Welcome to a webinar in the Relaxed Conversations series with Jenny Sealey from Graeae Theatre Company. In this conversation she presents the work that she and the theatre company do and have done with deaf and disabled artists and with activism for the cause. Here you can learn more about how they work, what the venues they work in look like, and what makes them accessible. The company has decades of experience working for accessibility in the creative field; in this webinar we learn more about their experiences and get useful tips on how we can work toward the same goals. There will be an opportunity to ask questions during the session.

About Jenny Sealey

Jenny Sealey OBE has been Graeae’s Artistic Director since 1997. She has

pioneered a new theatrical language-‘aesthetics of artistic access’ embedding BSL(British Sign Language) and English, prerecorded BSL, creative captioning, in ear/ live audio description into the heart of all productions. Her work includes Two, The Fall of the House of Usher, peeling, Bent, Blasted, Diary of an Action Man, Blood Wedding, opera Paradis Files, Romeo and Juliet and her one woman show Self Raising. Outdoor productions include Against the Tide; The Iron Man; The Garden, and This Is Not For You as part of 14-18Now with disabled veterans. Her recent play Bad Lads by Mike Kenny about Margaret Thaatcher’s Short Sharp Shock regime received 5 star reviews as a crucial part of UK living history.

Jenny co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF). She has won the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and was on Desert Island Discs. She is an honorary fellow at Middlesex University, Royal Conservatoire Scotland, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Kent and Nottingham Trent University

About Graeae Theatre Company

Graeae is founded on the mission to create theatrical excellence through the vision and practice of Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artists. The experiences of these artists are part of Graeae’s genesis, the early productions devised by the company were specifically written to combat societal expectations of disabled people. Over time, the company has produced original works, cabarets, Shakespeare, musicals, and everything in between.

Om Relaxed Conversations

Rosendal Theatre invites to four different online conversations led by international organisations, companies and artists, who have worked with this in different formats and in different ways, to talk about accessibility and inclusion in the performing arts.

We are continuing our work to create an inclusive and accessible venue. As part of this, we want to encourage Norway's performing arts field and the country's arts and culture sector to discover and engage with this concept. In practice, this means supporting large and small organisations to discover, develop and introduce initiatives that enable events and venues to become more inviting, accessible and inclusive.

The realisation of these conversations is possible thanks to the support of Balansekunst.

To participate on the webinar, you need to register. The conversation will be held in English, and will be translated to BSL (British Sign Language). If you have any access requests please get in touch with Tonje Wik Olaussen at tonje@rosendalteater.no