At a time when so many studio theatres and new-writing spaces are closing, and when many theatres are finding it increasingly difficult to take risks on emerging writers and experimental work, opportunities like this become incredibly important.
Jamie Hale
What are the challenges facing disabled artists creating new work today?
There are so few opportunities across the theatre world for disabled creatives to take risks and make new work, and even fewer that are ready to meet the access needs of those creatives. This means disabled creatives rarely have meaningful access to those opportunities designed to springboard their careers. This is one of the things that makes our work increasingly vital, that we centre access and make professional quality work at the same time, showcasing our creatives at their best.
How do you balance directing four very different pieces into one show?
My focus is on presenting each piece as its own unique and exceptional piece of work, and building a structure around it that allows each piece to be exhibited on its own merits, without losing the threads that connect the four pieces. This means committing to set, design, lighting, sound, and ‘vibes’ to find the mirrorings and echoes between the pieces, without losing what each piece brings of its own accord.
Can you tell us about these artists and how CRIPtic are supporting them this year? Why is it important to invest in disabled talent?
Each of these artists is an incredibly talented disabled person creating theatre in very different ways, from Kat’s solo comedy to Fran’s intricate multi-character triologue; from Hannah and Morgan’s acrobatic duo to Jordan’s musical extravaganza, and we’ve worked with them through workshops, mentoring, script development, table-reads and lots of thought and time, to support them in bringing this work to Tobacco Factory Theatres this year. Each needs different things, and we try to ensure that everyone has what they need to bring their work to a high quality, sharing it confidently with audiences. As multiple artists have told us, nobody supports them the way CRIPtic has, and we’re committed to building and keeping that reputation. Investing in disabled talent is important because investing in talent is important – and disabled people are underrepresented in the industry – and so need more time and investment now, to correct our exclusion in the future. And it’s also important to invest in disabled talent for the stories we can tell, the knowledge and experience we have, and everything we can bring to storytelling as a result of having lived as disabled people in the world. We are a part of those universal narratives theatre holds, and we haven’t been able to take out our rightful place in those. Increasingly now, there appears to be movement in the industry towards more diverse narratives in work staged, and investing in disabled talent is a way to help achieve that.
What are you most excited about directing the show at Tobacco Factory Theatres?
Tobacco Factory Theatres has a reputation for supporting and showcasing new work, and I’m really excited to be positioning four pieces by exceptional (disabled) theatremakers in a space with that reputation. It’s really thrilling to have disabled-made work shared on a stage and so committed to new work, and for it to be given an equivalence to that work.
At a time when so many studio theatres and new-writing spaces are closing, and when many theatres are finding it increasingly difficult to take risks on emerging writers and experimental work, opportunities like this become incredibly important. These artists are creating bold, exciting theatre, and I’m really excited that Tobacco Factory Theatres is making space for that work to be seen, taken seriously, and celebrated.
There are certain themes that are threaded through these pieces, but to you, what links all these pieces together?
To me, they all contain different questions around autonomy, and that’s the thread that links them together. In The Making of the Eye Show, there are questions about what it means to have the autonomy to tell one’s story on one’s own terms; in Hot/Cold as Daughter and Elder find their autonomy, Mother loses hers and becomes increasingly constricted to the point she cannot stay wholly human any more; in Double Draw the sisters seek individual autonomy at the cost of the forest, and can only heal it by moving away from an isolated independence, and in Ride the Wind, Tunde finds the autonomy he has been denied by his community and so saves it.
These stories are created through a disabled lens, but the stories aren’t focused solely on disability. Why is it important to tell more universal narratives through a disabled lens?
Disabled people are rarely invited to tell stories that aren’t our own disability narratives, through a very tight lens. While The Making of the Eye Show is explicitly about the disabled experience, it satirises the expectations on disabled people to tell our stories in particular ways to suit non-disabled audiences. The other three pieces have disability as a thread in them to varying degrees, but fundamentally tell compelling stories by disabled creators that don’t have to focus on disability, or fit it into the few tropes we’re allowed in theatre. This excites me, because disabled people are part of the universal audience, and that stories by disabled people and with disabled characters can be universal stories with universal messages and appeal. Taking the opportunity to make this kind of work is empowering and exciting, and I can’t wait to stage it.
What can audiences expect from this version of The Acts?
Audiences can be expected to laugh, and squirm and feel, and they can expect to be compelled by movement and sound beyond their imaginations, and to be stunned in all the senses. This is work that expands the possibilities of what disabled people are allowed to be, do, and create.
The Acts comes to Tobacco Factory Theatres 3rd – 4th September.
You can book tickets here.
