Reach -2023 Artists

Reach

Supporting 5 emerging deaf and disabled creatives to develop solo shows.

In Reach, we’re looking to support five deaf and/or disabled artists to develop their first full solo show through a 6 month programme of online workshops, masterclasses, and facilitated critical feedback groups. The programme culminates in a two day in person residential where you will work with each other and a director to shape the final pieces.

2023 Reach Artists


Marcy, a white nonbinary person with a ginger fringe and curly hair, smiling. They're wearing a white shirt with a red Keith Haring heart, stood against a graffiti wall background

Marcella Rick

Marcella is a theater maker, poet and storyteller. Their work is unapologetically Scouse and queer, with accessibility at it’s heart. As a neurodivergent creative, Marcella works to find exciting ways of integrating inclusion into their work, whether this is through creative captioning methods, or audio-descriptive dildos, they are inspired by the creative avenues that accessible theatre can open up.

Sober Curious

Sober Curious invites you into the brain of Jay, as they endeavor upon on their first ever sober night out. As a queer person, sobriety is hard. As a neuodivergent person, sobriety feels impossible. As someone who wants to stop being a show, sobriety might be necessary. It’s not that Jay is an alcoholic, not technically. Alcohol just makes everything easier. That is, until it doesn’t.

Britny, who is a black female with brown skin wearing a green and blue headwrap and a yellow cardigan.

Britny Virginia

I am a writer, poet, director, producer and workshop facilitator. Hoping to change the world one story at a time.

Up in the Mango Trees

Having one R&D at Theatre Peckham (2021), it explores movement, dance culture in the Caribbean, disability and religion. I am interested in exploring the restrictive movement caused by disability and paralleling that to the restrictive and paralysing views of society and internal trauma steaming from negative body image as a disabled person with Cerebral Palsy. Using combat movements within a dance sequence and aerial technique to show the internal fight against ableism and considering solace in one’s belief system.

I also want to address the social politics of disability in St. Lucian culture. As dance culture is integral to the St Lucian community, I want to explore how the disabled community fit within dance culture and create original music. I want to produce a high-quality narrative on my experience of disability as a St. Lucian.

Terri Donovan. Headshot of a young white person with shoulder length brown hair and grey eyes. They are wearing a white button down shirt and blue dungarees. They are looking away from the camera.

Terri Jade Donovan

Terri is a disabled, hard of hearing and neurodivergent actor and writer from Stockport. A graduate of the BA Acting programme at the Lir Academy in 2021. Recent Acting credits include working with Northern Broadsides, Theatre By the Lake and Graeae Theatre Company. As a writer they are currently part of Pentabus’ 2023 National Young Writers Cohort. They are a member of the West End’s Jermyn Street Theatre’s Advisory Board.

DOG DOG DOG

DOG,DOG,DOG is a physical theatre show which tells the story of a 12 year old girl (DOG) who has stolen the family Dog and ran away to the local vet to find out if she herself is turning into a Dog.

DOG, DOG, DOG is an absurdist physical theatre play which while using comedy as a device explores the hyper-sexualisation of young bodies, trauma responses and what it means to be so dehumanized you can no longer see yourself as a real person.

Gemma Lees. A white woman with short, blue hair, black plastic-rimmed glasses and pink lipstick, wearing a black and white stripy top.

Gemma Lees

Gemma Lees is a Romany Gypsy, disabled and neurodiverse artist, poet, actor, facilitator and theatre-maker from Bury. In her work, she seeks to create experiences for her audiences that will make them laugh until they cry or cry until they act.

Rollercoaster Dai

I want to create a fictional solo show with poetry, mime, song and silent film-style captions, based on the original Romany Gypsy fortune-telling women of Blackpool, the Petulengros.

Elspeth Wilson. A white person with long dark blonde hair smiles at the camera. They are facing side on and wearing a black jumper and yellow earrings and are against a dark grey wall.

Elspeth Wilson

Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet who is interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body through writing, as well as writing about joy and happiness from a marginalised perspective. Her nature has been shortlisted for Canongate’s Nan Shepherd Prize and Penguin’s Write Now scheme. She can usually be found in or near the sea.

Unnamed Show

I’m really excited to be working with CRIPtic on a performance that uses fanfiction and pop culture to explore the fantasy of diagnosis. My play explores a woman trying to obtain a diagnosis for a variety of symptoms and the barriers that she faces, as well as her fantasies of an easy, life-changing diagnosis. I will use my inter-disciplinary creative practice to explore diagnosis in a way that blends genres and uses different artforms to consider a quest that affects almost everybody at some point in their lives. My work takes in care, intimacy and categorisation whilst retaining a lightness of touch that explores joy in the cracks, too.

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Oli - a white non-binary person - has bleached hair and is dressed in a white tshirt and blue gym shorts. They are curled up on the floor on a stage, surrounded by a circle of pebbles, and bathed in a cold spotlight. Behind them, the words 'you would change the words, but you were just annoyed' are projected onto a large screen. In the foreground, there is an old fashioned phone, also in a pool of cold light.

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Jacqui is a black woman with black and slightly grey waist-length twists, She is wearing a vertically striped shirt. She is sitting in her powered wheelchair sideways facing, Jacqui staring straight into the camera with a curious look on her face. The background is greenery not in focus.

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