Vici Wreford-Sinnott
Connect
  • Home
  • About Vici
  • Playwright
  • Theatre Director
  • Development Projects
  • Blog
  • Little Cog
  • Contact
  • Disabled Actor Call Out
  • Theatre Feedback
  • Disability Equality Training
  • Casting Call Occupation
  • Community Performers Call Out
  • Academy Applications
  • Occupation Creative Team

Vici's blog

Vici Wreford-Sinnott is a theatre maker who believes in a cultural landscape without limitation. She strives to make dynamic contemporary theatre which is colourful, physical, energetic, still and which challenges accepted widely held perceptions. Vici is interested in the aesthetics of difference, the power of theatre to bring about change, and ongoing development and assessment of cultural equality in action. Vici champions disability and mental health theatre. This blog charts her creative journey.

Contact

ONE HUNDRED STRONG - a disability visibility project for Teesside

1/22/2019

0 Comments

 
I’m looking for a brilliant way to start 2019 with other disabled people. I think it’s important that we come together to share our experiences and also, create visibility of our presence in our communities and so I’m looking for 100 disabled people from Teesside. We deserve a higher profile in public life.

The times we are living in are bizarre and sometimes I worry that common humanity and support for others is disappearing, but then I remember how good it feels to be with other disabled people – to share stories, to compare notes, to sound off, to raise our voices and to laugh together. Together we are strong.

So what do you think? Are you with me? Fancy a bit of a get together in Stockton in January. A bit of a social. Just for a chat and to think about something to keep our community in the public eye. How about we meet at ARC for cuppa and a chat, and then say, we come up with something to act as a symbol of solidarity for the coming year. Take a big group photo or something like that. Make sure we’re visible. Make sure we’re strong. One Hundred Strong.

Come on, let’s do something different. Just for us. Saturday 26 January 2pm at ARC just to get us started. Let me know you’re coming and tell your disabled friends and family. Any questions – get in touch. It's a free event but you do need to book so that we know how many people to expect. You can book here https://bit.ly/2WbFyyl

0 Comments

Reflections and Shifting Points - Directors Lab North and Luminato Festival, Toronto

7/16/2018

0 Comments

 
As I’ve now had a couple of weeks to process 12 of the most amazing, challenging, inspiring and fulfilling days of my career, I’ve put some words together. There are a lot of words, its probably more than one blog,  but this experience has had a massive impact on me. Attending Directors Lab North and Luminato Festival in Toronto was an absolute privilege. DLN is an invaluable space to explore the complexities of a range of theatre practices from across communities from across the world. It is important to me to ensure that a disabled voice is at the table, making change happen, and that I’m both sharing and learning.
Picture

Photo by Kyle Purcell. Out The Window by Liza Balkan, Directed by Sarah Garton Stanley. A Luminato Commission in partnership with the Drama Centre Toronto.


Land Acknowledgment
I want to support and honour the land acknowledgement of Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, acknowledging the sacred land on which we gathered and operated, as the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, The Seneca, the Mississaugas of the New Credit, and any other nations who cared for the land in its history.
 
The territory is the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
 
Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many indigenous people from across Turtle Island and I was grateful to work in the community, on that territory.
 
Context of My International Visit to Canada
I’m not a natural navel gazer, nor do I boast about opportunities afforded me, but I genuinely have always dreamed of going to Canada. I’m choosing to record and archive my experience as a disabled practitioner, and aim to contribute to discourses around, a) the equal status of disabled citizens and any injustices I witness or experience, and b) the equal status of the autonomous voices and artistic contribution of disabled people on many levels, in varying ways, across culture.
 
About 18 months ago, I decided that I wanted to explore some international possibilities, but then I didn’t even know opportunities like Directors Lab North in Toronto existed. Being selected to attend, in many ways, felt like I was risk-taking, with no other self-identifying disabled people attending, without a history of disabled people attending, to my knowledge, and not really appreciating the circumstances that both disabled and non-disabled artists in Canada and the US make their work – the systems and structures available to them.
 
And in honesty, I wasn’t sure whether what I have to offer was of value in this new context. There is a cyclic experience I encounter, where, as an artist from a less represented community, with historically less opportunities open to us due to societal prejudices and systemic failings, we must take on the role of both artist and educator, of both creative and campaigner, of both diplomat and activist. In diversity terms, not to in any way to diminish anyone else’s experience of discrimination and oppression, disability, because of all the social and historical baggage attached to common perceptions, usually finds itself at the bottom of everyone’s priority list. It’s often so difficult to get past the word ‘disability’, so conflated is it with inability, illness and incapacity. As a direct result of this conflation, in my own experience, it feels like disability is the only ‘other’ which the mainstream feels it can, wittingly or unwittingly, legitimately continue to represent as ‘less than’.
As I have said on many occasions, disabled artists are some of the most exciting and innovative people creating work today, as we challenge form, challenge content and absolutely challenge the dominant artistic status quo.  And yet, often, due to the baggage, our work is perceived as ‘less than’ and you can see the shutters coming down once the word disability is introduced to artistic discussions. I remember chatting to a senior member of Arts Council staff about contemporary theatre in the UK, who literally glazed over once I mentioned that I work in disabled-led arts, took out his phone to check messages mid-conversation. Less than.
 
 I have been able to reflect that I am at a shifting point in my career as an artist and as a voice within disabled-led arts working towards artistic and cultural equality for our community. If I can speak out, and this is just for me, I have a responsibility to do so. And I am driven to make the best, most compelling, powerful, meaningful, relevant work that I can, with thoughtful and analytical practice.
 
One of the most exciting elements of Directors Lab North and of the Toronto Luminato Theatre Festival (which, along with the British Council also supported our programme) was the theme of activism and what role activism has on the creative life of an artist. Right up my street. Invaluable.
 
The Theme of Activism
All 28 of us directors had answered a question on our application forms about whether it is necessary for the role of an artist to also be an activist, and if so, how do we do this effectively and theatrically without alienating an audience? We were all so different in many ways, those forms must have made for very interesting reading. These are matters I face daily in my practice – making sure the activism is in the form of excellent art, and discovering new ways to get audiences to both engage and invest in the work. It was such a luxury to see work at Luminato, to discuss it, to share practice, to meet guest speakers and practitioners and to explore different approaches.
Specific discussion points which have stayed with me relate to questions about
  • who can tell the stories of people from diverse communities (whatever the mist screen of ‘diversity’ actually means), a concern and sometimes indignation for some non-diverse artists to feel they couldn’t explore these other peoples’ stories with authenticity
  • the impact of access considerations on a non-disabled artists work, some real concerns about how to publicise trigger warnings, and make work accessible without artistic compromise.
  • whether we want audiences to think or feel, this was a fascinating, at time binary discussion but really interesting to hear other directors thoughts on this and it gave room to discuss what we want to share with our audiences
  • the roles of politeness and agency in theatrical settings, from the word go, in both the first theatre show we went to see which was largely ‘no-choice’ audience participation, and our first guest director, the differences between polite respect for someone’s position either as an artist or as an audience member, and sincerely intended enquiring questioning about supporting new and diverse stories to be developed in mainstream settings became evident. Again, we didn’t know what we didn’t know about each other.
  • And crucially important to me is my ongoing research into how internationally acclaimed artists describe or ‘pitch’ their work to reach audiences and persuade programmers of the value of their activism as works of art.
 
I’ll blog separately about some of these discussions and the learning involved.
In a hugely conflicted world, it is essential to speak out, to be accountable and to build bridges. Artists have an important role to play in the conversations about society, humanity and, in these difficult times, resistance. And also to be a community. It’s not enough for me to stand on the shoulders of the disability rights movement, to sit back and observe the world, take public funding and make out of context, status quo serving, socially apolitical, comfortable and privileged work. I’m also going to be really careful that my work does not conflate disability with illness and ability, and I will not perpetuate existing stereotypes and tropes that exist around disability. So my practice is careful, considered and challenges me.
 
Cultural differences
It became apparent immediately that there were cultural differences between US, Canada, European and UK participants that perhaps none of us had given much thought to in advance. And there were a variety of intersectional differences between all of us wherever we were from. It took a while to acclimatize to each other and to work out what we didn’t know about each other. It was both a huge and beautiful learning process. There were matters of communication – politeness versus enquiring questions, straight talking versus diplomacy, diversity versus mainstream, political versus apolitical, political versus entertainment, perceptions of construction of identity including gender, disability, LGBTQI, social class, race and age. All genuinely fascinating and the impressive thing was the level of genuine mutual respect amongst the group. The word ‘versus’ was removed from the discussion.
 
We realized that all of the six UK based directors, not exclusively, were all mission led. We all make work for a specific purpose which is socially engaged. Other directors were perhaps led by a particular theory of practice, or a specific form, and others were jobbing directors, often working as unpaid assistant directors for the experience as an accepted part of the existing hierarchy. It was fascinating to see how our discussions unfolded and then also how are practice was shared and demonstrated. And we were able to have conversations about some of the fundamentals of a rehearsal room – do we do warm ups, how do we do them, why do we do them and also, how much table work do we do, if any, depending on our training and our approach to the process. We rarely get to spend time in other directors rehearsals so this was really interesting. I learned so much that I will continue to use.
 
One of the biggest cultural differences was of course the role of indigenous artists activism, artistry and protection of the true history of indigenous people in Canada and their experiences at the hands of settlers. One of the guest directors who presented to us was the amazing Jill Carter, Assistant Professor, Centre for Drama, Centre for Indigenous Studies, University of Toronto. She talked with passion about the representation of indigenous women, and characters created by both non-indigenous people and indigenous artists. It was absolutely fascinating. I could happily have spent the whole day with her. We also got to see a production called bug by Yolanda Bonnell, a queer performer and playwright of Ojibwe and South Asian descent, hailing from the Fort William First Nation Indian Reserve in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The piece was haunting and challenging on many levels, with Bonnell playing many women, and weaving the creation story throughout. Bonnell was captivating as she moved from character to character with great skill and expertise. Though painful, the piece concluded with hope for future women and the safeguarding of the land. It was brilliant to be part of discussions involving such strong women.
 
High Impact Work
Two pieces of work had a really big impact on me, in quite different ways. I’d say both were politically urgent pieces – often where I position my own work – delivered and followed up in quite different ways. The first was Burning Doors by Belarus Free Theatre who had combined forces with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina – a pulsing, visceral and physical piece sharing stories of persecuted artists, living under dictatorship, who will not be silenced.  It was powerful and relentless in its anger and fire. For me, the intensity is shocking, and then sadly numbing, the audience breathing a sigh of relief when it is over but not really knowing what to do with its new information. ‘Isn’t this where we clap enthusiastically, perhaps give a standing ovation and then go to dinner?’. We didn’t have to wait long as we were choreographed into being videoed chanting ‘Free Sentsov’, Oleg Sentsov a film maker in a Russian prison for alleged acts of terrorism and currently on hunger strike,  by one of the productions co-directors Natalia Kaliada. It was fascinating and challenging and has given me lots to think about. I spoke with Natalia Kaliada the next day as part of our DLN session which I’ll blog about separately.
 
The second piece I saw had an impact on me that I don’t think I’ve previously ever had in a theatre. It was the most moved I have ever been by a piece of theatre. Out The Window by Liza Balkan and directed by Sarah Garton Stanley tells the real story of the death of Otto Vass, a man with mental health problems, after being physically assaulted by four police officers outside a 7-11 store. Liza Balkan saw the last minutes of Otto Vass’s life out of her window. The piece uses verbatim interviews and court transcripts, a physical and visual style, and artist and activist Syrus Marcus Ware drew a portrait of Vass throughout the first two acts of the piece. So although Vass’s voice is not heard, his presence is respected and felt. I loved the piece from the beginning but in the third act, all actors dropped their characters and presented as versions of themselves, they invited people to eat with them and they talked about other people in portraits who had the same experience as Otto Vass. And the Bruised Years Choir sang Everybody Hurts. I have never experienced survivors of mental health problems or the families of those with mental health problems singing to those of us who know what they meant, ‘Hold On, hold on’. They were singing it to me, to a member of my close family who couldn’t hold on, and to a close friend who also found the struggle of holding on too great. God it was so powerful. The humanity of that. The kindness. Reaching out. I couldn’t speak for two hours after the show but kept replaying it all in my mind. More to come about the impact of this on me as a person and me as a practitioner. But isn’t it wonderful to be part of the community that can do this to other people, can communicate humanity, share kindness and reach out.

A massive thank you to British Council Canada, Directors Lab North and the whole team there, ARC Stockton UK and the Luminato Festival Toronto for this unbelievable experience. And a huge thank you to my fellow labbies - we united!

I think we all came away from Directors Lab North changed in some way – more questions, inspired, fired up, more confident about our voices, and keen to find new directions and develop new collaborations. This activists door is always open.
0 Comments

Impactive Engagement - Disabled-led theatre practitioner attending international directors lab in toronto

6/12/2018

0 Comments

 
Vici Wreford-Sinnott is founding Artistic Director of Little Cog, a disabled-led theatre company, and is Co-Founder of Cultural Shift, a strategic artistic platform for disabled artists.  A leading voice in the Disability Arts and disabled-led arts movements, she has been selected by the British Council Canada and the Lab's organisers to attend Directors Lab North in Toronto.

Picture
I’ve got a couple of lists on the go, there are 14 tabs open on my lap top, a suitcase open with good intentions and kids to feed within the next hour.

I’m in that pre-adventure terror haze. And I am about to have an adventure. I’ve been lucky enough to be selected by the British Council Canada and Directors Lab North (Toronto, Canada) to attend a 28 strong, 10-day theatre directors laboratory. 28 artistic directors from all over the world and I am one of 6 UK directors attending, all bringing different technical and philosophical approaches to theatre.

I’ve never been to Canada (though is has long been a dream) and I haven’t met any of the other directors before. As far as I know, none of the other directors are self-identifying disabled people – although I will obviously do my research to check out the fellow crip-stats and report back in my return blog. It’s a very exciting opportunity – we’ll be attending workshops, talks, presentations, an arts festival, theatre shows, art form and critique discussions, some us are leading sessions and there is a mysterious playwrights project so there is going to be lots of learning, exchanging and informing. It’s not often to be afforded the time and space for professional and creative development, so this feels like a real luxury.

And it’s quite daunting. Wondering where I’ll fit, are my/our stories and aesthetics interesting to this new audience, and will it be accessible and comfortable. I’m reassured to note that many of the other directors are all from diverse backgrounds – many of us are probably striving to ensure that amazing stories of often hidden people and cultures are given a place in our flagship theatres. And it’s clear that within so-called ‘diversity’ there is much innovation in the way that we reach and engage audiences, informing our practice. I’m looking forward to discussions in this area, and how and why we make theatre relevant in the 21st century in the midst of a technical and digital revolution. What is it about a live exchange that gives theatre its rich power and how does that translate in the modern world?

Practitioners attending are actively engaged in bringing about increased understanding, and social and cultural change, so I know there will be many notes and experiences to share. Everyone will bring a different voice, sharing practice and both introducing and learning new techniques and practices. And we will inevitably become an international network of practitioners – what a brilliant opportunity.

Oh and as for access, so far the British Council and the organisers of the Lab could not have done more to meet my access requirements…from the every-day things, to the extent of spotting that one of the outdoor festival events available to us is standing only and are solution seeking rather than saying ‘oh sorry, you can’t go to that one’. So far, so good. If I had time to pinch myself I would, but things need crossing off these lists and that empty suitcase is staring at me.  I’ll keep you posted.
 
Picture
0 Comments

Stockton learning disabled actors ask us to ensure their stories are heard in their powerful new play, The Keepers

11/8/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
The Keepers is a powerful new production created by learning disabled actors working in collaboration with professional theatre director Vici Wreford-Sinnott, who have been collaborating for the last five years, at ARC Stockton. It’s a piece about ‘not going back’ – about not going back to the old days, about not going back on promises, and about not going back to institutions for learning disabled people.
 
Full Circle have made their latest performance piece with a quickly changing world in mind and the fact that it’s easy to forget to respect people who are different, to leave them behind in the rush to move forward, and to forget to ask them about things that impact on their lives. Disabled people generally are concerned about the great societal uncertainties that impact on our everyday lives.
 
Full Circle members believe passionately that disabled people must be listened to about their experiences. They were inspired by a book which was created by a group of people who had left long term institutional hospitalisation. The book was created so that the stories of learning disabled people are neither lost nor forgotten.
 
Kenny, one of the actors told us, “Learning disabled people had no respect in the hospital. No-one listened to them and they had no choices.”
 
The days of institutionalisation are remembered with fear and dread for disabled people, and the lack of life choices and basic rights that go along with that. People were sent away from their families with no real diagnosis, and often, for no other valid reason than a person could not be understood.
 
The Keepers is set on a remote island and follows the stories of a group of people who have been sent to live there against their wishes. In spite of attempts to remove their dignity, the group forge a role for themselves, and become the keepers of hidden promises, of invisible truths, and of stories untold. The piece speaks to the responsibility we all have to reveal unfairness and inequality in our local communities. 
 
The Keepers collect the messages in bottles washed up on the shore of the island, and all the released balloons with messages of love are safely recorded so that no-one’s hopes and dreams is forgotten. One character tries to keep a promise it was almost impossible to keep, where every possible obstacle that could appear, did appear.
 
Alyson, who helped to create the piece said, “In the hospital, the people had no identities –all their personal items were removed. They had to wear a uniform, and followed a rigid daily routine – couldn’t eat when they wanted, and couldn’t even have a cuppa with friends. They were treated as if they had no brain and no feelings – work, work, work – and then go to bed early. We must never go back.”
 
Andrea, another actor, said, “We wanted to show that we are people with interesting things to say. We have a right to make choices about our lives, and we deserve to have the chance to share our ideas in a theatre with others. It’s our way of telling our own stories, and of trying to keep the promise that we will not forget what people have been through.”
 
The new piece of work premieres at ARC Stockton as part of a project called Cultural Shift, which aims to put disabled people centre-stage in a disabled-led way, ensuring that the ideas are all those of disabled people.
 
Vici Wreford-Sinnott is the Creative Lead on the project, and is used to creating pioneering work with disabled people. “I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with Full Circle for the last five years. They are a remarkable group of people, of theatre makers who have developed a unique signature style – physical, visual work with a brilliant sound track and themes of comedy even in the most powerful of work. It’s really surprising and entertaining.”
 
She continued, “The group usually play to packed houses, and we hope to fill ARC again this time for a particularly significant performance at this time in the company’s development, in a social climate which presents significant challenges for disabled people”.
 
The Keepers will be performed on 9 November at both 1.30pm and 7.00pm. Tickets are on a Pay What You Decide basis but should be booked in advance please. Box office is 01642 525199 / www.arconline.co.uk
 
About Cultural Shift
Cultural Shift is an extraordinary three year programme of artistic activity, led by disabled people at ARC Stockton, ensuring that the extraordinary voices of disabled people are heard and that the incredibly diverse art created by disabled people is valued as equal in our cultural landscape. We are challenging perceptions, creating new opportunities and introducing new people to the work of disabled artists.

Little Cog
Little Cog is a dynamic disabled-led theatre company presenting ground-breaking new work in the North East of England. It was founded by Artistic Director, Vici Wreford-Sinnott, in 2011.
The company has been involved in a number of pioneering disability arts projects and is currently working in partnership with ARC Stockton, a multi-artorm venue, delivering a three year programme of activity called Cultural Shift, which aims to challenge perceptions of disabled people in the arts and to create increased opportunities for both professional and community based disability art.

About Full Circle
Full Circle is a theatre company of learning disabled actors based at ARC. It was set up in 2008 by two of the groups’ members with the support of Stockton Borough Council Adult Services. The group is committed to promoting and valuing learning disabled people, their creativity and their voices. The group creates new and original work, with scripting and devising being carried out by group members.  The group work as an ensemble, where everyone has equal input, and are supported by two members of staff. They have created work in collaboration with Vici Wreford-Sinnott from Little Cog for the last five years.
 


Picture
Rehearsal photos
2 Comments

Cease and Desist: Let’s Call Time on Disability Stereotypes and Misleading Myths

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Philippa Cole as Rat and Andrew McLay as Murphy in Another England by Vici Wreford-Sinnott. Premiered at ARC Stockton, May 2017. Rat discovers the images Murphy has collected and internalised about disability identity.

Throughout my career in Disability Arts and the promotion of equality for disabled people in art and culture, I, along with many Disabled colleagues around the country, have always tried to increase understanding of Disability as a social idea. We don’t view any notions of ‘difference’: disabled people; Black and Asian people; women; older people; LGBTQI people, as we do, by accident. I’d love artists and companies, both disabled and non-disabled, to be aware that negative ideas around disability are continually perpetuated through the arts and permeate culture each and every day – theatre, literature, film, spoken word, fine art, comedy, television, print media, news, children’s stories. To encourage artists and companies to consider misrepresentations when creating new work or re-presenting old works, it’s important to put a few things into context.
 
 In a 21st Century world with our increased understanding of society, of segregation, and of social constructs, it really isn’t good enough to be lazy in our understanding of the systemic social and cultural discrimination of Disabled people.  Within the Arts, we have to examine our practice, our processes, our work, its content, any representations it makes, and be accountable if we, either deliberately or inadvertently, perpetuate negativity around Disabled peoples’ status and value as equal citizens. There are a number of clearly articulated stereotypes and tropes which do this, and some clearly articulated artistic decisions taken by those with artistic and cultural power which actively hinder progress.
 
I’ve been lucky enough to attend a few Disabled-led Disability Arts events lately, which are brilliant for all sorts of reasons, but particularly when you need to just take a peer ‘check-in’ with your thinking. Having been involved in Disability Arts for 25 years things have changed a lot, and it’s really important that we continue to lead the way when it comes to policy and practice around Disability Equality in art and culture, both for our own work and to inform the work of those working with Disabled people, or where Disability is a subject within their work.
 
The Disability Arts sector has changed greatly since its inception as part of the Disability Rights Movement in the 1960s and 70s where theatre, music, poetry, cabaret, visual art, street performance  were used as a means of protest against discrimination and to campaign for equal rights for Disabled people. Society and culture have also changed a lot since those days, but the fight for equality seems ever more urgent in our current political climate.
 
One of the great difficulties for any social group seeking equality is to challenge the historical and social status given to ‘marginalised groups’ and perpetuated through time, art and culture. We can trace the development of low ‘social status’ for Disabled people right back to Ancient Greece, where to be less than perfect was to be ‘less good’ and to have ‘less value’ as a citizen, and similarly through each historical era since, there has been specific negative attention given to those with impairments.
 
Thanks to the Disability Rights Movement, to Disabled activists, artists and academics, we are able to robustly examine art and culture, and its role in perpetuating the low value and low status bestowed on Disabled people.
 
We have looked at societal perceptions of Disability and Disabled people, and collected those perceptions into different ‘models’ of disability. There is a ‘charity’ model which views us as rather pitiable dependents needing other people to take care of us and make decisions for us. The dominant contemporary model of viewing disabled people is known as the Medical Model of Disability. It sees disability as a deficit, as something ‘wrong’ with a person. An individual is at fault because they are perceived as having functional deficiencies, which progresses into either needing to be cured or becoming a burden to both family and state.
 
However in the 1960s the Disability Rights Movement developed a new approach of looking at Disability and examined what the disabling factors were for people with impairments. Disabled people were all too aware that we experienced barriers and obstacles to fully taking part in society. There were physical barriers such as steps and lack of accessible car parking for people with physical impairments, there were sensory barriers for visually and hearing impaired people, communication and information barriers for learning disabled people, psychological barriers for people with mental health conditions, and both attitudinal and institutional barriers preventing equal access to employment, education, communities, the arts, and social involvement more widely. Disabled people realised that we were not the problem but in fact the disabling factor for us was that society was full of barriers and attitudes which prevented our equality.
 
The Social Model of Disability (the term coined by Mike Oliver in 1983 to describe what disabled peoples groups were articulating) is now recognised as the most effective model we have to increase understanding and to removing inequality and discrimination, with its recognition of barriers external to individuals with impairments and to the equality measures that must be put in place by society to equally accommodate the requirements of all citizens.
 
Stereotypes
 
The social model allowed us to see clearly that ideas around disabled people had been socially constructed, which in turn revealed the stereotypical ways disabled people had been represented in theatre, film, media and literature. In 1991 Paul Hunt identified 10 stereotypes that various media use to portray disabled people:
  1. The disabled person as pitiable or pathetic – Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  2. An object of violence – Blanche in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
  3. Sinister or evil – Most Bond villains
  4. The super cripple or superhuman – Paralympics advertising, overcoming and overcompensating
  5. As curiosity or atmosphere – Tommy the Musical
  6. Laughable or the butt of jokes – Forest Gump or Dumb and Dumber
  7. His/her own worst enemy / chip on the shoulder – Captain Hook
  8. As a burden – people kept hidden or outcast such as Quasimodo
  9. As Non-sexual – Marlon Brando as a veteran in The Men
  10. Being unable to participate in daily life – lack of visibility, presented as incapable
Myths about Disabled People
 
Due to both under-representation and mis-representation, myths about Disabled people have been created and underline and inform public opinion. These are just a few myths which we need to dispel.

  • Disabled people are brave and courageous – no, we have successfully adapted to our lives
  • To become disabled is a personal tragedy – life-changing situations can be supported positively. 70% of us will become disabled as we age.
  • Disabled people are chronically ill or sick – we are not defined by illness
  • Wheelchairs are restrictive – actually they are a tool of independence
  • Disabled people don’t have sexual relationships – of course they do! We are all sexual beings.
  • All disabled people need carers – disabled people are independent and sometimes employ assistants to support that independence
  • Disabled people are a financial burden – actually there is a strong economy around disabled people through 7 million of us working and tax-paying, and  through the creation of jobs to support us – many of us are employers. The ‘purple pound’ has been calculated to be worth £249 million pounds to the economy.
 
Tropes
In this context the word ‘trope’ means that  a culturally or socially ‘agreed-upon narrative’ already exists around a certain idea – for example disabled peoples experiences, lives or identities  – and that it is possible that an audience will accept a reading of a story or situation according to the simplest and most widely-held beliefs. It is a kind of narrative stereotype. Many tropes exist around disabled people and appear in our lives on a daily basis. We exist in these tropes on the basis of the one-dimensional stereotypes above and to further the narratives of other more important, non-disabled ‘whole’ characters. Sadly, there are many more than those listed here. Disability tropes reinforce disablism and ignorance.
  • The sweet innocent saint – a representation of saintly goodness in spite of difficulty and inequality
  • The vengeful villain – dark revenge characters unable to accept their impairment and seek to harm others
  • Magical cures – where a disabled person is cured of their impairments and only then becomes whole
  • Better dead than disabled – where someone who becomes unwell or disabled would rather die than endure life with an impairment often relating to suicide or mercy killing
  • Disability as an education tool – where disability is used as a tool to educate another character to a device to further another characters narrative
  • Disabled people as inspiration porn –  a character rebuilding him or herself back from impairment – you can get better if only you tried harder
  • Damaged disabled person suffering – presented as a broken person
  • Affliction and suffering – defined by a steady decline in health in forensic detail
  • Disabled person as a solution – a side-lined one dimensional character who at the end possesses the solution to another characters problem based on their ‘specialness’

Cripping Up

 
Put simply, ‘cripping up’ is the appropriation of disabled peoples’ narratives by non-disabled writers, directors, and presented using non-disabled actors to play the parts of disabled people. It means that the stories chosen to be told are chosen by non-disabled people, often containing disablist stereotypes, myths and tropes because they are unaware of the cultural implications of their ‘artistic’ choices. Much has been said of the relief audiences feel when non-disabled actors receive their Oscars for representing a voyeuristic and distorted view of disabled peoples’ experiences, and then walk away from the podium, transcending disability, completely healed and whole again.
 
Much of what I’m writing here has been discussed a lot within the Disability Rights Movement and the Disability Arts Community for decades, we’ve discussed it with legislative bodies, Government departments and national policy makers for the arts but somehow the discourse is always side-lined, or hijacked by a new initiative, or sometimes by people who think they know better than we do about what is best for our cultural position - the old Charity Model. We are largely under-estimated still, ironically based on cultural tropes and myths. There are earnest initiatives in place attempting to support the advancement of Disabled people in the arts but without advancing the discourse around content, around voice and how the work is viewed,  we may just be temporarily treading water culturally.
 

0 Comments

A Mental Health Aesthetic in Disability Theatre

8/1/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Jacqueline Phillips amazing performance of Beatrice in Butterly

It has been such a privilege to rekindle my body of work with the support of the team at ARC Stockton. Annabel Turpin has always been so open to providing space and platforms for theatre-makers developing work which is contemporary, is challenging in form or content, and work which explores the relationship between audience and theatre practice. I've had a truly curious, artistically fulfilling, adventure with other amazing artists, and as such, the space to engage in my ongoing conversation within my own practice about the aesthetics of change / equality in theatre.

Butterfly is a one woman contemporary performance piece which aims to recognise the historical trail of stigma attached to mental health problems, and more widely to disabled people and to anyone regarded as ‘other’. However, Beatrice, our main protagonist, had hoped that she wouldn’t be here, tonight, in this place. Under the microscope. The worst thing we could do really was put her centre-stage. She just wants a quiet life, but given the treatment of disabled people, including people with mental health problems, her hand is forced.
Beatrice is faced with the options of staying under the radar or becoming a ‘Reclaimer’ in an increasingly hostile state. With the help of Butterfly and Boudica, and an experimentation with form, Beatrice travels between both big and little history, and is forced to make some difficult decisions. Elizabeth, as ever, stays behind her blinds and half drawn curtains.

Butterfly explores how we, as a society and as a culture, continue to accept and perpetuate the weighty baggage of stereotypes, medicalisation and myths as facts. So great and powerful are the traditions of the cultural canon, that anyone outside it, anyone not represented by it, anyone who has not had their voices and stories heard by it, must continue to challenge it and fight to be included in the cultural landscape.

I am committed to disability equality in cultural contexts and I am currently exploring the connection between work made in a mental health context and its aesthetic relationship to the social model of disability, or models which locate the disabling factors in a person's life outside of the individual, and its position within the broader body of Disability Arts. I am fascinated with the representation of disability in the classical cannon and challenging our accepted narratives around disabled people and their value/place. My work explores the colonisation of identity and its reclamation.

In aesthetic terms, it is not enough for me to make 'access' an artform, thought I do value this - the work we make clearly has to be accessible as an act of equality. I fully understand why it is important to make work accessible. How possible is it to make the work universally accessible though? Or perhaps what I really mean by that is, in terms of the access we're attempting to make part of the artistic process, how many people do we leave out, exclude, leave unreferenced in terms of equality, how many impairments are not considered in current 'access as aesthetic'. And what message does it send to disabled people (and non-disabled people) whose access isn't considered for the aesthetic? Within Disability Arts, we've been having these conversations for decades, and will for time to come. I'm interested in  the stories we choose to tell, the aesthetics we employ in their telling, the artistic decision making which comes from the palette of a disabled person's individual experience but with equal weighting for me, the truths we expose through our reference to history, status, society, social policy, cultural signs and signifiers. Until our histories are told, we cannot fully reveal our present.

You can see a trailer here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpPYsne-wzU

A review of the show from the Northern Echo

Lovely blog piece on Express North

Some comments on Vici’s work:

"A powerful, dark, funny one woman drama exploring how we treat human beings in the 21st Century" 
                                                                                                             Express North - Inspiring Women to Celebrate

“Intense, innovative and thought provoking, cleverly written and skilfully executed” 
                                                                                                               The Art of Not Getting Lost, Shout North East

“Compelling theatre – I was completely drawn into the world they created” 
                                                                                                                           The Art of Not Getting Lost, Audience

“This show would not be out of place on a London stage, and if it were, it would shine” 
                                                                                                                                   Audience Member, ARC Stockton

“Vici Wreford Sinnott is an accomplished writer and knows her craft”
                                                                                                                                                     Disability Arts Online
0 Comments

OCCUPATION seeks 3 Disabled Actors and 1 Non-Disabled Actor Wanted For Rehearsed Reading - Paid

7/20/2015

0 Comments

 
Pauline Heath in Association with Little Cog

3 Disabled Actors and 1 Non-Disabled Actor Wanted For Rehearsed Reading

Occupation is a new play by Pauline Heath which will be presented at ARC Stockton as a rehearsed reading on 1 October 2015.

This new hard-hitting play is showing how people and families have been affected by austerity. And how it affects everybody, not just minorities. People who would never before have dreamed of attending a rally, are now gathering to speak out. What would make you protest? What would you protest about? This piece is taken from the real life experiences of disabled people near you.


1 female actor, playing age 40-50 years to play Parent

1 male disabled actor, playing age 45-50 years to play Ex-Soldier

1 male disabled actor, playing age 18-22 years to play Young Person

1 female disabled actor, playing age 35-50 years to play Professional


Each actor will multi-role, but will have one main character to play.

There will be five days of rehearsals in Stockton-On-Tees, 27 September – 1 October, including a public reading on 1 October 2015. Actors must be available for all rehearsals and performance. The fee is £150 per day, with travel and accommodation covered additionally by arrangement. We also have an access budget.

Auditions will be held on 2 September 2015. To apply, please email us your CV including the name of two referees, a short paragraph stating why you are interested in being involved in this piece, a headshot and on a separate page, please inform us of your access requirements for the audition. The deadline for applications is Noon on 21 August. Please email to Vici Wreford-Sinnott at littlecog@rocketmail.com indicating which part you are applying for in your email and with Occupation Audition in the email Subject line.

Picture
0 Comments

Excited to have a press release for 'The Art of Not Getting Lost'

5/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's not easy - the art of self-promotion. I'm not at all comfortable with it but I do really want people to see my work to challenge the stigmatisation of mental health. It's been great to work with the wonderful Rob O'Connor from Ten Past Eight Media and PR to create information to send to our regional press.

The Art Of Not Getting Lost

Brand new play tackles the stigma of mental health

 A brand new play tackling the stigma of mental health is set to be performed for the first time at both Stockton’s ARC and Northern Stage in Newcastle over the next few weeks. Written and directed by Saltburn based Vici Wreford-Sinnott, The Art of Not Getting Lost follows the story of two characters who have made their home in the hidden tunnels of London’s Bakerloo Station.

Creating their own fictional Lost Property Centre to help them retrace their lives, are they hiding themselves or are they actually being hidden from public view? Vici said: “One in four of us will experience mental health distress at some point in our lives. It does not define who we are, but there remain many negative and stereotypical perceptions.

“It affects all of us in some way, and if we do not talk about it, it will remain hidden, shameful and stigmatised.”

Vici, originally from Durham, has carved a career in ground breaking theatre, said: “The play is an exploration of friendship, truth and lies, and what happens to people when they are under pressure of stigma. Do they hide, do they look the other way, or do they stand up and be counted?"

“I’ve taken some of my own experiences and my two characters – Everyone and No-One – have allowed me to tell the stories of mental health past and present, and to look at how we have arrived at our ideas of what is and isn’t ‘normal.’

“The play looks at two aspects of mental health. We have the personal experiences of someone undergoing mental health problems, and how that affects them and the people around them. And there’s the wider issue of the continued stigmatisation both throughout history and right up to the here and now of people experiencing mental health problems.”

The Art of Not Getting Lost has been supported with funding from Arts Council England, and produced in association with ARC Stockton & Zinc Arts, Essex and is performed by Ree Collins and Eleanor Crawford.

  ARC, Stockton: Wednesday 20 May. 7pm. Age: 14+. Tickets: £pay what you decide. Box Office: 01642 525 199 or www.arconline.co.uk

  Northern Stage, Newcastle: Thursday 25 June. 7.30pm. Tickets: £10 / £8 concs. Box Office: 0191 230 5151 or www.northernstage.co.uk

ENDS

Additional / Background info on Vici Wreford-Sinnott

Vici grew up in Co Durham in the North East of England and moved to London in the 1980s. She went on to study Contemporary Thetre Performance, Women in Theatre and specialised in Theatre Direction at the University of Kent.

She returned north in 1993 and set up Sycorax Theatre Company – ‘the first feminist theatre group in the East Durham coalfield!’ “That really made me a much stronger person,” said Vici. “And I found a lot of miners’ wives and local women had become much more politically aware because of the miners’ strike.”

Vici moved to Dublin in 2000 to become the Chief Executive of Arts & Disability Ireland. It was here that Vici directed the first National Disability Arts Festival in the Republic, and directed two of the first pieces of professional disability theatre in Dublin – ‘The Baby Doll Project’ by Rosaleen McDonagh which won a Metro Eireann Award and ‘Broadcast’ co devised with Donal Toolan, which was commissioned for the Dublin Fringe Festival.

Moved to Saltburn to be closer to family in 2003, becoming Chief Executive of Arcadea – the regional organisation for promoting disability equality in the arts. Her successful six-year directorship included being the artistic director of the Mimosa Festival across the North East including venues such as Sage Gateshead and Northern Stage.

Vici took a break from theatre in 2010 but after a period of baking herself well and knitting herself a life, the playwriting instinct kicked in again and, in 2011, Vici set up Little Cog Theatre Company. She’s since directed three plays, established three residencies (one at Stockton’s ARC and two at Zinc Arts in Essex), and has also set up Not-So-Silent Films – aiming to give a voice to disabled film-makers.

  Outlining the motivation behind writing her new play, The Art of Not Getting Lost, Vici said …..

The piece is set in a self-styled Lost Property Centre where many of the artefacts of mental health history have been located and remain hidden.

“Throughout history, there’s always been a huge stigmatisation – either brutally or slightly under the radar - of people experiencing mental health problems.

  “In Victorian times, people could pay a penny to go into asylums to see the so-called ‘mad people’ for entertainment. Slightly further ahead in time, the Nazi’s used a ‘black triangle’ to identify people with mental health problems or people who were known as 'asocial'. They were actually used as Hitler’s first experiment on the ‘Final Solution’ before he turned his attentions onto the Jewish population.

“Then we had the early days of modern psychiatry – whilst there have been advances, there were decades of Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) which was heavily used throughout the 1940s and 50’s, administered without anaesthetic – plus the over-prescription of dangerously addictive medication leaving people in a haze  and unable to function properly, with 'treatment' administered without consent.

“Stigmatisation is still evident today and is very oppressive, disabled people and people with mental health problems have been vilified in the public domain - you’d really think we could find ways to be humane, have dignity, offer support and ensure that the stories and experiences of disabled people and people with mental health problems are told.

Media contact: For further info, please call Rob O’Connor on 0779 0585 396, or email rob@tenpasteight.co.uk

Picture
0 Comments

Why is it awkward/important to describe myself as a Disabled Artist?

3/17/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Awkward Bastards

I attended the Dash Arts and Mac Birmingham curated event Awkward Bastards on Thursday 12 March. It was a fantastic day in many ways – I hooked up with old friends, met new artists whose politics, thinking and aesthetics I admire and feel inspired by. There were lots of affirmations about the culture and community I’m part of and best of all had a couple of ‘in ya face’ provocations which have really made me think and re-assess ideas I have about my practice, my identity, and my place in the cultural landscape – just the small stuff then!

The day was about ‘challenging and exploring the concept of diversity’, and about exploring the links and barriers between cultures. For me this is heavy duty thinking as I’m concerned about where we seem to be in our national perception of ‘diversity’ and the need to justify its existence. More of that at a later date.

 My brain was literally sizzling at the end of the event. There were a mix of presentations from academics, artists and activists. We had been taken on a journey from 18th Century disabled beggars, eccentrics and aristocrats, through the Black arts Movement, filling the gaps in history, disabling and queering the museum, a reflection on the history and contemporary of disability arts, and presentations from artists on the subject in the title of this piece.  There was so much I wanted to say, so many questions I wanted to ask, so the much needed sleep on the three hour train journey home never came.

I’m an ‘out and proud’ Disabled artist. But I acknowledge that it is still uncomfortable/awkward  to say that in certain situations and in ‘certain company’, and it is awkward for some people to hear me describe myself in that way. Many people know nothing about the Disability Rights Movement as a Civil Rights Movement in the UK. It is neither presented nor represented as such in any notion of 20th Century British history. Fewer people still know about the international body of work known as the Disability Arts Movement, the last Avant Garde Arts Movement as Melvyn Bragg called us.

So without the historical and political and aesthetic contexts, I realise that the word Disabled is loaded with all the old stigma, mythology, negative perceptions and stereotypes. For me the term Disabled artist, or Disabled person is a political statement. I’m using it in a political way based on the Social Model of Disability. But who would know that? Who outside the Disability Rights Movement / Disability Arts Movement would know that? It doesn’t have the same power, recognition or identification with being political as when I describe myself as a Feminist. There aren’t the same associations in wider society, in wider culture, with politics. With taking a position.

It is awkward to describe myself as Disabled as to most people it is heard in a medical model context, it is a loaded term. I’m instantly ‘other’, instantly inhabit an ‘other’ space outside what they know and perceive of art and culture. I’m potentially second rate (never darlings), special, do community art, am an amateur, never realised my full potential, someone you need to be careful of in case I go doolalley right in front of your eyes.

And then if I’m Disabled and I have an opinion about something – especially if its human rights, diversity disability equality – I’m ‘other’ again. Moany, chip on my shoulder, exclusive, extreme, niche. If I speak up in diversity contexts aimed at mainstream arts I can see peoples’ faces drop, eyes glaze over, disengage, and painting myself into yet an ‘other’ space. As an activist and equality campaigner, and as someone who has held both national (in the Republic of Ireland) and regional (North East England) Chief Executive roles in development organisations with the responsibility to promote the cultural equality of disabled people, believe me, I’ve experienced this a lot.

There is a duality at play here though and I’m not unaware of it. If I position myself as a Disabled artist / manager / strategist then the two sides of how I am perceived will come into play. Perceptions from all sides will put me in a box of some sort (Boxes are for shoes as the Vacuum Cleaner said). Hmmm. Awkward.

I’d love it if we could come up with a more activist term on a par with feminist for disability activism, one which doesn’t pitch us into a ‘victim’ position.

So, the journey I’m on at the moment, as a professional, talented, amazing Disabled artist (over compensating?) – I dipped out of view for a while due to mental ill health. I hard to recharge everything I had after ten years in CEO positions with a responsibility for promoting the cultural equality of disabled people. I burned out. Again awkward. I came back refreshed, full of vim and vigour (I know), and am repositioning my voices within the disability arts movement. I’m excited to be writing and directing theatre. Disability Theatre.

None of my questions are new here, they are an ongoing dilemma for talented artists socially engaged in disability rights. Are we in a new wave where we can finally challenge the old guard? For now I’ll remain, Vici, playwright and director, thinker, trickster, ‘out and proud’ affirmative Disabled artist, privileged to be contributing to the international body of work created by the Disability Arts Movement, but am excited by all the new thoughts my head is thinking.

I’m not sure that we did re-think diversity as a Symposium, but there are certainly some amazing people are actively engaged in the process, and there is a lot of common ground between different cultural communities. As I said at the end of the event, Diversity is a process and we all know what it looks like. Equity is our goal and we need to decide what that actually looks like to effectively explore the path of reaching it. What does come next I wonder? How do we continue the converation together, led by the people it affects the most?


0 Comments

Gaps in The Landscape - Learning Disability Identity and Culture

2/16/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Lab - A Devised Collaboration between Little Cog and Full Circle Theatre Company. Presented at Arc Stockton in May 2014. Photo Credit: Black Robin
‘Los Muertos’  is the working title of a new piece of theatre being created between myself and Full Circle Theatre Group, a company of theatre-makers with learning disabilities.  Our priorities are to make an excellent piece of theatre which questions commonly held perceptions of learning disabled artists, and one which reflects the identities and culture of those making the work.  We’re all extending our skills and raising our ambitions. Last year we devised a science fiction adventure called ‘The Lab’ where we invited our audiences to visit Compound 49 to witness a unique experiment. It was the first time that Full Circle had performed in the large theatre space in ARC Stockton, and for the first time, presented their work to an evening audience as well as a day time audience. Audience numbers were fantastic and the response to the standard of the work was amazing. Really positive feedback all round. So this year again, we’re ‘upping our game’. We’d like to do a mini tour but this raises all sorts of questions to which we don’t yet have all the answers.  I’ll write more about this on another occasion.

 Los Muertos is a reference to the Mexican Day of the Dead, a celebration and tribute to those who have gone before us. It’s an exciting theatrical vehicle of course, it’s lively, has an amazing soundtrack, is colourful and party-like. As a piece of theatre which relates to learning disability culture it is highly visual, is a celebration, a bringing together of a community and provides  references to the soundtrack of peoples’ lives – in the devising process there have been some instantly recognisable party tracks that people often suggest, part of the cultural furniture from discos and parties. And then there have been some complete surprises – tunes which have filtered through, Hip Hop, Grunge, Goth and  Latin American beats to which people just ‘feel’ how to move. I have to say it’s been a lot of fun so far. We work hard but we do laugh a lot too. I love my job.

But it is also taking us to fascinating levels of exploration. We’re looking at a fairly simple narrative, the devisers want a mix of spooky stuff, a sprinkling of love and loss, real pathos for troubled souls who cannot move forward due to one barrier or another, and some real dramatic tension. Members of the group really want to surprise people who come to see their show and so this means we’re involved in a really creative devising process.  For our last production, The Lab, in addition to physical theatre, digital images and a pumping soundscape we used masks, and Los Muertos allows us to return to this technique to explore it further.  The performers had a real affinity with mask and physical theatre. They want to create interesting characters with interesting stories. They are not necessarily exploring the experience of being disabled people in terms of a ‘message’ for the piece but they are working in ways that are absolutely about communicating disability identity through culture. And, like all disabled artists, because of our lived experiences, it is inevitable that we draw on from a disability palette which informs the work on a number of levels.  There are great subtleties at play here too.

It’s brilliant to be so supported by ARC Stockton, a thriving arts centre in Stockton-On-Tees, North East England, with whom  Little Cog, the theatre company I founded in 2011, have developed a strategic partnership to increase opportunities for disabled artists and for disabled people to be able to take part in high quality arts activity and to work in disabled-led ways. There is a real momentum to our work in the Tees Valley and we are developing really interesting, new models of creative practice and new art works to provide platforms for the voices of disabled people in the arts, so that we can have a more complete cultural landscape, which includes the voices and identities of learning disabled people, not just as project participants but as artists. (It was suggested by one anonymous mainstream organisation that they would not programme the work of learning disabled performers due to poor quality, [Brighton Creative Minds Conference], and that anything of higher quality has been made where learning disabled people were merely ‘participants’ ie not leaders/creatives ).

Our work is part of a movement and strong tradition of theatre created by learning disabled people and we want our work to be part of the critical dialogue about learning disability theatre, and also to be part of the debate. If you want to know more about our work please contact me by email at littlecog@rocketmail.com

0 Comments
<<Previous



    Archives

    January 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2016
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.