playwright and Graeae patron, Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child) and Graeae’s New Writing Department, supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
Featuring the Graeae commissioned work of 11 Deaf and disabled writers created in isolation, each monologue is read to camera by a Deaf or disabled actor and introduced by Thorne. The monologues, which will be captioned and audio described will be streamed every Monday, beginning with Flesh by Graeae Write to Play graduate Anita Kelly.
The other writers who responded to the challenge are: Khush Chahal, Adam Fenton, gobscure, Kathryn Golding, Raji Gopalakrishnan, Jamie Hale, Daisy Higman, Ink Asher Hemp, Shahid Iqbal Khan and Hannah Treadaway.
Every Wednesday from 22 April 2020 the online programme continues with Podcast – BSL interpreted versions of the Graeae and Disability Online series, Disability and… podcasts first aired last year. Podcast will commence with TourettesHero, Jess Thom’s interview with Nickie Miles-Wildin.
The third strand, Picture, is a series of images celebrating the careers of Deaf and disabled artists re-released from Graeae’s archive and including work from the 2016 exhibition Reframing The Myth which was originally commissioned by Graeae and the Central Illustration Agency in May 2016. The first to be released is Garry Robson by Jakrob Hinrichs.
Commenting on the project, Graeae’s artistic director Jenny Sealey said: “We have spent the last few weeks at Graeae collectively thinking about how we can best celebrate the talent, creativity and resilience of the Deaf and disabled artists who make Graeae what it is.
“Crips without Constraints: A Play, A Podcast, A Picture encapsulates this perfectly, and I’m so thrilled that we’re not only releasing brand new work through the Play element, but also reimagining and re-celebrating the glorious diversity of our community with the Podcasts and the Pictures. I can’t wait to see what the 10 writers participating come up with, and enormous thanks to our patron the brilliant Jack Thorne, along with Esmee Fairbairn and Arts Council England for supporting this part of the programme.”
Angela Thomas
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