Announcing our exciting three-year initiative for deaf young people

We're excited to be launching a series of residencies to introduce deaf students to full mask theatre and increase opportunities within the industry.

Over the three years of the initiative, we will be working alongside deaf organisations and theatre venues to deliver a series of week-long residencies, led by our deaf practitioners, Mary-Jayne Russell de Clifford and Alex Nowak, where students will learn about performing in mask, creating characters, using body language to communicate without spoken word or BSL, and devising original theatre.

The project kicks off this September with a residency at Braidwood School for the Deaf in Birmingham, supported by Birmingham Rep, and will culminate in a performance for friends and family on Friday 22^nd September, inspired by our upcoming touring production, Boy on the Roof.

We are passionate about broadening access to the arts and giving opportunity for deaf audiences to experience live theatre without BSL interpretation. Over the next three years, we aim to address the under representation of deaf actors and practitioners in theatre and to promote the arts industry to deaf young people as a viable area of future employment through increased opportunities. This includes training deaf artists in performance and workshop delivery, and inspiring deaf young people through positive role models.

This initiative is funded by The Sir Barry Jackson Trust, The Coop Community Foundation and the Birkdale Trust for Hearing Impaired.