CULTURE CLUB
Make Way BACKSTAGE A returning theatrical festival shifts the spotlight to disabled creatives and actors – Miriam Balanescu meets the organisers
D espite national survey statistics revealing nearly 20% of the UK’s population have a long-term disability, we rarely see the physical and mental challenges that many of us face authentically reflected in the arts. Theatre remains a somewhat closed-off industry – and the reason behind this is simple, says I’m Here, Where Are You? co-founder Linda Rocco. “Everyone has creativity in their bones, but not everyone gets the same access to unleash it – especially if you’re deaf and disabled,” Linda explains. “Disabled artists have been historically excluded from theatre due to the industry’s very nature, which facilitates working conditions unsuitable for those with disabilities: long working hours, strenuous audition processes and inaccessible facilities.” Together with her collaborator, producer Liz Counsell, art curator Linda concocted a theatre and arts festival that levels against these exclusions. Held at Cambridge Junction, the programme gives centre stage to disabled creatives, including the autistic siblings behind Brotherly, Otherly, Disorderly. A love letter to sibling care and neurodivergent solidarity, this show offers celebratory theatrical toolkit for navigating a neurotypical world. “The need to see deaf and disabled artists onstage, particularly following the Covid-19 crisis, where so many experienced and producers to work in accessible and sustainable ways, forging models of best practice for the industry to widen access both onstage and off.” This year’s I’m Here, Where Are You? is Linda and Liz’s second festival, after the first in 2019. The pair crossed paths when they joined a programme at the Junction to support independent producers. “We applied for Vision Mixers separately, but our ideas were so intrinsically linked that the team at Cambridge Junction brought us together,” Linda recalls. serious illness and isolation, is urgent,” insists Linda. “We also aim to establish optimal conditions for disabled artists
25 - 30 April
OPEN ACCESS The festival showcases work including Brotherly, Otherly, Disorderly, shown above and below
“The Junction has been a fantastic partner that has supported us since the very beginning and continues to do so for our 2023 festival edition,” she continues. “It means a lot to us to have the support of such a great venue, and staff that really understand and get on board with what we stand for with our programme. “Originally, the festival was meant to happen every two years – first in 2019 and then 2021 – but Covid-19 got in the way.” The duo’s festival aims to
work, local creativity and theatre-going,” she expresses. Theatre, Linda argues, offers the perfect medium for exploring disability, queerness and identity politics. “Live performance allows the crafting of a safe space where difficult conversations and complex themes can be platformed,” she says. “Disabled people often have an intersectional relationship with marginalisation and feeling othered, so to explore this onstage feels natural and exciting. It also means the work is relatable to so many people who previously haven’t felt represented.” More spaces like this are needed, with fringe theatre truly paving the way for the wider industry to open up. Hopefully it’s only a matter of time, Linda says: “Our stories are as relevant and important as everyone else’s – and need to be heard.”
Our stories are as relevant and important as everyone’s
‘create a space for deaf and disabled communities to come together and experience disability celebrated and cherished creatively’. Its hiatus has given
the team time to gear up to a dazzling extravaganza of events spanning five days and going beyond the Junction, engaging the wider public to contribute their own stories. “The festival this year is the most ambitious iteration so far,” Linda says. “We want to bring accessible and entertaining work from the UK’s best deaf and disabled artists outside of London, as an entry point for a wider demographic of non-theatre- goers to inspire interest in disabled-led
18 APRIL 2023 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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