Theatre & Disability / Crossing the Line
I was the Project Dramaturg to the Crossing The Line partnership (2014-23).
Crossing The Line began in 2014 as a project of the co-operative partnership of 3 European theatre companies: all leaders in the field, making professional touring theatre with learning disabled artists. Moomsteatern in Malmo, Sweden; Compagnie de L’Oiseau Mouche in Roubaix, France and Mind The Gap in Bradford, UK
Artistically led and committed to meeting the new challenges of producing and touring theatre made by learning disabled and non-disabled theatre makers, Crossing The Line enabled the three companies to bring their artists together to learn from and with each other; engage with creative and audience development processes; develop connections with a wider network of European theatre companies with a focus on learning disabled artists; and create 3 new productions – culminating in a showcase festival in Roubaix in January 2017.
Watch a video about the festival
Read my interview with Bella Todd on the Crossing The Line festival
You can also read the Crossing The Line report
Crossing The Line was made possible thanks to a grant of €200,000 from the EU Creative Europe fund. As of 2017, the partnership has now expanded to 6, including Theater Babel in Rotterdam, Blue Teapot in Galway and Theatr 21 in Warsaw
Crossing The Line Projects
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Ogmius
OGMIUS – named after the Celtic god of eloquence - was an EU Erasmus+ funded project, running 2018-2021, designed to addresses the training needs of learning disabled and autistic (LDA) theatre makers - and the non-learning disabled practitioners who work with them - in France, Sweden and the UK.
Depending on where you are, these people might be known as support workers, éducateurs spécialisés; or members of the wider company.
Ogmius is a partnership between 3 theatre companies - Mind the Gap in Bradford; Moomsteatern in Malmo, and Compagnie de l’Oiseau-Mouche in Roubaix. We have been working together to better understand the working methods, teaching & facilitation techniques, and support structures that each company employs.
The Ogmius project has offered LDA performers and non-LDA staff mobility opportunities during which they were able to immerse themselves in each organisation’s inner workings: movement, music, éducateurs spécialisés practice, multi-lingual text.
You can access materials designed and collected throughout: here
• An Open Educational Resource for learning disabled theatre makers and support workers / éducateurs spécialisés: aimed at the companies who work with them and anyone interested in this work. This will contain all the useful training materials, participants' self-reflections, and input from industry specialists.
• Short films about artistic trainings in each country available to viewers in the 3 partner languages through subtitling.
• A good practice guide around evaluation by Professor Matthew Reason of York St John’s University who has been collaborating with us on various parts of the project
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Trasna Na Line
The CTL family grew to include Blue Teapot Theatre Company (Galway) in Ireland, Theater Babel (Rotterdam) in The Netherlands and Teatr 21 (Warsaw) in Poland. These three theatre companies vjoined forces with Moomsteatern and Compagnie de L’Oiseau Mouche in the partnership project Trasna Na Líne, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme.
Artistically led and committed to meeting the new challenges of producing and touring theatre made by learning disabled and non-disabled theatre makers, our aim is to bring our artists together to learn from and with each other; engage with creative and audience development processes; develop connections with a wider network of European theatre companies with a focus on learning disabled artists.
The culmination of this collaboration was meant to be a 4-day showcase festival in Galway in May 2020 as part of that city’s EU Capital of Culture celebrations. Owing to the Corona crisis this festival was cancelled.
The need to share our work with Europe and showcase our inclusive theatre work meant the partners decided to create an online digital festival from September 18th 2021 through to November 25th 2021,. This culminated in a 3-day workshop in Rotterdam, in June 2022, attended by as many partners and actors as possible.
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Speaking in Hong Kong about Mind The Gap’s production of Contained
Theatre and Disability
I adhere to the social model of disability. That said, I do not identify as disabled, though I am the son of a physically disabled father and the father of a learning disabled and autistic son.
Since 2019 I have been working with the European Disability Arts Cluster to advance research / advocacy in to how disabled artists can be better included in European Cultural opportunities.
My work with disabled theatre makers began with addressing the need to generate better opportunities for disabled playwrights. Rather than just roll out another programme, I developed a 10 year partnership with Graeae, in part because of my strong belief in Jenny Sealey’s aesthetic of challenging audiences through her integrated staging. We piloted 4 development programmes, yielding 2 productions; and we also capacity built Graeae to grow its own new writing culture, working with disabled and non-disabled writers. I championed their work, for example by helping persuade additional funders and placing Kaite O’Reilly’s Peeling, a landmark production, at the centre of what The Fence network would see and engage with at its inception. I also chaired two symposia around Kaite’s work on Alternative Dramaturgies from Deaf and Disability Perspectives in Liverpool and Exeter.
Vital Xposure is a bold, dynamic theatre and film production company which tells Outsider stories, founded under the unique creative leadership of disabled artist Julie McNamara, and now beginning its next incarnation under the dynamic artist/activist Simon Startin. I became a board member of Vital Xposure in 2016 and took over as Chair in 2018. As Executive Chair of Creative People, the UK network of individuals and organisations offering information, advice and guidance on professional development in the arts and crafts, I worked very closely to promote and integrate the work of Disability Advisor – Sue Williams, later Strategic Lead Officer, Arts Council England National Office (2005-2008) I am delighted that Sue has taken over from me as Chair of Vital Exposure from September 2021.
Theatre and Autism
Making theatre accessible to autistic audiences is linked to the representation of autism onstage. While there has been progress in the former in the last 15 years, with the latter we are still at the foothills of dramaturgical thinking, let alone practice.
Theatre & Autism Industry Day at The Unicorn 2011
Here is a critique of the Ramps On The Moon production of Tommy which I wrote for Disability Arts on Line in 2018.
I was on the Steering Group for, helped structure and shape and Co-Chaired the Theatre and Autism Industry Day with ATG, SOLT/TMA, at The Unicorn October 2011.
I gave the keynote address to the first relaxed performances convening in Hong Kong in October 2015.
I was invited as one of 10 UK Thought Leaders on Disability and Performance, to the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC September 2012 Out of this, I began scoping with Tim Wheeler a potential partnership between Mind The Gap. Bradford, Moomsteatern, Malmo, and Compagnie de L’Oiseau Mouche which became Crossing The Line.
As Parent/Trustee at Ambitious about Autism, 2006-2013 the National Charity for Autism Education, I sat on the Impact Committee, the Youth Council and the Post-19 Working Group. I have given evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee and spoken about the need for reverse inclusion in mainstream schools, freedom of choice for parents to pursue a child-centred option for their education and the importance of properly maintained statements of educational need (EHCPs). As of January 2014 I became an Expert Adviser.