Deaf News: Graeae’s Jenny Sealey says that Deaf and disabled artists are shut out of theatre press nights

Graeae theatre company’s Artistic Director, Jenny Sealey, has told a theatre conference that because Deaf and disabled people are not able to access theatre press nights, they find it much harder to build key relationships that would help further their career.

Extract from The Stage:

Theatre director Jenny Sealey has claimed deaf and disabled theatre workers are shut out of press nights because they are not fully accessible.

Speaking at the Theatre 2016 conference, the Graeae artistic director revealed several delegates based in London had asked her to attend the opening night of their shows.

She said: “I’ve been invited to three different press nights and I’m not going to be able to go, because none of those press nights are signed or captioned – because they’re press nights and they don’t want to ‘ruin it for the press’.”

Sealey hailed the current touring production of The Government Inspector – which stars a number of disabled actors – as an example of a show that is signed and captioned for deaf audiences.

“But how are deaf and disabled people supposed to network if we don’t have that opportunity to go to those press nights and meet the great and the good?” she asked.

Read the full article in The Stage here: https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2016/deaf-disabled-shut-theatre-press-nights/