Reach Alumni

Supporting emerging deaf and disabled creatives to develop the first solo shows.

Reach is a space for disabled storytellers to create work that does not have to be explored through a non-disabled gaze. It allows you to write universally, to talk about disability in your work – or to not talk about it – and to be free to create what you want to create, instead of what you’re expected to. It gives you the space to define the future trends in theatre instead of responding to them, choosing new directions, new work, and new stories. It moves you beyond the tropes about disabled people and the stories we’re encouraged by non-disabled people to share, and enables you to create work that is bold, intimate, and your own.

2025 Reach Artists

Smiley photo of Greg in a blue and white short-sleeved jumper.

Greg Arundell

Greg Arundell is a neurodivergent creative, playwright, and actor. He trained at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating in 2024. As a writer, his work has been championed by BOLD Elephant, The Bush, Theatre Royal Haymarket, and the RSC. They are an alumnus of Pentabus New Voices.

“I’m drawn to work that breaks free from traditional ideas of what a play should be. I’m excited by bold, brash, and punchy theatrical experiences that explore their themes in fresh, unexpected ways. That’s the kind of theatre I want to create.”

Waves

Waves is an immersive, non-linear theatrical experience, blending text, movement, music, and multimedia to explore grief, trauma, and memory. The story centres around two brothers, Tom and Alfie, how they cope with the aftershocks of loss, and the ways they try to survive emotionally, through music, movement, nights out, and silence.

Claire Beerjeraz

Claire Beerjeraz (They/She) is a freelance Writer, Director, Performer, Visual Artist, Facilitator, and Creative Therapist whose multidisciplinary practice explores identity, lived experience, and social justice. Their writing spans stage and screen, often navigating themes of queerness, racism, disability, and gender, and is rooted in a deep commitment to truth-telling, care, and community.

An alumni of Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse’s Young Writers programme (2023) and First Take’s REEL Queers Screenwriting programme (2024), Claire has developed and showcased work across notable venues in the Northwest, including the Unity Theatre, Dukes Theatre, Liverpool Everyman, and Tate Liverpool. Their practice is not only about storytelling but also fostering spaces for open discourse, collective healing, and transformative action.

Claire was a finalist for the LCR Inspirational Young Person Award (2023), recognised for their impact in arts and advocacy and as a board member for Tmesis Theatre, they continue to champion equity, accessibility, and the amplification of Global Majority voices in the creative industries. Through all their work, Claire is driven by a belief in the radical potential of creativity to imagine and build a more just, empathetic future.

Rooted

I will be developing my show Rooted which explores the impacts of white supremacy, colonialism, and the cis-hetero patriarchy on the ability to find ‘home’, something often portrayed as a safe base to retreat. It delves into the nuanced experiences of the global majority people, with intersecting marginalised identities, such as queerness, disability, and lower socioeconomic class, highlighting the challenges faced in relation to race, immigration, grief, and the body. Through Reach, I am hoping to explore these aspects in more detail in my writing, pulling from my lived experience. I want this piece to amplify the critical thinking and reflection needed around safety and inclusion in communities, and their responsibilities in this process as well as celebrate the joys that can be found when you do feel and find ‘home’.

A Black mixed heritage gender fluid person with streaks of Blonde running through their Black mid-length hair. They are posing with a gentle smile, stood in front of a turquoise wall and are wearing a brown t-shirt.

An image of a woman, age 25, with layered brown haircut posing in front of a white wall. Shoulders and head.

Melodie Karczewski

I’m a writer and actor from Thanet, now living in London with my crazy dog Finch (shoutout). I’m so excited to be part of this year’s Reach programme and to develop my full-length play. It honestly feels like a dream to have the time, support and space to bring a story I care about to life.

I love telling stories that mix humour and grit, inspired by truth and that mix of fucking weirdness that intrigues human beings. I’m drawn to work that asks big questions but stays grounded with real people.

A little about my writing journey so far: In 2023, I wrote, directed and performed in my short play The Taste of Healing at The Yard Theatre as part of RWCMD’s New Season. My 60-minute TV pilot Great Minds was shortlisted for BAFTA Rocliffe, and I’m proud to be a BBC Writers Room Welsh New Voice.

I trained as an actor on the BA Acting course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and I’m a member of Open Door. Before that, I was part of the BFI Academy, NFTS BFI Academy and HighRise New Gens.

Let’s do this!

Cremating the Phoenix

Cremating the Phoenix is a dark comedy that follows Madonna, a woman in her twenties working her first solo shift at a funeral home. Stepping out for a cheeky smoke, she unknowingly leaves the door open to an unsettling introduction… A strange woman waiting for God. Things get weird as secrets are revealed and chaos ensues… after all, everyone has skeletons in their closet.

This is a story of grief, faith and friendship.

Georgia Kelly

Georgia Kelly is a playwright, producer, and actor based in Coventry.

As a Producer they run Blindspot Nights, a scratch night dedicated to creating union-wage opportunities & support for working/under-class theatremakers in the Midlands, and in the long-run changing how we as a sector engage with class.

As a writer their work often encompasses similar themes alongside queerness and individual/community histories, reliably challenging what we laugh at and why, and what we do with the choices we have.

Toast

Toast is a one-man-show about food poverty, Universal Credit, and holding theatre careers together with your bare hands while mold slowly consumes your overpriced houseshare. Using documentary & verbatim material, Toast is based on Kelly’s experiences of being skint, being briefly ‘no fixed address’, and in a codependent off-again-on-again relationship with the DWP – as well as the experiences of friends and peers in similar positions. Through exploring ideas of ‘Model Minorities’ this absurdist dark comedy exploits the way theatre often leans a little too heavily into ‘Poverty Porn’ & ‘Culture Safaris’ while ignoring the real working/under-class artists falling through its gaps. Toast seeks to take the us vs them sensation of sitting in a safely darkened theatre and challenge just how much entertainment we deserve.

Georgia Kelly, a white person with long brown hair wearing a off-white jumper against a dusky blue background

Jess, a young femme person, looks up towards a light source on their right, which catches her green eyes and jumper.

Jess Senanayake

Jess Senanayake (she/they) is an award-winning theatre maker and poet hailing from Essex, now based in East London. Her work spans a range of disciplines, including Producing, Performance, Stage Management, Direction and Facilitation. Their poems have been featured in Brownies, House of Poetry, THE FAT ZINE, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Jess’s practice incorporates themes of identity, home and belonging, and prioritises equity, justice and joy for marginalised groups.

Selected credits include: Slave Play (Noel Coward Theatre), Pippin (Theatre Royal Drury Lane – WOS Award Nom), Your Lie in April (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), A Playlist for the Revolution (Bush Theatre – Olivier Nom), The PappyShow’s 10th Birthday Pit Party (Barbican), Don’t Drink the Water (Almeida Theatre), NO I.D (VAULT Festival – Show of the Week), RIDE – A New Musical (Charing Cross Theatre), A Monster Calls (UK and US Tour), and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (UK Tour).

island time

island time is a bilingual poem-play about mixed heritage, belonging, and what it really means to be an island girl. Set between the shores of Colombo, and a seaside town in the UK, island time explores what it means to ebb between cultures, the impact of waste colonialism, and the importance of the sea to coastal communities. Written in English and Sinhala, this epic story harnesses movement, live soundscaping and vivid coastal imagery to share experiences of growing up, moving to, and leaving, as charted through the sea.

Sam Zelaya

Sam is a queer, disabled actor and writer from London. He studied at Royal Holloway and currently trains with Collective Acting Studio. Best known as the voice of Raul in Netflix’s Wendell & Wild, Sam has also performed with CRIPtic in 2024 as part of The Crip Monologues and is thrilled to be working with them again.

Sam is passionate about queer theatre and strives through his work to create interesting roles for other actors from underrepresented groups. He is looking forward to writing his first full-length play with the Reach programme. When not writing or performing, Sam can be found drawing, crafting, perfecting his donut recipe or reading about doomed Arctic expeditions.

Other acting credits include Creon in Antigone, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, and several shows across both Camden Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe.

Stick and Poke (working title)

Stick and Poke is a play about love, sex, queerness, disability and the trials of renting in London. It follows three young queer disabled people and the connections between them that form and reveal themselves through a series of chaotic warehouse parties. Much of the story is inspired by my own experience of living in a queer warehouse community.

Sam, a young mixed-race man with light skin, dark curly hair, brown eyes and a slim build, sits casually in his manual wheelchair. He is wearing a leather jacket, jeans and big black boots. He is looking at the camera with a slight smile.

2024 Reach Artists

Arden is a light-skinned person with blonde hair. They are looking straight at the camera and wearing a white turtleneck. They are fabulously lit in neon purple, blue and pink.

Arden Fitzroy

Arden Fitzroy is an award-winning actor, producer, and writer. They believe in experimentation and blurring the boundaries of genre, gender and art forms. They trained at Rose Bruford College. Credits include work with the Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Arcola, Bestival, Roundhouse, the Hackney Empire, the Royal Opera House, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and the Soho Theatre. They have sat on judging panels for the British Fantasy Awards and are a frequent guest on pop culture podcasts. They have also written for film, theatre, and audio.

Fannie Marion

Fannie Marion is an autistic playwright, performer and dramaturg. She recently graduated from the Royal
Central School of Speech and Drama, and is alumni of Soho Writer’s Lab.

The Spider’s Daughter

My play The Spider’s Daughter is a one woman, darkly comic show written about strained mothers and daughters, the generational trauma of women, and cannibalism. It explores the delicate balance of protection and destruction in mother-daughter relationships, and what that means for the next
generation of women.

Ozioma Ihesiene

Ozioma Ihesiene is a multifaceted creative in Acting, Writing and Directing. Her writing background evolved through streams of consciousness, producing her first memoir-styled piece for The PitchFanzine. Following this, Ozioma collaborated with DYSPLA, exploring colonisation & women, producing her poem, “Domestics.” She then progressed to creating a picture book anthology that was exhibited in Kenya as part of the “5lens” collective. Her work, “Prayer”, is displayed on billboards across the UK, after winning Pocc’s competition. Recently she proposed, led and secured funding and support from Purple Moon Drama and Hackney Empire for her writersroom of 6 black females including herself,
called the Trilogy Series Writer’s Room. They collectively produced a pilot in only 3 days! Ozioma adapted and directed the show for a live reading showcase at The Space Theatre.

Jokes on You

Ozioma Ihesiene is extremely excited to be a part of the Reach programme as this would be the first time she has written a play, let alone a one-woman play! Her play is heavily influenced by her upbringing as she often mocked her culture until she finally experienced the beauty of it. Jokes on You is an adventurous comedy that explores being an immigrant in your own country. We embark on the journey of a stubborn girl who on her 25th Birthday, we see her set off for what was intended as a family holiday, only to arrive on her ones. Her parents abandoned her in an experimental treasure hunt to find them in…. NIGERIA?! AKA Home.

Dan McIntyre

Dan McIntyre is a novelist, travel writer, blogger, and disability rights activist. Originally from West Yorkshire, Dan now lives in East Ayrshire with his Fiancée. Having worked in IT support within the NHS for 25 years, Dan had to take ill-health retirement in 2022 and now spends his time pursuing his love of writing.

When not writing, Dan enjoys travelling, reading, photography and musical theatre, and has performed on stage. He is also partial to a challenge or two and has leaped off the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle on a zip line across the river, completed the Edinburgh marathon and climbed the stairs in Yorkshire’s tallest building, all from his wheelchair.

All in a Day’s Work

A sometimes comedic, sometimes serious show about the adventures of a disabled IT service desk worker who takes phone calls from IT users who tell them their technological woes and after fixing the issue described then breaks the fourth wall to reveal to the audience what is really on their mind, some of which will be humorous and some serious.
The character’s multiple disabilities will come into play incidentally in order to make various points about disabled people in work and to normalise the vision of disabled people working in professional roles.

Originally intended to become a sit-com for TV, I have some ideas about adapting this for the stage, and for the solo character aspect. The hope is to make it an enjoyable and teachable show, and not a bit like The IT Crowd.

Dan McIntyre is smiling in a relaxed pose

A 25-year old wearing a pink zebra boiler suit. Pulling a funny face. Holding a microphone and performing stand-up comedy

Rachel Baker

I am a Birmingham based comedian, performer and writer. At the heart of all I do is comedy. I think all the best stories are told with humour. I work with a lot of community organisations and grass-roots projects. I love seeing how micro-changes are created and these can have brilliant knock-on impacts.
Accessibility is hugely important in the work I make or am a part of. Being a neurodiverse, working class person I am aware of how integral it is to view accessibility intersectionally in order to understand what barriers their are for people. My long-standing aim for my career is to use comedy in all forms to have an impact on the arts sector and leave it more accessible and welcoming than when I first started my career.

Sloth

It took me 7 years to complete my 3-year BA degree. I finally finished it dressed as a 7 foot sloth, running 10k to hand in my dissertation. Embodying the misconceptions of ADHD, to be slow and lazy, but flipping it to display how taking my time and learning about my neurodivergence was the best thing I chose to do. Sloth is about this unconventional and messy journey, told through clowning, storytelling and stand- up. Its silly, odd and cheeky. When I ran as the inflatable Sloth it sparked peoples interests and they wanted to know the story behind it.

I figured it is a wonderful way to illuminate the misconceptions with ADHD whilst also focusing on the bizarre and the funny. All work I produce wether that is art, short-films or my writing and performance has comedy at the heart of it. Humour is an integral part to me leading a happy life so for me it is without a doubt that it will be integral to anything that I create.

2023 Reach Artists

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.

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

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 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

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

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.

Title TBC

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.