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Disability: casting a revolution | Jenny Sealey | TEDxWarwickSalon

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    It will make sense at some point.
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    I'm Jenny and thank you very,
    very much for having me here.
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    I'm deaf, and all deaf people give
    each other name signs,
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    so I have to show you my name sign.
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    Can you follow my instructions?
    Have I put this on?
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    Nope, I haven't,
    so not a good start, is it?
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    How about now? That's good.
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    Can you put your right palm
    on your right nipple?
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    Left palm on your left nipple.
    Have a rub - no, no, don't!
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    (Laughter)
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    Now, move your palms,
    so your palms are facing the heavens,
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    and your little fingers
    are still touching your nipples.
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    Now imagine you're carrying something
    very big and bouncy,
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    and have a good look at me.
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    They're not small.
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    I'm a 34K and, as Bravissimo say,
    I'm working my way through the alphabet.
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    So while we're here, can you just think
    about what would your sign name be?
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    Your signing frame is from your stomach,
    it's almost like a TV around your head.
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    It could be you have long hair, you've
    got sparkly eyes, you like football,
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    you're always smiling, you've got dimples.
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    So just take a split second.
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    What is the sign representative of you?
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    I'll count to three, and then we'll just
    do a mass signing of names
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    and shout out your names as well.
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    Ready?
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    One, two, three!
    (Audience overlapped responses).
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    Look, I know it's Saturday
    afternoon, three o'clock,
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    we could do a bit better than that!
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    One, two, three!
    (Audience overlapped responses).
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    Fab! So, I'm the Artistic Director
    of Graeae Theatre Company.
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    I have my tools.
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    I have a rose: you throw the rose
    at the actress you most adore.
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    An onion: you peel away, you peel
    away to find your character.
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    Gaffer tape: no theatre is
    complete without gaffer.
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    And nails: to nail those floorboards, nail
    those flats, that set, everything.
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    So, the tools of theatre.
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    Graeae is an awesome theatre company.
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    It is founded on the Greek myth,
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    the three Graeae sisters had between
    them one eye and one tooth
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    but Perseus stole them, because he wanted
    to know how to kill the Medusa.
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    So of course they tell him, but they
    want their vital organs back.
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    He doesn't give them back,
    instead he flings them
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    and the Graeae sisters are left
    screaming and defenseless.
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    As a theatre company Graeae is screaming.
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    We are screaming with passion
    to make change.
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    We are also exactly the same
    as those Graeae sisters.
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    We use our eye and our tooth,
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    we use what we have
    rather than what we haven't got.
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    So if someone walks up with no legs,
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    I'm not going to go
    and find them some legs,
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    I just check out how else they move.
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    It is as simple as that.
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    Graeae has been evolving
    over the last 33 years,
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    not only because we put deaf
    and disabled people centre-stage,
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    the work is always political.
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    It's always theatre that really, really
    matters and because of that it is always,
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    as far as I'm concerned, a tool
    of huge importance and huge influence.
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    Not just because of our performers,
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    but also we're curious.
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    What does access really, really mean?
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    We've been pioneering creative use
    of sign language on the stage.
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    This is usually the furthest
    I would ever be with an interpreter.
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    She would normally be right next to me.
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    We've been looking at creative captioning,
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    we've been looking
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    at how does audio description be part
    of the whole theatrical experience;
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    It's not something
    that is just an afterthought,
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    not something that is just chucked in.
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    I, maybe it's because I'm a control freak,
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    I like to know every single essence
    of access, and how we are going to do it.
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    And how the art informs
    the creative process of access,
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    and how access in itself
    informs the creative process.
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    It's all entwined.
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    Access for me is everything
    that Graeae does.
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    And also entwined within that
    is the word 'evolution,'
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    the word 'revolution,'
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    and the word 'revolting.'
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    Revolting is synonymous with Graeae,
    I don't know whether that's the right word
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    but people sometimes think
    we are nauseating, we're sick,
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    we're repellent, we're degenerate.
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    Two years ago, I did a presentation
    for the Bush Theatre,
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    and I called it my Bush Provocation.
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    Take with that
    what it means, what it will!
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    Anyway, but in this provocation,
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    it was a litany of things
    people have said to my actors.
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    "Ah, with that arm!"
    - to a young woman who's an amputee -
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    "With that arm,
    we'll never let you on stage."
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    "Thank God our theatre
    backstage isn't accessible,
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    it means we can't have
    that lot on our stage."
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    "You're deaf and black. Fuck,
    you haven't got a hope in this theatre."
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    "Come back," a drama school said,
    "come back when you're cured."
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    A director said to me: "Jenny, people
    don't come to the theatre to be reminded
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    of the tragedy of being handicapped."
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    And very recently, i.e. 2014,
    we did the Threepenny Opera,
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    with New Wolsey Theatre, Birmingham Rep,
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    West Yorkshire Playhouse
    and Nottingham Playhouse and Graeae.
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    It was wicked, it was fantastic!
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    But when we were trying to evaluate,
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    asking the audiences
    about the show, some people said:
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    "Oh, I arrived, and there were
    all these disabled people in and around,
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    and I thought maybe I had come
    on the wrong night,
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    it was a show just for the disabled
    by the disabled."
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    "Oh, if I'd known that it was going to be
    performed by disabled performers,
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    I might not have bothered to come."
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    2014, and we still have that.
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    Do we question Stephen Hawking?
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    Do we question Stephen Hawking, that he is
    a genius, a scientist, he is awesome?
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    Do we question David Weir,
    wheelchair racer?
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    Do we question Ellie Simmonds,
    power swimmer?
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    Do we question David Blunkett?
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    You may not agree
    with David Blunkett's politics,
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    but did we question his ability
    as a blind man to be a politician?
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    No.
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    So why do we question actors on stage?
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    Their right to be centre-stage,
    why do we question that?
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    TV, I suppose, is evolving.
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    We've got Lisa Hammond on Eastenders,
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    we've got Cheryl Houston
    on Coronation Street,
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    Lizz Carr on Silent Witness,
    Cerrie who's on CBeebies.
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    But, oh my God, when she was
    on CBeebies, hell broke out!
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    Our children are going to be traumatized
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    by seeing a woman with one arm
    on stage, or on television.
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    Casting, I'm sorry, has not evolved
    in the way that I think it should.
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    So, these become the tools of casting,
    and the disabled experience.
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    We are like petals, fragile
    because of constant discrimination.
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    But oh, my God, we have thorns
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    because we dare
    put ourselves on that stage.
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    We're like an onion, but somebody else
    has peeled us away and exposed us.
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    We need gaffer to wrap around
    those wounds of bruises and cruel words.
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    And nails, it is always
    another nail in the coffin.
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    When there is a role,
    it is a disabled character,
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    but even then, we don't get cast in that.
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    A non-disabled person
    will crip up and play that role.
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    And another bloody nail is when...
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    how many Oscars are awarded
    to those actors that do crip up?
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    The tools of casting.
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    Shakespeare.
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    When I was headhunted
    for the National Theatre of Scotland job,
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    - "Wow, oh my God,"
    I thought, "this is incredible." -
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    first question was: "Jenny, I know
    you're the Artistic Director of Graeae,
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    but if you were to work
    with a normal theatre,
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    would you still be wanting
    to audition deaf and disabled people,
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    and if so, why?"
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    (Groans)
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    Shakespeare doesn't say whether Juliet
    was or was not a wheelchair user.
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    I've had a deaf Juliet,
    I've had a blind Prospero,
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    I've had a wheelchair user
    who was Miranda,
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    I've had a woman playing Caliban.
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    Theatre is about throwing it all up
    in the air, getting it messy.
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    It's a brilliant, brilliant thing to do,
    it just requires a bit of imagination.
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    And, oh my God, how brilliant it is
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    when someone rocks up
    and they have a different voice pattern
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    and you're thinking about access,
    you're thinking about their access,
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    access for audience,
    access for that character?
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    How much richer is the world
    in which I inhabit for people out there?
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    I love casting, and I work
    with a wealth of actors.
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    These are just some people
    Graeae works with.
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    I've had an all disabled cast for Bent,
    an all disabled cast for Blasted.
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    Look at her, how sweet is she?
    This lot deserve to be everywhere.
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    Why can't we have
    Mat Fraser as Doctor Who?
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    Or, what about Leslie
    who's really revolutionary,
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    have a young disabled woman
    as Doctor Who?
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    Why can't we have one
    of my favourite actors, Nadia,
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    who the National Theatre said
    they couldn't have because of her arm?
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    Why can't she be in a cherry orchard?
    Why can't she be Juliet?
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    Why are this lot not everywhere?
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    I'm proud that I work with these people,
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    and I know Stevie will talk
    about her Candoco performers,
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    she's proud that she works
    with them as well.
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    We work with people
    that nobody else wants, it's brilliant.
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    At the moment, my big "if only" is...
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    A casting request came through
    to Graeae on Thursday.
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    Steven Spielberg is looking
    for a young woman
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    to play the lead
    in the Big Friendly Giant.
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    We have two young wheelchair users
    as part of our youth theatre.
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    Robyn, she's stocky, she's got glasses,
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    she’s a wheely, oh, my gosh
    she's dangerous!
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    You really have to watch
    your feet when she's around.
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    She's a glorious young woman.
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    And then, Evie, not quite as robust,
    but she's got that sparkle, she's cheeky.
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    If only Spielberg would think:
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    "Yes, yes I can see beyond
    the normal sort of casting,
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    these girls are good,"
    and give one of them a role.
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    In the stadium for the opening ceremony
    of the Paralympics
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    we had Spasticus Autisticus belting out
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    in front of a 40-foot statue
    of Alison Lapper,
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    Marc Quinn's statue,
    Alison Lapper Pregnant.
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    Limbless, woman, defiant, it was heaven.
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    67,000 people in that stadium
    singing Spasticus Autisticus
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    and then "I am what I am".
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    I was in heaven.
    We were glorious.
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    The whole artistic festival that happened
    afterwards, the sports itself,
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    there never has been
    such a time to say, "we're good."
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    And Channel 4 said,
    "Thank you for the warm up."
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    They embraced us for a split second.
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    How can I be asking
    our artistic directors,
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    our filmmakers, all of those people,
    to join me in the revolution of casting,
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    when Channel 4 then pull
    the rug from under us?
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    They contacted me, they phoned!
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    I'm deaf, I don't use the phone, hello!
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    Anyway, so then,
    they emailed me, and they said:
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    "Jenny, what a fantastic show.
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    You must have met
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    some wonderful professional
    deaf and disabled artists and volunteers.
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    Please, please,
    can you suggest people for..."
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    - I'm thinking: "Oh my God, here we go,
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    here is the moment where my art
    is going to be really everywhere!" -
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    "please can you suggest people
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    for our fantastic new programme,
    The Undateables."
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    Have any of you seen it? It's sick.
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    It's car-crash television.
    It's insulting.
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    It takes the most vulnerable
    deaf and disabled people
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    and just smacks them in there
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    to be vilified, to be looked at,
    and to be laughed at.
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    It's disgusting.
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    There's that,
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    and this might be the last time
    I ever do a speech like this.
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    I want us to evolve, I want how Graeae
    use the aesthetics of access to evolve.
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    I want it to influence a whole
    generation of theatre-makers.
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    But I might not have a job anymore
    because Access to Work,
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    which is the government fund,
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    so that I can have Madeline
    as my interpreter,
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    and Jen who's over here,
    who's an interpreter and prompter
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    when I get a bit stuck...
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    I have my interpreters for rehearsals,
    for meetings, for stuff,
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    the Department
    of Work and Pensions pay them.
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    A lot of my actors also use
    the Independent Living Fund,
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    so that they have PA support
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    for bath and food, holding
    a script, for line feeding.
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    Brilliant, brilliant resources,
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    and we could not have done 2012
    without those resources.
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    But suddenly, they're being
    cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
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    So from the 35 hours a week entitlement,
    I'm now told I can have 72 hours a month.
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    I fought that,
    so I've got some of my hours back,
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    but I got an email this morning
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    from a young woman who's just left
    university, just got her first job.
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    She was awarded six days a week,
    she's been doing that for a year.
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    She's now just recently moved job.
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    They've given her six hours a week,
    not six hours a day.
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    She's had to quit her job.
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    So, tools of a revolution.
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    Nails: nails to nail
    my feet down to the ground.
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    Gaffer: to tie me up
    by the railings.
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    Onions: I mean,
    I never could facilitate tears,
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    but I have been crying so much
    about this whole debacle
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    around Access to Work
    and my fight to keep Graeae
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    and other disabled companies,
    like Candoco, fighting this battle.
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    I don't have any more tears.
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    But I will put the rose in my mouth,
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    I will be defiant.
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    And Access to Work
    will not fight this battle,
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    you will all join me in this revolution
    to ensure that theatre does evolve
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    because theatre is crucial
    for each and every one of us,
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    because it is about
    our mental health and wellbeing,
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    it's about our emotions and intelligence.
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    It's about articulating feelings.
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    And if theatre is taken away from us,
    from disabled people -
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    - it's not going to happen,
    so don't worry -
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    but please do go on 'Stop the Changes'
    it's a petition around Access to Work,
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    please make a noise, and please
    join me in twittering and twattering,
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    and get that bloody awful programme
    Undateables cut, gone forevermore.
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    And on that note,
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    thank you very much
    for listening to me burble, and join me.
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    (Applause)
Title:
Disability: casting a revolution | Jenny Sealey | TEDxWarwickSalon
Description:

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Jenny Sealey wants theatre to evolve and explains how crucial it is for each and every one of us, and how deaf and disabled actors are not just deaf and disabled people, but...exactly that: actors, and they should be given a chance and as well the recognition they truly deserve.

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
17:58

English subtitles

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