Always The Audience (Never the Star)
The experience of performers with high physical access requirements in London Theatres.
By Dr Jessi Parrott and Jamie Hale
“Welcome to the CRIPtic Arts Always the Audience (Never the Star)
research project. It researches the experiences of specific groups of
disabled people who are trying to work in theatres in London. We
called it Always the Audience because we feel like we are expected to
only ever be the audience at a show, and we feel like we are never
given what we need to be the performer or technical crew for the
show.
“In this research, we had conversations with disabled people who face
particularly high barriers to physically accessing performance careers
in London – focussing on people who need more support than simple
wheelchair access. We did this because we felt like we couldn’t find
organisations that were able to support us in our careers.
Our research team is made up of people who face these barriers,
giving us deep personal understanding of these problems. However,
we had conversations with a wide range of other people and
organisations as well.”
Jamie Hale
Artistic Director; CRIPtic Arts
Read our groundbreaking report, Always The Audience (Never the Star) here.
Summary and Easy Read versions also available to view and download below.
