VX Labs: Creating A Playscript in BSL – Artists Interview: Zoë McWhinney

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The VX Labs – Creating A Playscript in BSL part of our VX Labs programme, explored what it means to create a playscript conceived entirely in British Sign Language.

Delivered in partnership with and hosted at Sheffield Theatres.

Read more about the Lab.

At the end of the Lab, participating Deaf artist, Rinkoo Barbaga, shared this thoughts with us and his answer to the key question: is it possible to create a script in BSL?

Watch the video of the interview below (with subtitles). Scroll down for the BSL to English translation.

My name is Zoë McWhinney, and this is my sign name. I work as a director, theatre creator, writer, actor… I do a bit of everything!

1. What did you want to explore in this Lab?

I really wanted to be involved because I am a writer and I want to create more BSL-centred scripts which put BSL first within the creative process. BSL needs to be at the forefront. I wanted space and time to explore this further, to have the ability to experiment, taking in other people’s views, and look at different perspectives. and see which ones are successful or not. See what the benefits and negatives are. I also want to be able to close the gap between BSL and English, in terms of writing the stories, the dialogue and the scripts.
We want to devise a method that makes creating a BSL script as quick and easy as possible to give the writer freedom to be as creative as possible. This week has been devoted to seeing if BSL scripts can be created or not and looking at what a BSL script could potentially look like. This really intrigues me and motivates me. I want to look at how a BSL script can work. That was my aim this week.

2. Was there anything that surprised you?

I was surprised to learn that it took me half an hour to create two lines of BSL dialogue! This was useful for me to know. It means in the future, if I’m commissioned to write a BSL script, I will have some idea of how long I would need to create a BSL script in my way, in a visual way. And how long it will take. This will give me an idea of how much funding I would need to apply for to create a script for this length of time. The discussions with the other writers have been so rich. It’s been brilliant and interesting to see how the others have grappled with the question of whether a BSL script can be created coming up with their own answer. It’s been interesting working with a hearing illustrator as well. That’s it.

3. How has the Lab changed the way you think about creating a script in BSL?

My burning question is what is the fastest and most convenient way to write a BSL script that is also accessible to all people who know sign language so they can read it too. It would also be good to pilot it with varying levels of BSL fluency. Another pilot could be to try it with people from different backgrounds or who use different regional sign variations, actors from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, to see what they get from using a BSL script. Another question would be, would video scripts work successfully or not? Comparing two scripts, a 2D script on a document and a video BSL script, would it be easier and more fluid to work from a video script? What resources would be needed to make a good video script?

4. What’s the one thing you would ask theatres to change to support Deaf playwrights?
I want theatres to be prepared to fund BSL scripts. To understand that we need to build an audience. Once you’ve built an audience, you need a writer and to create a space for deaf people to come together to share their work and continue collaborating. An idea of how funding can help is by paying for residencies for deaf writers to work together in a BSL friendly environment where they deaf people can be free to devise and be creative without having to think about how to translate their work into English. We need to create opportunities for this. This is something that deaf playwrights desperately need. There could also be seminars given led by professional writers such as by those who write in English, or with experience of writing in different languages. They could talk about their creative process.

Bring deaf writers to give talks. Charlie Swinbourne, for instance, who has written scripts for TV, or Ted Evans who has written film scripts. They could talk about their writing process and share their experiences and knowledge. It would be like a five-minute TED talk first thing in the morning. I’m just thinking of ideas out loud!

Just the opportunity to be able to meet and support each other. That’s what I’m asking theatres in the UK to do!

  • Close up of Zoë McWhinney at the VX Lab.
  • Three actors rehearsing scenes at the VX Lab. From left to right, Daryl Jackson, Zoe McWhinney and Colly Metcalfe
  • Two actors performing a scene at the VX Lab. From left to right, Zoe McWhinney and Daryl Jackson.
  • Zoe McWhinney presents at the VX Lab, next to her visual script notes.
  • Zoe McWhinney presents her visual script notes at the VX Lab.
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Video interview credits:

Storytelling visuals: Beka Haytch

Video editing and photgraphy: Charlie Swinbourne

 

VX Labs is a cutting-edge three-year research programme by Vital Xposure, supported through Arts Council England, the programme is delivered in partnership with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as well as regional theatres.

Read more about VX Labs

VX Labs: Creating A Playscript in BSL – Artists Interview: Rinkoo Barpaga

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The VX Labs – Creating A Playscript in BSL part of our VX Labs programme, explored what it means to create a playscript conceived entirely in British Sign Language.

Delivered in partnership with and hosted at Sheffield Theatres.

Read more about the Lab.

At the end of the Lab, participating Deaf artist, Rinkoo Barbaga, shared this thoughts with us and his answer to the key question: is it possible to write a script in BSL?

Watch the video of the interview below (with subtitles). Scroll down for the BSL to English translation.

 

My name is Rinkoo Barpaga and this is my sign name. I’m a performer. Plus I do a variety of other artistic work.

1. What did you want to explore in this Lab?  

The original plan was to work out how we can record our original sign language, BSL, on documents. Trying to avoid any reliance on English. We wanted to focus on sign language only. This is something that was new to us, creating ways to translate from the original sign language version to perform it in BSL. This was an interesting project.

2. What is your big take away from the week? 

My key takeaway this week has been learning about subtext on a deeper level. It’s interesting. An example of this is when I say something, it can have a double or underlying meaning, which can be tricky. A lot of our discussions have been about this. This is something that’s been on my mind. Really, it’s up to the audience when they watch the performance, to identify whether there’s a double meaning or inference. This has been a new way of working for me this week.

3. Was there anything that surprised you? 

One thing that has surprised me this week is that I’ve learned that hundreds and hundreds of years ago, when there were no cameras or videos. Back in the day some people drew pictures. But in the drawings of sign language, they only drew the hands. Back then a lot of people only drew the box around the hands.  And mostly the alphabet, basic – like A, B and C, fingerspelling. But I was interested to know about the emotional expressions, not only fingerspelling, but the story. If you focus only on the hands, you’re not looking at the body language or the facial expressions. It’s really important for the deaf community to use body language with signing and facial expressions. It’s really important that we tie them together. Back in the day, a lot of the drawings were drawn by hearing people who were naive about deaf people and I was interested in that.

4. How has the Lab changed the way you think about creating a script in BSL? 

What’s important is that first, we see our sign language on the document and as the basis for our story. The most important thing is to be able to create in BSL on the document which we can then further develop. I’m not sure about how we would work with emotions and different regional signs. This is something that we need to delve into further to understand how it can work.

5. What’s the one thing you would ask theatres to change to support Deaf playwrights? 

We need theatre directors to accept that we want BSL in our scripts. Maybe they prefer having English scripts, but why isn’t it possible or acceptable to have BSL scripts too? You can have both. I need the hearing directors to be more aware, more open-minded. They need to be open minded and think about how they choose a writer based on their signing. With all the differences and regional variations, gender differences, so much variation. This is something that directors need to investigate and understand closely. So they can understand the rich textures and qualities of BSL that is needed when choosing scripts. This is why it’s important to have BSL scripts as well as English working from both.

  • Rinkoo Barbaga at the VX Lab.
  • Rinkoo Barbaga at the VX Lab in front of storytelling illustrations by Beka Haytch
  • Rinkoo Barbaga performing a scene at the VX Lab.
  • Rinkoo Barbaga, Zoë McWhinney and Mary-Jayne Russell de Clifford at the VX Lab.
  • Rinkoo Barbaga performing a scene at the VX Lab.
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Video interview credits:

Storytelling visuals: Beka Haytch

Video editing and photgraphy: Charlie Swinbourne

 

VX Labs is a cutting-edge three-year research programme by Vital Xposure, supported through Arts Council England, the programme is delivered in partnership with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as well as regional theatres.

Read more about VX Labs

VX Labs – Children and Young People – Report

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We are delighted to share findings from our VX Lab on creating disabled-led theatre for children and young people. which took place a few months ago in partnership with Z-arts in Manchester.

The Lab explored the importance of working creatively with those with lived experience and with the inclusion of children and young people, challenged assumptions and affirmed that complex, ambitious work belongs on stage for young audiences.

It asked how theatre can be made for and with children and young people when accessibility is assumed as a creative opportunity, and how this approach can be embedded as a contractual imperative in the commissioning of all work for young audiences.

As Josh Elliott, Artistic Director said:

“This Lab prioritised creating a space for children and young people to share the full arc of their theatre experience from entering the building to leaving it, and in doing so created a clear mechanism through which their wishes, frustrations and responses could directly shape work made for them”

Why did we want to deliver this Lab?

The Lab grew out of a conversation with Z-arts, the Manchester based arts organisation dedicated to children and families. There was recognition of excellent work across the country in accessible theatre for children and young people, and high-quality disabled-led theatre for adults.

Both Z-arts and Vital Xposure were therefore looking to use this Lab opportunity to push forward the conversation rather than replicate what others were doing.

This felt like an opportunity to join forces and explore what is possible specifically for new, disabled-led theatre for early years’ children and young people.

The research was driven by the desire to make the process of creating accessible work for children and young people more transparent and available, reducing the need for repeated learning across the sector.  The aim was to develop a practical ‘toolkit’ that could be used by venues, artists and theatre makers.

From Z-arts perspective in particular, as Liz O’Neill, CEO and Artistic Director explained:

“The intention is to use this learning ourselves in future commissions, but also to share with artists who come through our development programme and the wider sector”.

How did we do it? We consulted organisations and artists in Greater Manchester months before. Disabled artists to lead on the artistic development were recruited early on: they started shaping the Lab through introductory workshops with children and young people.

Co-creation, as an equitable collaborative process, was key from the outset.

Neither of the Lead Artists were precious about the process, but held the space for others to move into. People were able to say, ‘what if?’ or ‘what then?’ without worrying about being quashed.

What did we learn? It’s invaluable to allow artists with lived experience of why accessible theatre is needed for children to lead the process. Creating theatre for and with children and young people can be both taken seriously and fun.

Interstitial spaces matter. These refer to “spaces between structures”: admin, logistics, planning, good coordination of practicalities, including access.

Crucially, the Lab demonstrated that accessible theatre for children is not a compromise on artistic quality, but a driver of it.

Read the report from the VX Lab: Children and Young People.

What happened next? After a joyous staging of a small, new theatre piece on the last day of the Lab at Z-arts, the immediate next step was to ensure the legacy of the learning: the Lead Artists were commissioned to develop a toolkit for making accessible, inclusive theatre for and with children and young people. This toolkit – expected in early 2026 – will be aimed at informing commissioning processes for new work.

Building on this research, we have commissioned an R&D for When I See Blue, an authentic and affecting story for young people about living with OCD, written by author and mental health activist, Lily Bailey.

“Putting learnings from the Lab into practice, this exciting R&D will explore how to physicalise the interior experience of OCD on stage, and how to make theatre that neurodivergent young audiences can access without the usual barriers, grounded in lived experience in the room and with children feeding into the process, to discover what a Lab-informed production can look like on stage.”

Adapted by Josh Elliott from the Lily Bailey novel, the R&D for When I see Blue will be directed by Nickie Miles-Wildin with dramaturgy by Lu Kemp. It will be hosted by development partner Polka Theatre and has been supported by The Roald Dahl Story Company.

Further VX Labs have included Creating a Playscript in BSL in partnership with Sheffield Theatres, Decolonising Disability Lab in partnership with Bristol Old Vic, and the Creative Captioning Labs.

Read more about the VX Labs Programme

VX Labs – Decolonising Disability – Report

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We are delighted to share findings from our VX Lab on Decolonsing Disability  which took place earlier this year in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic.

This report sheds light on how can disabled artists from the Global Majority be supported to bring their whole selves to their career.

Its findings can be useful to both organisations and artists. Besides, for true change to come, these cannot be separated.

Why did we want to deliver this Lab?

Since initial conversations about the Lab’s programme, there was recognition of the unique position of double exceptionality whereby artists had lived experience of two distinctive ‘characteristics’, which meant they operate at an intersection, in this case being both from the Global Majority and disabled.

Being at this intersection comes with even more barriers and experiences of exclusion.  It felt important to untangle what these experiences of double-exclusion mean and how to address them.

How did we do it? We consulted and brought people with this intersectional lived experience to create the safe space they wanted, to lead and deliver all workshops.

What did we learn? Intersectionality requires more than representation. Sometimes even the word ‘inclusion’ is not enough: systemic generosity is needed, not mere accommodation. Acknowledging colonial legacies and personal cultures that have been shaped in other countries is also incredibly important.

As Dr Mandy Precious, VX Labs Project Manager and Research puts it:

“For real change to happen, we need spaces designed with care, generosity, and cultural understanding at their heart. This Lab showed us what’s possible when disabled Global Majority artists are able to bring their whole selves to the room.”

 

Read the report from the VX Lab: Decolonising Disability.

 

What happened next? Once the Lab was completed, Lab artists formed a collective to ‘reflect, pause, celebrate each other and continue the promise that we made to each other’, while two of them were selected to be 15 artists from the whole of the South West of England to participate in a 6 week fully funded Culture Biz Connect Incubator.

“We can’t keep retrofitting access or asking artists to fragment who they are. Disabled Global Majority artists are leading the way in showing us what inclusion really looks like, expansive, generous, and transformative.”

Josh Elliott, VX Artistic Director

“This report and its recommendations provide essential reading for anybody interested in interrogating the way in which we work inclusively in addressing intersectional inequities across the industry.”

Ben Atterbury, Literary Manager, Bristol Old Vic

 

Further VX Labs have included a Children and Young People’s Lab in collaboration with Z-arts and the Creative Captioning Labs.

Read more about the VX Labs Programme

VX Labs: Children and Young People – Artists’ Interviews

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Children and Young People was a four-day long Lab, part of our VX Labs programme, that examined methods for making disabled-led work for children. The Lab was delivered in partnership with and hosted by Z-Arts.

Read more about the Lab

After a workshare at the end of the Lab, Ciaran Stewart, Monique Jarrett and Ada Evarama, three of the artists involved in the process, sat down with us to discuss the process.

1. When you were invited to join this laboratory, what was the first question that you wanted to explore?

Ciaran: When I was approached for this project, one of my biggest questions was: What do the young people want from the process? What do they want from the show that we’re all creating together?

This week, we’ve been calling the young people we’re working with the ‘creative consultants’, which is a quite interesting thing that I’ve never experienced before. I grew up going to theatre and I know how special theatre can be. It’s so exciting to see the young people come up with ideas and then us, as professionals, create something out of scratch to show to them, and hopefully it worked well for them.

Monique: My first question was: how is this going to happen in such a short space of time? Also, I knew names of some people in the Lab, and  I wanted to know how we’d work together, and hoped I’d do a good enough job!

Ada: As Monique says, I knew it was a brilliant team. So I asked, how do we combine everyone’s brilliance in the space? And when I first saw the comic strips, the resource and actually knew what we were working with, I was even more thinking: how are we going to make this funny and accessible?

2. What is your big take away from the week?

Ciaran: The importance of theatre and why we create theatre and why we do the show. It’s easy as actors to imagine we just want to be on stage all the time, but what I love is the process of getting to the stage. Today has reminded me to just have fun with rehearsals, have fun with creativity: especially the process hearing from the young people, the creative consultants, what they want. It’s really inspiring to play with their ideas and figure out how we’re going to make it happen.

Monique: In one word: Integrated. Integrated, with the creativity of access within it from day one. I don’t know if the kids even know, notice or realise that there is also creative access within the show. I think it was just like a great show, which is what I would want theatre to be anyway.

Ada: We all came in as individuals with different areas that we have a lot of experience in, brought together in this soup of this week, creating something. The process let hone their profession and do their job. We fed into it and listened to it and invited every voice to collaborate. We took and we added, added to the soup.

3. What would be the one thing you would like to change about how children’s theatre is being made or presented?

Ciaran: Just seeing more deaf and disabled talent on stage for children and young people to see and normalise. It’s so important to normalise seeing someone with a wheelchair or seeing someone who’s deaf have an interpreter in the space. For example, today, a young person was sitting next to Jude [a participant that uses BSL] and gesturing to demonstrate using binoculars, and this was a natural, instinctive acknowledgement that there’s sign in the space – and that is really important, because at the end of the day, they are just young people who want to learn and who just enjoy seeing the talent on the stage. Ultimately, that is what I would love to see in the future of children, because the more we do of this, the more that we are raising young, empathetic people who can be the leaders of this country.

Monique: A company doesn’t usually go in and ask kids ‘how would you like the show to be and then create it?’ The kids are why it was so successful. You can’t have a bunch of adults prescribing this is what kids want – you need to ask the audience you’re catering to. They have ownership and they know what they want.

Ada: If you’re making children’s theatre, especially for children with disabilities or with access needs, it also needs to be made with artists and collaborators with disabilities and with access needs to build into that. It was only able to be as accessible as it was because all these brilliant people were brought in.

4. What would be your top tip to anyone who is interested in creating an accessible children’s theatre show?

Ciaran: Well, number one: hire deaf and disabled talent, and with the right pay. And not just on stage, but also behind the scenes as well. They’re the experts, they’re the ones with lived experiences and therefore they’re the ones who can educate. Secondly: Just go for it, just do it.

Thirdly, go and see lots of accessible theatre. Access doesn’t have to be just about ‘how do we create that’s something that’s accessible for d/Deaf people?’ or ‘how do we make it accessible for visually impaired people?’ Yes, those are important questions and yes, we need to do that, but at the same time, access is for all. I think we need to change the language of access being for everyone. For example – today [at the workshare]- if the young person is looking at the captions, they’re actually learning from the captions, they’re making links between the written language, the spoken and the BSL. It’s as simple as that.

Monique: Very first and foremost – never assume what your audience wants. Always involve the audience and obviously make it inclusive, so involve disabled artists as well.

There wasn’t a situation of kids labelling the show ‘disabled’. It wasn’t mentioned that in the original the lead character in the story we worked on wasn’t a wheelchair user, but in the extract we developed and presented today [at the workshare] he was. They just took in the show.

 

A white man with a short beard and glasses, smiling. He is wearing a black T-shirt. On the wall behind him, a drawing of cherry tree with white birds on its branches.

Ciaran Stewart is an actor, BSL consultant and captioning consultant.

Two women next to each other, smiling at the camera. A Black British Caribbean female with burgundy dyed hair pulled back, and a Black woman of West African descent with long braided hair.

Monique Jarrett (left) is a performer.  Ada Eravama (right) is an audio description and access consultant.

 

VX Labs is a cutting-edge three-year research programme by Vital Xposure, supported through Arts Council England, the programme is delivered in partnership with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as well as regional theatres.

Read more about VX Labs

VX Labs Captioning: Report Published

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We are excited to announce that we have just published findings from our first VX Lab on Creative Captioning which explores captioning in bilingual / multilingual plays.

The report is designed to inform industry peers – venues, producers, theatre-makers and designers – of questions to ask and approaches to adopt and develop as part of a creative captioning process.

Dr Mandy Precious, who leads the project, explains;

“At a time of tight budgets and falling audiences, prioritising access initiatives can feel counter-intuitive. Captions are often viewed as an add-on for a niche audience and are often reductive and limited rather than creative, but we saw their potential for them to do much more. With captioning technology more accessible than ever, we asked: how could they become part of the creative process, enrich storytelling and engage with an even wider audience.”

Josh Elliot, Vital Xposure’s Artistic Director writes;

‘This lab provides concrete evidence for what our community of disabled artists have always known: captioning isn’t just access – it’s art. It should sit alongside light, sound, costume, and set as a creative opportunity for theatre-makers of all stripes.’

Why does creative captioning matter?

Around 18 million UK adults are d/Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. A 2023 YouGov study found that Gen Z and Millennials, a demographic key to audience development, prefer using subtitles with 63% of 18–29-year-olds watching TV in their native language with subtitles. Stagetext reports that 42% of UK viewers use subtitles to aid their concentration with 24% using captions or subtitles at live events.

Bilingual/multilingual captions are also in demand.  18% of the UK identifies as part of the Global Majority. Assuming a regular distribution of d/Deaf people across this demography, that’s over 3 million people from these communities who may benefit from captioning, along with many communities who are not hearing impaired but for whom English is not their first language.

What has the report found?

The report specifically investigates the use of captions in bilingual productions. It looks at colour, style and language indicators and explores the tension between creativity and accessibility, particularly how to balance the two.

It considers who captions are for, and offers guidance on how to be intentional and clear in their use. It also examines how power and privilege may influence language choices and translation.

We encourage everyone to read and engage with our findings as part of their journey towards a more inclusive industry. We hope the report will support the development of inclusive practices within theatre and the wider sector.

Read the report from the VX Labs on Creative Captioning

 

Deepa Shastri, Theatre Relationship Manager, Arts Council England, said:

“We’re proud to support this exciting research led by Vital Xposure, which explores how bilingual creative captioning can make theatre more inclusive—particularly for wider audiences who are often marginalised because of their intersectionality.

By demonstrating the tangible benefits of the inclusive practice, the project has the potential to help normalise captioning practices across the sector. Its intersectional and collaborative approach signals a positive shift in how individuals and organisations embed accessibility and innovation from the very start of the theatre-making process. We look forward to seeing how the programme and its findings evolve with each new lab.”

Selina Busby, Professor of Applied and Social Theatre, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, said:

“Accessibility for theatre buildings, makers and audiences needs to be an absolute priority across our industry. Sadly this is not yet the case and access is often an after thought during the production process. This lab considered how things could be different by placing captioning at the heart of the theatre making and rehearsal process along side other design elements in order more fully integrate captions to both improve accessibility and enhance the whole theatre going experience for all audience members.”

 

Further VX Labs in 2025 include Decolonising Disability in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic, and a Children and Young People’s Lab in collaboration with Z-arts.

We will be sharing our findings from these labs later this year. Watch this space!

Read more about the VX Labs Programme

VX Labs: Decolonising Disability – Artists’ Interviews

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Decolonising Disability was a four-day long Lab, part of our VX Labs programme, that provided a safe space for six disabled artists from the Global Majority to navigate their next steps in the industry.

The Lab was delivered in partnership with and hosted at Bristol Old Vic. Across a week in early March, participating artists worked together to unpack their process of making work through a series of workshops delivered by Zuleika Lebow and Annabel Crowley, Independent Facilitators and Harris Albar from Tamasha Theatre.

Read more about the Lab

A few days after the Lab, participating artists shared with Vital Xposure what it was like being part of the Lab at Bristol Old Vic:

1. What was the key question you wanted to explore or find answers to before coming to the Lab?

Rene: It was interesting, because I didn’t know what to expect. I think it was for me to examine: Can my disability stop me from developing my creative practice, or is it something that I can use to develop my artistry? That was a burning question.

I was interested in meeting other creatives with disabilities who were part of the Global Majority. It was such an exciting space to work with very likeminded people.

Eli: One of the big questions I had was; how do you make that transition from pursuing something as a passion project or a hobby and making that transition into: ‘no, this is my career’. I also wanted to learn practical steps. Also I had some existential questions:  Am I doing the right thing? Is this the right place? I think I felt coming out of the workshop with just a lot of reassurance from my peers and the facilitators.

 

2. What is your big takeaway from the process?  

Rene: At the end of every day, I walked away so happy. I walked away encouraged and walked away thinking God, you’re not alone. Over the last 20 years I’ve been in many, many meetings and workshops. I’ve never walked away feeling like that. The biggest takeaway of the experience was the lasting feeling that I can do it.

I feel like every creative, with or without a disability should have to do this workshop. It gave me a grounding and a starting point for what I want to do.

Most of all, it reminded me: Your disability isn’t limiting. It shouldn’t limit you to not achieve what you want to do. As a creative with a disability, you have the right to ask for support that you need in order for you to be great at your practice.

We’ve started talking about working together, collaborating. The six of us want to create a collective: ‘Aggressively Civil: We’re Not A Gang’!

Eli: Reassurance was a word that we were saying constantly throughout the week. Connection was also such a massive one, because it is just so rare to be in a room full of other artists, and then you add the artists that are all disabled, and then you add the fact that it was all artists from the Global Majority: All those different layers of community. I’ve never been in a room like that before. I think we all, or I at least, really cherished that and how important intersectionality is. It was so refreshing to be in that space where there was so much shared experiences, shared emotions and shared joy.

The workshop was definitely what I needed to remind me that I do deserve to be here. I’m in the right place. It was just so refreshing and not like anything I’ve experienced before.

 

3. What would be your top tip for disabled artists from the Global Majority?

Rene: You’re incredible, and you’re amazing, and you can do it. Find us. Find your tribe, find us. We’re here, and we’ll make sure that you don’t feel alone and that you’re part of something even greater as well.

Eli: I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned is asking for help and asking for those connections. It is really scary to reach out and message someone, or to reply to an invitation or an opportunity, and be candid in that way of ‘Look, I’d really love to do this, but your venue is not accessible. How can we work around that?’ Or ‘I’d love to do it, I can’t afford it. Can you offer a fee or reaching out to other disabled Global Majority artists?’

One brilliant thing about social media is that it just gives you access to so many people that you wouldn’t otherwise interact with. I think getting over the awkward human fear of that kind of daunting social interaction, and just being able to reach out and say ‘Hey, I’ve seen your work. I really liked what you do. I’d love to connect. I’d love to maybe work on something. I’d love to seek advice.’

 

4. What is the one thing you would change to improve sector support for disabled artists from the global majority?

Rene: It’s taken us such a long time to get this far, and we still have got a long way to go as well. But one thing? Firstly, acknowledging that artists from the Global Majority with disabilities do exist and are actually calling out, wanting programmes like this.

Create spaces for artists from the with Global Majority with disabilities, in order to learn together. One thing that we all said at the end of this workshop was that we just don’t feel alone anymore.

Eli: Moving diversity past just as inclusion, past just a bare minimum. We need to be not just invited to have a seat at the table every so often, when we’re desired, but to be able to be in the room all the time. One of the facilitators used the metaphor of a tent: it was the idea that we are all sat in this tent, and you don’t refuse to let people in. You make the tent bigger.

 

5. How did the Lab help you develop your artistic practice?

Rene: I wrote a monologue for the last day. Then I wanted lighting and someone to do sound, everyone was going to have a programme. In that moment I just felt so happy that I thought ‘Dream big and don’t limit yourself.’ I think the bigger, the better, the bolder. The discoveries of this laboratory have become the foundation of how I want to work and is something that I will keep returning to on a regular basis.

Eli: As part of the workshop, we performed a small piece of work. Mine was about trying to bring a kind of joy and whimsy and imagination back into what we do. So I ran a ‘silliness workshop’ as I called it. I just brought in pieces of my drag, and we did a little runway, and everyone was able to dress up and have a moment of having people cheer and clap for them. I think having that a moment in the spotlight is something that’s really special, and something that drag has enabled me to do and to have, and something that I wanted to pass on to other people.

A selfie of a Black woman with long, straight dark hair, that falls across her face. She has winged eyeliner and is wearing a yellow ribbed jumper, with a neutral expression on her face.

Rene Katiisa (she / her) is a multidisciplinary artist, creating theatre through performance, writing and directing lenses. Her work draws heavily from live music, classical instruments and film. 

 

A selfie of a Black woman with long, straight dark hair, that falls across her face. She has winged eyeliner and is wearing a yellow ribbed jumper, with a neutral expression on her face.

Eli Reina-Morris (they / he) is a drag king, performing as Diomede. Member of House of Mannington and regular performer in Black Excellence Cabaret, camp and cringe Diomede specialises in lip-sync and comedy.

VX Labs is a cutting-edge three-year research programme by Vital Xposure, supported through Arts Council England, the programme is delivered in partnership with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as well as regional theatres.

Read more about VX Labs

Quiet Rebels: Hackney young people’s song

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After a sold-out tour in autumn 2022, the journey of Quiet Rebels in the community continued in Hackney, our London home, where the spark for young people’s storytelling was firstly ignited with Creative Futures’ artists at Hackney Empire.

Drawing inspiration from the research and stories unearthed in the theatre play, writers / directors of Quiet Rebels, Julie McNamara and Hassan Mahamdallie, led a programme of weekly creative workshops with and for young people at Hackney Quest, a local youth organisation.

Together with young people they explored ways to search and discover forgotten stories in their families and community, remember and celebrate people that have shaped Hackney’s history and what this means to them.

Guest facilitators Awate, Musician / Composer, and Deni Francis, Actor / Improviser, who had been involved in the development and the tour of Quiet Rebels, added their unique touch with creative approaches to storytelling.

Read more about the Quiet Rebels’ journey with Hackney Quest’s young people and their legacy: a song and music video of their own!

Quiet Rebels workshops in Hackney

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It’s been a year since we toured Quiet Rebels across England along with our co-producing partner, Dervish Productions.

The journey continues this autumn with a series of creative workshops with and for young people at Hackney Quest, a local youth organisation, led by the writers / directors of Quiet Rebels, Hassan Mahamdallie and Julie McNamara.

Drawing inspiration from the research and stories unearthed in the theatre play, young participants have been exploring ways to search and discover forgotten stories in their families and community, remember and celebrate people that have shaped Hackney’s history and what this means to them.

The group recently spent time at Hackney Museum, delving into the current exhibition At Home in  Hackney and the Block by Block display – and even re-enacting life in small local businesses, such as a barber shop.

Group of people in a museum being briefed by staff. Framed pictures hang on the walls behind them.

Hackney Quest group visit to the Hackney Museum. Photo by JulieMc.

The three photos in the banner above show moments from the group’s visit: three young participants re-enact a day at the barbers’, two members of the group closely examine a big replica of the Holly Street Estate flats and one of the young participants is about to become a chef as he puts on his chef’s hat.

A big thank you to Museum’s staff generosity during the visit a space that is ‘huge nourishment for creative minds seeking out stories’, in the words of JulieMc.

The workshops were made possible  with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.

Quiet Rebels comes to life

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Photo of the diverse creative team at The Albany Featuring, clockwise from left: Theresa Veith and Simon Startin (Vital Xposure staff), Stephen Rudder (filmmaker), JulieMc McNamara and Hassan Mahamdallie (writers), Deni Frances, Charlie Folorunsho and Fiona Whitelaw (actors). Photo credit: Isobel Hawson.

Team photo at The Albany Featuring, clockwise from left: Theresa Veith and Simon Startin (Vital Xposure staff), Stephen Rudder (filmmaker), JulieMc McNamara and Hassan Mahamdallie (writers), Deni Frances, Charlie Folorunsho and Fiona Whitelaw (actors). Photo credit: Isobel Hawson.

It is our turn to share the joy of being back in a room after all these months and make theatre!

Earlier this autumn the R&D team met at The Albany for a rehearsed reading of the script.

In the meantime, Stephen Rudder has added his magic touch to the play’s journey by creating a visual and aural sense of dystopian future and the underground world where the action takes place in. A new trailer, edited by Mohammed Ali, offers a glimpse into the stories that will come to life on stage next year.

Read more about White Pariahs: Quiet Rebels

NOT DEAD YET!

Disability History Month 2020: Julie McNamara pays tribute to beloved comrades of the Disability Arts Movement

 

Two images against a dark orange background. Image one: Magazine cover of Disability Arts in London - DAIL on its 10th celebration in 1996. The cover features a portrait photo of the late Chris Ledger. Image two: a poster of the Workshouse Cabaret by the London Disability Arts Forum, late 1980s

Magazine cover of Disability Arts in London – DAIL on its 10th celebration in 1996 featuring the late Chris Ledger (left). Poster of the Workhouse Disability Arts Cabaret by the London Disability Arts Forum, late 1980s (right).

 

My friend woke up in an Intensive care ward with DNR written over her head. DNR, Do Not Resuscitate. Before we left that unit, we’d ripped it off the wall and stuck a picture of a well -groomed male in Highland kilt, blowing up over his pert naked and very fulsome arse with the words NOT DEAD YET! scrawled underneath.

We have to push back.

How swiftly our humanity has been reduced to statistics. Disabled and Deaf people, now neatly parked aside as “the vulnerables” and “those with underlying conditions” are literally left off the agenda in the latest hard decisions in budgets squeezed together by this government’s drive towards economic recovery. Left off the agenda and erased entirely, if you’re Deaf and need British Sign Language interpretation – still missing from our national daily Coronavirus briefings! Meanwhile we are dying in numbers too great to grasp. We have barely time to dust ourselves down from the one brutal funeral to another with scant numbers of mourners being herded through like sheep at the dip to gaze briefly upon a closed casket with little ceremony. I have attended four funerals on Zoom (detached but desperately grateful to be able to see familiar faces touching the coffin, or playing that tune) and three quiet gatherings with candles aflame, stories and songs in the empty room about us. It has been tough, but where there is breath, there is hope. And sometimes we might feel we are drowning in tears, fighting for our very breath, so we shield each other, we gang together, those who can take the frontline today take the lead. Those who are weary and worn down, sit back awhile, turn your face towards the wind, the sun, the stars, the smell of the earth. If living on the 17th floor without a lift makes that too tough, go deep into your imagination and dream. They cannot take our dreams away. Hope is what we do with our despair.

For those of us who have lost precious souls these past few months…

I appeal to my slapper angels, to the mighty women who have gone before me, who held me up in this lifetime, to the powerful fallen women at the grave of the Outcast dead. And when I am utterly unravelled, I ask:
Do you carry your dead within you or upon you?

Born between two dead sisters, Shirley Josephine and Linda, I have been acquainted with death my entire life. I still carry them with me. But the past is for reference, not for residence. I am cautious how many times I cross between the veils.

October 30th two years ago I was digging my mother‘s grave, my youngest sister watched with the casket holding her remains. A gravedigger with long hair in a silver plait, with a tightly rolled joint stuck to his lip, watched over me. “Don’t worry, the ground’ll settle with the weather”, I don’t know why I was affronted. My Mother wasn’t there. She wasn’t there when I laid her out and kissed her goodbye. She is out there somewhere, but not here, not in this clay soil. So, I jumped, danced, and pounded the ground beneath me. He watched unmoved by this Banshee, with the wounded animal that had crept beneath my skin.

Do you carry the dead within you or upon you?

Some of those ashes have been to Australia, Los Angeles and finally to the South Shore, Belfast Lough, Bangor – that’s the North of Ireland, not the Welsh one. Shirley McNamara was one of Chris Ledger’s favourite rebels and became her poster girl for Arts and Biscuits, University of Atypical’s creative hub and hang out café for people with Alzheimer’s. So, her ashes accompanied Chris Ledger on to the next great adventure.

Some of Chris’ last words to me speak volumes about the business of dying. She asked: “What the hell have you done to your hair?” I told her, “It’s a Covid cut, DIY…I did it myself”. “I can see that!” she said disapprovingly and turned to more important matters like where was Louise, her wife. Chris and me have known each other in arts and activism for over 30 years, and I am reeling at the loss of her. Where is she? That bolshy, wise, generous, soul with such a mischievous sense of humour, such a distinctive laugh that rolled from the belly upwards. The high femme punk queen of fifties fashion and ferocious red lipstick is nowhere to be seen.

Do you carry your dead within you or upon you?

Was it Caroline Gooding’s fault in 2014, she always led the way with her bright mind picking through the minutia of legal challenges to create the Disability Discrimination Act legislation back in 1995. I blamed Sophie Partridge for a while, Sophie who fought so hard to keep the Independent Living Fund, before it was grabbed by the government under the guise of reform. Sophie it was who made me stay and sit in on the debates at Equity’s Disability and Diversity meeting. “Stay here JulieMc, I need you here.”. “Well, I’m here Soph, where the hell are you?” Sophie started this bleeding out of our warriors of the Disability Arts sector.

I thought Katharine Araniello would go on for ever. I will miss that deliciously bitter humour, the sheer brilliance of her ingenious creative mind. She was a prolific activist and artist, determined to disrupt the complacency of the creative industries. There was a time, back in the early 2000s when our people were leaving in droves. I was distraught with grief. I lost my mind, my home and any sense of dignity.

Ian Stanton, a beloved comrade and giant of the movement. We were constantly thrown together on the same bill, the same shabby chic hotels, the same penchant for politics late into the dark after a show. We both loved Ian Dury whom we’d worked briefly with on the Poor Dear series that Sian Vasey had produced for the BBC’s Disability Programmes Unit. Ian Stanton was a hero of the Disability Arts Movement, writing some of the best anthems of our time. He left the stage too soon leaving our Audrey utterly bereft. Where are you now, out there somewhere still singing Tragic but Brave? Chip on Your Shoulder? And then you dragged Ian Dury off with you. That was just greedy. And I do believe the dead get greedy. They eat away your breath, sit hard upon your chest while your heart fights for every beat. We have lost so many giants of the movement, where do we begin to weave again, the web that holds us up?

Mike Oliver who helped reform institutionalised thinking, challenging charities and the medical profession with his concept of a Social Model of Disability, working constantly for change, for equal rights for Deaf and Disabled people that has had a lasting and far reaching international impact.

Do you carry your dead within you or upon you?

We have lost too many mighty souls who blazed the trail in Disability Arts these past few months. Sian Vasey gave me my first job in Disability Arts at London Disability Arts Forum. She was an unexpected rebel on her Queenly throne. I admired her constant wry comments, occasional caustic remarks and absolute refusal to take “No” for an answer, giving that steely eye and a stern reminder: “I am relying on you Julie McNamara!” She was flawed, like the rest of us, and I still giggle at the memory of her rolling around the pavement after a night on red wine, having fallen out of her chair outside Barbara Lisicki’s place. Those were the days when the coven would gather and brew trouble, the gang of four with Elspeth Morrison and Mandy Colleran frothing at the latest atrocities in human rights violations. We were planning the revolution and we almost pulled it off. Now Sian has wheeled off the stage, tugging on Geof Armstrong, whose activism goes right back to the 80s when National Disability Arts Forum was spawned. Geof who agitated and activated so many disabled artists in the North, now gone too suddenly.

How do we begin to address our losses? In 2012, well over 60 million people worldwide witnessed David Toole, fly high into the air across the Olympic Stadium, gracefully moving his powerful arms with extraordinary lightness as he flew to Bird Gurl? Dave, we hope you are celebrating with a copious supply of bubbles as you fly on and ever onward. Dave, the straight talking, Curmudgeon, grumpy old’ Yorkshire bloke whose dreams reached the stars, who broke the mould in contemporary dance and taught us all to fly.

Do you carry your dead within you or upon you?

We nurse the souls we’ve lost like ghosts within, inhabiting every room. We can light candles for those we honour, echoing their names. We can offer thanks and prayers of remembrance and speak in hushed voices while we speak of those we’ve lost. When truly what we want to do is bawl and rage in disbelief. We are bent but not broken. We are weary, but we won’t give in. No surrender.

Remember our slogan: NOT DEAD YET!

We carry our dead within us, deep into our bones.

White Pariahs: Quiet Rebels – Second R&D

In autumn 2019  we undertook a research  and development period of White Pariahs, unearthing the hidden stories of white working class women who crossed the ‘colour line’, and fell in love with, or married Black men.  This was the beginning of an exciting collaboration with Dervish Productions that brought two innovative artists and theatre writers in the same room: Hassan Mahamdallie (Writer / Dervish’s Artistic Director) and Julie McNamara (Writer / Vital Xposure’s Artistic Director).

Following the R&D in 2019, Hassan and Julie continued to develop the work towards a new theatre production entitled White Pariahs: Quiet Rebels. They decided to call the protagonists of the real-life stories ‘quiet rebels’ because they found them to be both ordinary and extraordinary individuals, self-effacing and courageous at the same time.

As we entered one of the strangest period of recent times, a global pandemic in spring 2020, the team shifted to new, digital ways of working and sharing, with the support of renowned, Birmingham-based digital artist Mohammed Ali of Soul City Arts.

Navigating through online platforms of remote collaboration, the two writers brought the story forward to 2028, in a dystopian future where the glaring figure of Enoch Powell dominates, and Racial Purity Laws now control our communities. In part, Julie and Hassan wanted to show that history does not always go forward, sometimes it is thrown backwards, and our hard-won gains are erased. They also experimented with their own script writing, tackling the question how to translate the live theatre experience into online platforms, that have become the new, but so different, theatre stage during  the pandemic.

You can watch a short trailer of the Online R&D to get a flavour of the work produced (click play below):

Two online sharing events of the second phase of the ongoing Research and Development took place on Zoom in July and August 2020. The team used these events to test the story and ask questions about audience’s live engagement with the subject matter through online platforms. Thanks to the digital wizardry of Mohammed Ali, the creative team also pushed Zoom’s boundaries for creativity and the aesthetics of access within this work.

Below are a few screenshots from the online sharing:

[slideshow_deploy id=’3216′]

We were amazed by the responses received by our critical friends and the insightful feedback towards future steps:

“That was the most powerful experience I have had on Zoom yet. Such creative use of the platform.”

“I’m so impressed with the experimentation with zoom and pushing its (desperately annoying) limits, and I’m also fascinated to see what you take from here into next format (post-Zoom?). I also was mostly grasped by the moments when I could really focus on the story and feel more emotionally connected.”

“I really like the futuristic thread you’re weaving into the story,  it allows past present and future to coexist in parallel. A strong reminder to the viewer that times change but the human condition often remains the same.”

“This kind of dystopian drama is frightening, as it’s not too distant from reality, or possibility.”

“I enjoyed the experimentation with the zoom format, both for its filmic qualities and its potential to comment on history and archiving.”

“I thought the way the read was tailored to Zoom (really engaging with the form, rather than ‘merely’ being on Zoom out of necessity) such a refreshing change from many other things I have seen recently.”

“I thought using the detective/narrator character as a form of integrated audio description in this setting was extremely inventive.”

“Wonderful textures, I was transported, ethereal but real point in time. The interplay of BSL positioning was too good. It felt dystopian! Yes!”

“So different to watch on this platform, chilling, confronting, well done!”

“Audio describing was on the point…well done”

 

Creative Team (Second R&D 2020)

Researchers / Writers / Directors: Hassan Mahamdallie and Julie McNamara

Digital Arts Director: Mohammed Ali, Soul City Arts

Actors / Researchers: Charlie Folorunsho / Deni Francis / Fiona Whitelaw

Actor / BSL Interpreter: Clare Edwards

Movement Consultant: Jeanefer Jean-Charles

Project Producer: Isobel Hawson

A creative partnership between Vital Xposure, Dervish Productions and Soul City Arts.

The second phase of Research and Development was supported by Arts Council England and City Bridge Trust.

White Pariahs: Quiet Rebels will be further developed towards a national tour in 2021 -2022.

For further information about the project  please send us a message using our online enquiry form. Alternatively, drop us an email, give us a call on 020 8123 9945 or send us a text (SMS / WhatsApp) on 074 3242 18253.