Rachel Gadsden

My TransHuman themed art performance will be the focus of my Breakthrough Commission. The ambition of the work is ultimately to build foundations for a socially and politically charged arts performance that sits comfortably within both mainstream and disability arts.

My disabilities bring challenges, and current ongoing medical intervention to sustain my life, sometimes
impacts the process of live performance. As a result, I have become adept at creating “live” performances from the safety of my studio, where I broadcast across the World. An incomprehensible concept pre covid, but something that has ultimately added a layered dynamic to my work and aesthetic.

My Breakthrough vision is to create a short film (5-10mins) that encapsulates the ambition of the ‘TransHuman’ vision, where digital animation, ‘live’ art performance, spoken word poetry and composed sound fuse together to serve as a call to action, where TransHuman intersectional voices are heard and embraced through the resonating aesthetic dynamics. Working with sound designer Freddie Meyers, I
began to devise TransHuman, a visual and performance artwork in 2023 with the ambition to create a performance to explore and embrace notions of TransHuman Embodiment. The work considers how chronic illness and disability presents challenges, but also empowers and authorises agency of the body.

Vici Wreford-Sinnott

Vici Wreford-Sinnott is a disabled theatre and TV writer and director, campaigner and PhD research
student. She has had several national touring theatre commissions and in 2021 she was commissioned
by the BBC to write and direct Hen Night which was one of the first pieces of British broadcast drama by
a disabled women led team. Vici is the founding artistic director of Little Cog which is a North East
based disabled-led production company, working across a range of artforms. She has been a key figure
and thought leader in the Disability Arts Community for almost 30 years.

I am creating a short, professional film with exciting disabled collaborators, showing a body of my
disabled-led work at its best. The film will include a newly written short monologue which I will perform.
A package around the film will support introductions to promote myself in several disability-receptive
mainstream theatre venues with the aim of developing new work and attracting larger-scale
commissions.