Selected from an open call, Last Word Theatre present five fresh voices with five fresh new perspectives from emerging disabled artists. Curated by Amy Bethan Evans (Libby’s Eyes, Bunker Theatre; Tinted, Bloomsbury Festival) and directed by Stephen Bailey (Associate Director on Cost of Living at Hampstead Theatre).
Selected pieces include:
Padre – Sally Davis
Should Have Gone to Lourdes – Stephen Kennedy
How I Almost Climbed Everest – Clare Knights
Inside – Hannah Torrance
The fifth writer is omitted for access reasons.
Access Platform will showcase disabled theatre artists on the London theatre scene, new stories, voices and a bold statement of disabled representation in theatre. They are working with a disabled ensemble and aim to maximise accessibility with access workers, relaxed performances, captions and BSL; along with an ongoing dialogue over audience access needs.
Stephen Bailey, Co-Artistic Director said: “It’s been a thrilling and difficult process to select these five pieces; I believe they represent unique voices, both for disability and theatre as a whole.”
Amy Bethan Evans, Co-Artistic Director said: “Stephen and I initially set up this platform because we wanted to give D/deaf and disabled writers the chance to try out things that may not work the fringe scene so often affords non-disabled writers. What we got were 62 scripts, all of which were good enough to be staged in some capacity and at least half of which were at a professional level. We underestimated the amount of D/deaf and disabled talent there is out there just waiting to be included. It’s amazing how fruitful putting that stipulation in place can be and with Elske’s help, we have a really exciting line-up!”
Access Platform is at VAULT Festival 13-14 March 2019.
Hi,
It’s great you have done this, and created a space for D/deaf & disabled writers to present their work.
As Signed Culture (the only national charity and organisation that advocates for BSL access to the Arts), we have had a couple of the companies join us, become members in order for us to help promote their shows in The Vault Festival.
I have also seen that the logo you have used in your title graphic (above) is actually the American logo for sign language interpreting. This is always a little bug bear of mine. We have different versions of the BSL interpreting logo if this would be helpful to you for any future graphic work. Just email me and ask for it/them.
This is the kind of thing we can help theatres and other Arts venues/organisations with – advice and guidance around BSL access issues. If there’s a way that we can be honoured with a bit of publicity around our work, that would be wonderful and greatly appreciated.
Anyway, again, congratulations on this project. I hope it gets the exposure and recognition it – and the writers – deserve.
All the best,
Hi Sula.
Thanks so much for pointing this out. I am visually impaired and it actually escaped my attention and so it would seem, the attention of my Deaf friends! We will probably not be able to rectify this in time for this show but will do it for future shows. Best of luck in all of your projects!
Best
Amy
Hello,
This is Stephen Bailey (one of the curators). Thanks for the message – it’s really helpful.
The graphic was designed a while back. Apologies for our mistake: I’m neurodiverse and, due to struggling with accepting my disability, am new to engaging with the disabled community and, I must confess, ignorant on this matter. Amy’s partially sighted and though she has now seen the difference and apologises, she unfortunately caught it too late. Sorry about our error and apologies if any offence was caused.
We’ve discussed and given time/flyers already being ordered we don’t think it’s feasible to change this now. However, please feel free to send any logos to [email protected] and we’ll be sure to incorporate it into future materials. Thanks for the offer.
On BSL: After canvasing opinion from various D/deaf groups and individuals, we’ve opted for captioning due to the room set-up, the environment of Vaults and cost. We hope to expand Access Platform in the future, and when we do we’d love to get in touch to ensure our BSL provision is top notch.
Thanks again for your encouragement and enthusiasm. We hope to see you at the show.