Talking the talk

Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company’s (OTTC) exploration of integrated theatre started four years ago, when we began to question whether we were doing enough to provide performance opportunities for deaf and disabled actors. Brendan Murray, our Artistic Director at the time, was on the lookout for new ways to surprise and challenge our rural audiences, and wanted to programme Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood’. Taking a classic play for just voices onto the stage was a major undertaking in itself, so using it as a vehicle to explore diversity initially felt very daunting. What emerged was a debate about who we work with, who attends auditions and whether there are amazing performers out there we were missing out on. This led to the company, in collaboration with Pride of Place (a consortium of regional touring theatre companies), holding open auditions for deaf and disabled actors. First and foremost, we were looking for the most talented actors. We did not lower our expectations, and we were not disappointed. We met David Ellington, an amazing actor who uses British Sign Language (BSL). He loved Thomas’s writing and found the challenge of incorporating BSL hugely exciting.

Creating the production
The project was developed around the use of the spoken word and BSL, but the ‘what’ and ‘how’ were still unknown. All we knew was that we wanted a range of BSL and speaking within the piece. Further auditions took place, where we employed five actors, including two qualified signers. We also employed Tim Gebbels, a blind actor with an incredible voice, which added another challenge into the mix. It’s fair to say that the first two weeks of rehearsals were filled with ideas that did not work. The company had to find a genuinely new way of working in order to incorporate all abilities and languages. For Gebbels, the set needed to be uncomplicated with points of reference and he required a cast member to guide him on and off stage. Being staged in the round held challenges when signing. The impact of this was a more satisfying and creatively stimulating rehearsal period, even if there were times when the director wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.
Employing Ellington and Gebbels also had an impact on the management of the tour. Paying interpreters increased costs, and undertaking an evaluation of the rehearsal premises was necessary. Furthermore, Alice the guide dog had to have a full dish of water at all times. Including access costs in the budget is paramount, as without them you are already discriminating and closing yourself off from the potential to employ a disabled person. Funding was established from Access to Work to pay for interpreters and communication support workers on tour. To help prepare us, Jenny Sealey from Graeae Theatre Company led the company in a day of disability awareness training. Prior to the tour, meetings were held to establish access needs and to discover how the communication support workers (two actors with BSL skills) would work with Ellington on the road. Gebbels required support with venue and accommodation familiarisation on arrival, and each guest house had to be advised in advance that the team would be travelling with a dog.

Reaching the audience
As a non-disabled led company, OTTC made the decision to sell and market the show as a piece of high quality theatre “as you’ve never heard it before”, without mentioning the word ‘disabled’. This reflected our desire to be judged on merit. We didn’t want people to come with prejudices or preconceived ideas. Audience members were intrigued and delighted by the inclusion of BSL and often amazed to see the company working so seamlessly and (seemingly) effortlessly. Only one woman walked out of the show, saying “How can you have a play for voices that includes an actor that cannot speak?” Audiences trust that the company’s work will be of high quality, whoever the actors are, which allows us to continue to challenge them and ourselves. In fact, we re-toured the production nationally, enabling a wider audience to experience integrated theatre. The show was developed to include additional signing, the creative process was dissected and improved on, and the set design, lighting design and movement work was refined.

exCHANGE conference
OTTC wanted to use its experience of making ‘Under Milk Wood’ as a starting point for an conference exploring the issues related to producing integrated theatre. We had little experience of running a conference, and, feeling rather daunted by the whole prospect, gained support from Arts Council South East, Dada South and ADA Inc, who also facilitated workshops on the day. We wanted ‘exCHANGE’ to be a networking opportunity, through which arts professionals could reflect on and develop their practice in relation to the notion of deaf and disabled and non-disabled artists working together. We were not claiming to be the experts, but rather wanted to share our experiences with others. Through a series of discussion groups and workshops, attenders were encouraged to engage in an honest exchange of ideas. The overriding feeling was one of fear: ‘How will we do it?’, ‘Will it compromise the quality of the work?’, ‘How can we afford it?’. Most attenders, both disabled and non-disabled, recognised the creative opportunities, rather than barriers, in employing deaf and disabled artists, and saw that differences could be exciting and revealing as well as challenging. The outcome of the day was generally positive, and we were encouraged by everyone’s willingness to enter into an atmosphere of trust, to talk to each other and to share discoveries, successes and failures.

Integrated theatre requires time, money, trust and honesty, while recognising individuals’ access needs – not very different from any other kind of theatre. If we’re excited by the people we’re working with – and not motivated by any thought of box ticking or doing anyone a favour – we will discover new ways of working that will illuminate whatever we’re working on. Producing ‘Under Milk Wood’ gave OTTC the confidence to cast deaf and disabled performers in future productions, and it continues to have a radical and positive effect on the culture of the company. It has challenged the company’s fear of failure, and as long as we continue to give it a go the worst that can happen is that we will fail. And is that really so terrible? At least we will have tried.