It has been announced that Jenny Sealey OBE, Artistic Director of Graeae, is the 2024 recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre Award. She will be honoured at the UK Theatre Awards ceremony, taking place on Sunday 20 October at 8 Northumberland Avenue, sponsored by Encore. The UK Theatre Awards celebrate the very best of theatre across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Awards are given for creative excellence and outstanding work both on and off stage, including the coveted UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre Award.
As Artistic Director of Graeae since 1997, Jenny has pioneered a new theatrical language ‘aesthetics of artistic access’, experimenting with bilingual British Sign Language and English, pre-recorded BSL, creative captioning and in-ear live audio description methods. Graeae’s ethos of placing of Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists centre stage has engineered a cultural shift, influencing mainstream theatre both nationally and internationally.
Jenny’s autobiographical one woman show Self-Raising opened at Edinburgh Festival last year and toured nationally in 2024. Her appearance on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs was produced in BSL by Graeae, making it accessible for Deaf people for the first time in the 70-year history of the programme.
Jenny co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF). The same year she won the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award. She has directed The Midwich Cuckoos, Little Dorrit, Three Sisters (which she co-wrote) and The Chatterleys for BBC Radio 4.
Jenny Sealey said: “I am truly humbled to be given this Award. All directors are only as good as their actors and creative teams. I have, throughout my career, been blessed to work with some extraordinary actors, creatives and crew. This Award is for all of them and my Graeae team.”
Claire Walker & Hannah Essex, Co-CEOs of Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre, said: “We’re thrilled to honour Jenny Sealey with this year’s Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre Award. Her pioneering work at Graeae has revolutionised access to theatre for Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists and audiences, and had an enormous impact on the industry both in the UK and internationally.
We are so looking forward to celebrating Jenny’s achievements at the UK Theatre Awards ceremony on Sunday 20 October.”
Full nominations for the UK Theatre Awards 2024 are to be announced on Thursday 26 September.
The UK Theatre Awards 2024 are sponsored by Encore, with thanks to our partners AKT, Cunard, Harbottle & Lewis, John Good, MTI Europe, Theatre Tokens, Tysers in association with Ecclesiastical, Unusual Rigging and White Light.
