News and Updates from CRIPtic Arts

Digital banner reading 'connect through creativity' against a black background with cartoon blades of green and purple grass. In the corner are logos for CRIPtic Arts and Scope. To the right there is a picture of Jamie Hale, a white person with red hair and a red beard and vibrant pink and orange eyeshadow.

CRIPtic Arts launches a year-long programme of arts activities!

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Get ready to learn and connect with CRIPtic Arts now that the first season of their Connect through Creativity 2023 events has officially launched. What is Connect through Creativity? Supported by Scope and Arts Council England, Connect through Creativity (CTC) is a wide-reaching programme creating connections and communities through providing educational and career-development opportunities for all deaf and disabled individuals interested in the arts, no matter where they’re at in their creative journey. CRIPtic Arts’ Artistic Director, Jamie Hale, says of the CTC initiative “deaf and disabled people deserve the opportunity to nurture their creativity, build skills and networks, and…

Oli - a white non-binary person - has bleached hair and is dressed in a white tshirt and blue gym shorts. Oli sits on stage, with a blue-washed projection behind them. They have a focused expression and their mouth is slightly open.

CRIPtic Arts 2023 Artist Development Projects: Launching Today!

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CRIPtic Arts 2023 Artist Development Projects: Launching Today! As we begin the year, we’re very excited to announce the launch of CRIPtic 2023! This will be a year of unparalleled creativity and community connection at CRIPtic Arts. Funded by Arts Council England we are launching a wide range of artist development opportunities over the next year. With these programmes, we aim to reach deaf and disabled people at all levels – whether brand new to the arts, or trying to make it in the mainstream. You can apply to our projects below. If you’re not sure where to start our…

Jamie Hale performs NOT DYING. Jamie, white person with red hair is laid on the floor in their manual wheelchair. The are wearing a silver shirt, maroon boxers and their catheter bag is seen on their right leg. Behind them, the word 'WAIT' is projected repeatedly across the back wall of the theatre.

NOT DYING by Jamie Hale

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CRIPtic Arts will be bringing Jamie Hale’s solo show, NOT DYING, to HOME Manchester on the 11th November. This is part of our long-standing collaboration with Kate O’Donnell and Trans Vegas. Jamie Hale first drafted NOT DYING in 2018, when the Barbican Centre commissioned it through their Open Lab programme. There, Trans Creative’s Kate O’Donnell mentored Jamie. In 2019, Jamie first performed it at the Lyric Hammersmith. They then put it on at the Barbican Centre (directed by Kate O’Donnell), to rave reviews. This was as part of the inaugural CRIPtic Showcase – which is where they founded CRIPtic Arts.…

Disabled Poets Prize

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The Disabled Poets Prize is a new award for deaf and disabled poets. There are very few opportunities to celebrate the work of deaf and disabled poets. CRIPtic Arts is proud to be a partner on a project designed by myself – founder and Artistic Director Jamie Hale to address that. About the prize The first Disabled Poets Prize is open for entries from UK-based deaf and disabled poets from 1st September – 31st October. We will hold the inaugural awards in 2023. We are launching this, alongside Spread the Word and Verve Poetry Press & Festival, and for me,…

The Crip Monologues

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While we’ve been plugging away at a wide range of projects here at CRIPtic – from the NOT DYING soundtrack to workshops on writing and staging solo work. We are very excited to announce that Jamie Hale, our Artistic Director and playwright-performer of NOT DYING (Lyric Hammersmith, Barbican Centre), which won the Evening Standard Director/Theatremaker of the Year award in 2020, is working on a new project: The Crip Monologues. Hear more from Jamie below: The kernel of the idea emerged from two places. The first was the Vagina Monologues and the Butch Monologues, and the second was the staging…

Incubate: Deaf & disabled-led arts organisations

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Incubate is a project taking four deaf and/or disabled-led arts organisations through a year of engaged workshops, supporting those arts organisations to grow, change, and develop. For CRIPtic as facilitator, we’re learning the same. In disability arts, we are standing (wheeling?) on the shoulders of giants. Graeae have been making deaf and disabled-led theatre for forty years. Extant is a performing arts company of visually impaired artists and theatre practitioners which has existed for 25 years. Deafinitely Theatre has 20 years of work produced bilingually, in British Sign Language and spoken English. Drake Music have been creating music by deaf…

The cover of the report, a turquoise box with the words BEING HYBRID - a cheap and easy guide to hybrid events on it, and the logos for Spread the Word and CRIPtic Arts

BEING HYBRID: an easy guide to hybrid events

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To read more about Being Hybrid, click here. To access it in a range of other formats, click here Why are you launching Being Hybrid? I keep having the same conversation over and over in my disabled writers group chats this summer. “Why is this festival not programming online?”. We had a period of time in which far more work was accessible to home-bound people and those who would struggle to reach it physically. Now, instead, everything has gone back to being in person. When people ask events “will this also be available online?” the response is almost always “that’s…

Broadening Our Practice

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CRIPtic is my baby – but it’s not just mine. It was built as a community project. If I had to estimate the number of people who’ve been involved with it, it would be in the three figures comfortably, and that’s not including audiences. Three years ago I must have been writing the first funding application for the first project – our Barbican showcase – and it must have been then that my now-partner suggested the name. I loved that name from the off, but I’d never thought of the arts, or of organisation-building, as a career. I wanted to…

Announcing CRIPtic 2022

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A belated Happy New Year from us here at CRIPtic Arts – where we are delighted to be announcing CRIPtic 2022! We hope you are as excited as we are to get stuck into another year of creativity. The success of the 2021 CRIPtic Showcase was overwhelming. As we move into 2022, we’re going even further to develop and support the very best of disability arts. This year, we will be working to dismantle even more barriers to deaf and disabled talent across the sector. A taste of our 2022 projects is below. If you want to know more about…

New Artists for CRIPtic 2021

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At CRIPtic, we’re getting very close to in-person rehearsals starting (Monday 8th). The show opens on the 19th November, so it’s very soon now! We’re delighted to announce that we are adding three new acts to the line-up. Sahera Khan and Gold Maria Akanbi are bringing filmed pieces, and Flawbored are bringing a comedy. So, without further ado, here they are: Sahera Khan Sahera is Muslim, Deaf and British South Asian, her native language is British Sign Language. She is a freelance writer/creator, artist/actress, filmmaker and YouTuber, and wrote a great introductory blog for us. Sahera’s set is made up…