Vici Wreford-Sinnott founded Disconsortia with a fantastic group of disabled artists and has loved working for the organisation. She is now a Board Member and the organisation is recruiting a new Project Manager. Here she tells us why she thinks you will love working in an environment where there is so much going on, and so much support for each other as disabled artists who know and understand what access and equality are, and where you don't have to constantly explain yourself. Everyone just 'gets it' and being accessible and supportive is at the heart of what we do.

Disconsortia is a disabled artist-led collective based in the North East of England, currently working online. I was the founding member of the group after some conversations both nationally and regionally. The North East is often left off the cultural map despite there being so much rich and amazing work happening here and so, along with the support of the amazing team at Disability Arts Online and ARC Stockton, we focused our attentions on the region.

I have been lucky enough to work for the collective in coordinating and creative direction roles, and am now delighted to be on the new Board of Directors along with Lisette Auton and Karen Sheader, and we're very excited to work closely with a new Project Manager (curently recruiting so do read on). The members of the collective are the current members of the organisation and will design, direct and guide the ethos, identity and work of Disconsortia.

The 17 members didn’t all know each other before, (you can meet them here) are diverse in all sorts of ways and work across a range of art forms and social practice. They are the most wonderfully supportive tribe a person could ask for. We’re not in each others’ pockets, but we know we are forging a meaningful voice for disabled artists, as well as increasing and improving opportunities. We’ve done a number of things together which have made us stronger - workshops, creative discussions, a mini conference, a cabaret night, created an online digital exhibition At The Table, and navigated a global pandemic.

We are project to project funded at the moment, and are delighted to have secured funding from Arts Council England. Our big project is a regional artistic takeover, working with key partners in art and culture. We’re in the planning stages with a real buzz of excitement, and now have the opportunity to build those partnerships and consult lots of disabled artists from our region on what should be happening in an event like this. We hope it will last a year and as well as exhibitions, performances and things to take part in, we’d really like to build a regional support structure for disabled artists.

We’ve got a three to four month time frame that we’re going to be doing our development, as well as hosting networking meetings for disabled artists, a postcard art project and each current member will create a mini-micro commission. I’m over the moon to be able to deliver four disability equality masterclasses for the region’s cultural sector and also to offer train the trainers for disabled artists interested in branching out into delivering disability equality training themselves.

We need an experienced and well-organised Project Manager to lead this process – which we’ve called Towards A Takeover and are currently recruiting and you can get information here. Do get in touch at disconsortia@gmail.com if you’d like to know more.

It's terrifying really. Both myself as writer/director, and the whole creative and technical team have worked incredibly hard to pull this unique piece of work together. And we all want it to go so well. We've made it the best piece of work we can.

Anyone working in socially engaged work, in work that is a call to arms for equality in the arts, and particularly anyone working in Disability Theatre feels both a sense of responsibility to 'get it right' and also to create a piece of work that stands on its own artistic merits. Anyone making theatre does so because they want an audience to have a fantastic experience, and to see an exemplary piece of work. Even 27 years into my career, it always feels like so much rests on the work. Broadly in wider arts, there is an unspoken fear that disability work brings extra risk with it - 'will people want to see it, will it be any good, does it have a place in our building'.

At my company, Little Cog, we are forging ahead with a mission to bring lost, hidden and mis-told stories of British Disabled people to the stage, in the form of new writing and new work. There is a rich history of disability culture and disability theatre in these islands, and yet we have mourned the lack of opportunities for disabled people to lead the way on our main stages for decades. In fact, more than mourned it, we've campaigned, we've consistently made work and we've battled to bring about change in the opportunities afforded disabled practitioners and using disabled-led models of practice.

Our main stages are missing out on extraordinary stories and phenomenal practice, so deeply ingrained are the myths, stereotypes and tropes about disabled people, not just within the stories, but in the perceived incapacity of disabled professionals in the institution of theatre itself. There are myths that disabled professionals need additonal professional support, mentoring, guidance and development. Actually many of us are accomplished award winning artists who just need their access requirements met to be able to work, to create an equitable environment and to break down the attitudinal lack of opportunities.

And if you're a disabled practitioner and in the North, or on a series of one night touring shows - forget getting a national review. Forget getting mainstage programmers, producers and directors to see your work. Or is that about to change? Will they respond to the personal invotations this time? We'll let you know. It's a mysterious world.

At Little Cog, we are thrilled to have worked at ARC Stockton, where we are now resident, who have made fundamental changes to their practice and their artistic practice to support, develop, commission and programme disabled artists. We have developed a ground breaking model of practice, Cultural Shift, which is a strategic artistic approach to introducing disability equality into mainstream settings with great successes. We've shared this model internationally and are very much looking forward to colleagues closer to home seeking new artistic partnerships with us.

Another England is a call to action - we want the contribution we are making to the cultural life of our country acknowledged and valued because its good work - and we want to bring about change in terms of how disabled people are both perceived and positioned in British society.

In a rapidly changing England, which appears to be having a national identity crisis, I have responded with a play from the perspective of disabled people trying to navigate their way through hostile territory. It is set in a near-distant future, England 2024, and Rat and Murphy are two disabled people who find themselves running for their lives, with the odds against them.

Murphy, a 55 year old veteran of the welfare state, and his younger companion Rat, who believes she can change the world, would normally go to the ends of the earth to avoid each other. They're thrown together as they both take refuge in an empty house to avoid being sent to holding camps by the state.

These two rich and complex characters are interesting opposites but, once we scratch the surface, we realise they may have more in common than they first think. In this story full of heart and humanity, the worlds of two weird and wonderful characters collide as they try to find a way to survive in a deserted house on the outskirts of town.

I am very grateful to our actors - both brilliantly talented and inhabiting, representing the characters of Rat and Murphy are Philippa Cole and Andrew Mclay respectively, both of whom have worked extensively in theatre, TV and film, and who are joined by our integrated BSL interpreter Sue Lee. Sue has worked with us in rehearsals to ensure BSL is fully integrated, complicated somewhat by the staging of the piece - it's not a traditional 'end-on' piece, but no spoilers.(nothing scary)

It's a powerful piece of work, with both tender moments and humour, and is both essential and urgent. We must, as disabled people, see ourselves reflected and represented on stage and in culture, and we must share our histories and experiences with our families, communities and the wider public. There are almost 14 million disabled people in the UK - most of us will become disabled as we age, and we certainly all have disabled people in our families and friendship circles. There is no shame in being disabled, and there should be no stigma. There is a strength in telling our stories. It is my mission to ensure that no disabled artist feels that they do not have a place in cultural life.

So whatever the trepidation, however terrifying, it is important to get this work out there to add to our national conversations.

We have integrated BSL from Sue Lee, creative audio description and information on potential triggers is available from the venues. You are welcome to enter and leave the performance space as you wish.

You can come and see us here:
Arts Centre Washington 20 June
Stratford Circus Arts Centre 21&22 June
Waterside Arts 25 June
Lincoln Drill Hall 26 June
Hull Truck Theatre 27 June
Harrogate Royal Hall 1 July
Corn Exchange Newbury 4 July

Thank you to Spirit of 2012 Trust, ARC Stockton and Arts Council England for their funding and support

Photo Credit: Bob Beagrie

A really important part of Little Cog's work is to ensure that disabled artists have meaningful opportunities to develop and share their work. We have collaborated with Alison Carr, a Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham based poet, on a number of projects.

Man-Kind is an experimental piece which has involved director Bob Beagrie, an internationally acclaimed poet, playwright and director, in shaping together hundred of poems down into an hour long piece of physical, visual, audio, multi-faceted poetic odyssey. The piece will be showcased at ARC Stockton on 25 April with actors Alice Byrne, Anthony Broderick and Andrew Buzzeo skillfully taking on a range of roles and styles, traversing a whole history of time from the Big Bang and the Garden of Eden through to a North East nightclub in today's world, to explore the main themes of the piece.

We're really proud to create platforms for disabled voices, making the work they want to make whether it focusses on disability or not, but which is relevant and exciting.

We asked writer Alison and Bob a few questions about the piece.

What is Man-Kind about?
 
Bob Beagrie : it is an experimental verse theatre piece involving spoken word, drama, expressive movement, music and visual projections which creatively investigates the changing notions around masculinity, the shifting roles, pressures, responsibilities, challenges, expectations and privileges of being a man. What does it mean to be a man in the early 21st Century and how is this different to models of masculinity in the 1900s and the 1950s?
 
Alison Carr: For me, it is about the ever-changing development of our species. We seem to turn a corner all the time, opening new doors and opportunities into different stages of life. And then we also create our own disasters. Juxtaposition of the two outlooks, and neither is good, neither is bad.
 
How does it relate to the world today?
 
Bob: It is a very pertinent question today, especially with the revelations of the #Metoo movement, with many of the traditional role models and behaviour patterns being questioned, the advances of women's rights (which still has a long way to go) and the fact that 84 men commit suicide each week in the UK. The piece examines male role models from history, myth and popular culture and explores how transformations in society, technology, the worlds of work and leisure impact upon ideas of gender identity and how different men are adapting, coping or resisting these changes.
 
Alison: Man-Kind shows the everchanging way that Man as a species and man as male has to explore how they look at problems and changes, looking at what it might be best to side-step and leave. Mankind’s role has become fragmented, has to keep re-inventing itself and putting itself together like a jigsaw.
 
Alison, what made you want to write it?
 
I have got to write, it’s like breathing. I write for hours each day. I studied Ovid’s Metamorphosis years ago and I’m interested in the change of Man in the bigger frame, throughout different successive eras. I think we often learn from our mistakes, and its essential that we do. But as a species I don’t know how effective we are at that. And life now is so diverse, how do we see that as a positive?
 
Bob, what is interesting about the piece for you as director? 
 
Bob: It is such a vast subject that the only way of handling it, that I can see, is through a very experimental approach that relies of juxtaposition and non naturalistic theatre practice, moving more toward performance art or a living installation piece, while still maintaining a sense of a dramatic and emotionally charged narrative. Bringing Alison's richly woven words to life is proving to be a very exciting and organic way of directing.
 
What can the audience expect?
 
Alison: I hope they will think more about society and what has shaped it, to think about just how the world has changed. It’s important that we have empathy for others and generally treat the world better. Life has become too throwaway and disposable. We throw away a lot of our life without thinking about what we should be keeping.
 
Bob: I doubt most audiences will have seen something quite like this before, I am drawing upon Bertolt Brecht's principles for Epic Theatre and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, on the Japanese dance form Butoh, on Commedia del Arte, on Martial Arts applications, as well as spoken word and poetry slam techniques. It will be both a strange and moving experience and one that is as funny and sensitive in parts as it is sad and shocking in others.

Information About the Creative Team
 
Alison Carr is a poet and writer from Bishop Auckland in Co Durham. Her first published solo work was the script of Coal Dust Whispers Song by Mudfog Press. Alison’s first poetry collection, Cornershop Cowgirl, was published by Iron Press in 2017. Examples of Alison’s war poetry and suffragette themed work was recently exhibited at the DLI Museum in Durham and by Bishop Auckland Town Council. Her show Dust of the Streets Shining was performed at ARC, Bishop Auckland Town Hall and Durham Book Festival. Other productions created in partnership with Little Cog are Behind the Masque, Coal Dust Whispers Song, Matryoshka and Dust of The Street’s Shining.
 
Bob Beagrie is a widely published poet and international performer who has worked in theatre as an writer, actor, dramaturge and director. He has a BA (Hons) in Creative Arts and an MA in Modern Literature & Politics. He has been involved in many cross art-form collaborative projects, is a founder member of the experimental poetry and music collective Project Lono and co-director of Ek Zuban Press and The Electric Kool Aid Cabaret of the Spoken Word.
 
Little Cog is a disabled-led theatre company formed under the creative leadership of Vici Wreford-Sinnott. They are based at ARC Stockton and create many improved and increased opportunities for disabled people to get involved with the arts. They have created a dynamic programme of work at ARC which has involved thousands of people in their activities and has seen ARC develop a policy of programming work by professional disabled theatre artists, and also introduce and maintain a range of accessible options for what is on offer at the centre, including British Sign Language, audio description of films and theatre or visually impaired and blind people, and relaxed performances suitable for people with neurodiverse conditions.
 
The production has been funded by Arts Council England, and supported by ARC and Little Cog.

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

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.

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.
 

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.
 

Rehearsal photos

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.
 

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