Having a lovely life chat with a barista today & they told me of a disabled actor who was in Hadestown at the NT to look up…
And I’m just SO awkward.
I left for fear she would google it & then she’d know that I’d been pretending I hadn’t heard of… myself…??🙃🙃🙃
Five years ago working on
@hadestown
at the
@NationalTheatre
I promised myself (and hoped beyond anything) that I’d make my West End Debut in
@HadestownUK
…
I AM SO SO THRILLED TO SAY THAT I AM!!! & covering Eurydice this time too🥰❤️
WELL THEN. WHAT.
I am BEYOND thankful for this. I’m so excited for the fund & these new connections to forge a wider path into the industry & try shift to an authentic representative industry like the world we know.
I AM SO HAPPY & TIPSY & CRYING.
All my love. This is MAD.
❤️❤️
Absolutely ecstatic to be able to say that I’m working at THE GLOBE?!?!
I can’t wait to get started on Macbeth with this phenomenal team.
An absolute dream come true.
…I’ll be celebrating by eating a lot of Maccies.🧙🏻♀️❤️
#PlayingShakespeare
@The_Globe
Meet the wicked Company who will be bringing Shakespeare's gripping tragedy
#Macbeth
to life in our wooden 'O' this March.
🏫 School performances:
👪 Family performances:
I just had the breakdown that’s been brewing for 7 months.
I’m so tired. We’ve been abandoned, ridiculed, & infantilised.
Yet, we’re aware of the responsibility we hold. What storytelling does & what we lose without it.
We will rise. We have to.
Stay safe & strong. I love you.❤️
I’m SO proud of this article & all it means. Thank you
@TheStage
@AntWalker_Cook
Speaking openly about my career & disability & how they are interwoven is such an honour.
I’m so proud to be disabled & an actor. & SO honoured to keep galvanising a safer & more equitable industry❤️
“I want my roles to touch people who may not think theatre is for them” – Rising musical theatre star
@BethHintonLever
tells The Stage how the time is right for theatremakers to reconsider characters, lyrics and texts with disabled performers in mind
I couldn’t be more THRILLED to say I’ll be joining this phenomenal company to play Bebe in A Chorus Line
@CurveLeicester
❤️
Overjoyed to be part of this glorious, REPRESENTATIVE, and beautiful company!!
(Someone teach me to dance literally immediately thank you x)👯♀️👯👯♂️
Still can’t quite believe this happened. That’s me. On The Globe stage. The actual wooden ‘O’?!
Forever grateful for the opportunity to work and play here🧙♀️❤️
@The_Globe
⭕️
Thanks to all at once and to each one...
Today marks the end of this year's
#PlayingShakespeare
production. It has been a joy to introduce young people, students and their families to Shakespeare ⭕
To our wickedly devilish
#Macbeth
Company – enjoy your final performances!
We're incredibly disappointed to be closing our doors to audiences again, as London is placed in Tier 3.
You can still join us next week to watch Dick Whittington on YouTube and celebrate panto's place at the heart of British theatre.
Thank you for all your support.
The emotional labour of fighting for existence is exhausting.
My community is so strong but please have empathy.
Deaf, Disabled, and Neurodiverse people deserve to pursue any dreams we have and not to be mocked for fighting for our rights, representation, and a chance.
Today is our battle cry. For decades we’ve been marginalised, ignored, & underfunded to stifle our voices & dampen our achievements. Yet, it was within the disabled arts that I found my voice, my craft, & my family. They gave me everything. ❤️
#WeShallNotBeRemoved
I am horrified that in
#ComeAsYouAre
3 non-disabled actors Crip-Up. The premise: disabled people can’t get sex/be desired unless we pay for it. WHY does this narrative exist. It is so damaging. If it is to be explored, you simply MUST cast from our community
@GoldwynFilms
. 1/4
Just seen a trailer for the film Come As You Are.
3 disabled men (who insist on person-first language), played by able-bodied men, go on a road trip because people "like them" don't get laid.
And ableds are praising it for being good disabled representation.
I'm gonna be sick.
This was something special. I saw my costume designs & the phenomenal Edd Lindley had drawn Anybodys with one arm, just like me. He gifted me the drawings as I couldn’t help but cry with happiness that ALL of me was accepted & included.
#WeShallNotBeRemoved
#EndAbleism
❤️
To my 14 year old self: don’t worry, just give it time, you’ll get there.
First preview for
@hadestown
at the
@NationalTheatre
tonight. The butterflies are real 🦋🦋🦋🦋❤️
Break a leg to the company of
@hadestown
for your first preview tonight!
Here's Director
@rachelchavkin
and Composer
@anaismitchell
with everything you need to know before you go way down under the ground...
My next adventure is out 😍🏴☠️🔥! Long John Silver is an absolute dream role! (And my first villain 😈)! Cannot wait to get going on Treasure Island
@DerbyTheatre
2020 😍
🏝ANNOUNCEMENT🏝
Our big family-friendly production for Easter 2020 will be Treasure Island!☠️🏝
All performances will have integrated BSL and Captioning.
Featuring
@BethHintonLever
as Long John Silver, tickets for this pirate-filled show will go on general SAIL on Fri 15 Nov.
‘When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?’.
Today,
@The_Globe
we had THUNDER, LIGHTNING, AND RAIN.
WHAT A PRIVILEGE AND AN HONOUR TO BE AN ACTOR SAYING THOSE LINES ON THAT STAGE TODAY.
Pure magic. I am one happy witch. 🧙♀️❤️
“It will come around again”. I’m exhausted, aghast, & unfortunately not surprised.
HOW MANY TIMES have the disabled community been infantilised with this ignorance. An excuse to ignore our activism, your ableism, & erasure of steps forward made by RSC/Hull etc.
Terrible news.
I was rejected from drama schools at 18 & again at 22. I’ve been rejected from jobs that I didn’t think my career would survive without. For my looks, disability, accent, & much more. I was told I would never work in a musical. It just made me fight harder.
#ShareYourRejections
This is the first poem of mine that I’ve ever shared publicly, but given the fact we are still fighting ableism everyday, it felt right.
Thank you to the POWERHOUSES
@graeae
for all you do & the opportunities you create for our community. I wouldn’t be who I am without you.
❤️
I’m starting “coffee dates”! Whether we’re friends or we’ve never spoken before please do get in touch & we’ll find a time to call/FaceTime. About anything! Drop me a message & let’s find a time to chat/cry/sing/anything! We may be isolating but we’re not alone. ☺️☕️❤️
OH FUCK OFF
@TeleTheatre
. How dare you reassert the wrongfully prevalent idea that brilliance & box-ticking are binary. They are not, nor have they ever been, mutually exclusive. An authentic, diverse, & representative room WILL engender MORE brilliance from all involved. Thanks.
Remembering 2019
#WOSAwards
very fondly when we got to perform with Spring Awakening🦋
However, I would be amiss to not ask.
Is there a ramp this year? BSL interpreters? Any Deaf, Disabled, Neurodiverse talent/creatives there?
These awards should celebrate *all* our industry.
We can now reveal the cast taking you way down to
#Hadestown
.
Including Amber Gray and Patrick Page, who reprise their original New York Theatre Workshop roles.
Book tickets:
Beyond excited and overwhelmed to be working with these phenomenal people and everyone here at the
@royalcourt
on
Living Newspaper Edition 3!! AHHHHH!❤️❤️❤️
Meet the cast of
#LivingNewspaper
Edition 3:
Isabel Adomakoh Young
Deborah Bahi
Nigel Barrett
Susan Brown
Tom Fisher
Beth Hinton-Lever
Tony Jayawardena
Scott Karim
Ms Sharon Le Grand
Lucy Mangan
Sophie Melville
Siobhan McSweeney
Tom Mothersdale
Caleb Obediah
Sukh Ojla
Anyone else go from wildly overconfident to incapacitatingly underconfident with alarming ease and speed?
One second I’m off to rewire a plug and learn French and the next I can’t open the fridge and have to google how to spell “pigeon”.
Realised at work today, I have now played not one, not two, but THREE queer pirates in my career so far. THREE. A TRIO OF LESBIAN PIRATES. Talk about finding your niche🏴☠️🏳️🌈
Press Night at the
@NationalTheatre
tonight. I am so excited to share this show with such a stunning company, team, and crew. Bring it on. ❤️
@hadestown
I love you x
Last night I met my mate’s tri-paw’d (cat with three legs) and she was perfect. Just angry I drunkenly woke her up screaming “WE’RE THE SAME DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!”. I love her.
Just finished a run of Hadestown, and honestly I am SO psyched to share this beautiful show with an audience. The poetry. The music. The team. We’re coming. 🔥🌹
#Hadestown
@NationalTheatre
@hadestown
This is INCREDIBLE news!
@graeae
and their ensemble training is producing the most exciting and talented artists and finally they’re being recognised. Wonderful wonderful wonderful 😍❤️
.
@graeae
's ensemble training programme for D/deaf and disabled theatremakers is to become an accredited course for the first time this year with the support of Rose Bruford College (
@rosebruford
)
I went to a lovely pub yesterday and have never been more delighted in my life to meet FRANCIS BACON. A PIG THAT LIVES IN THE PUB. A PUB PIG. A PIG PUB. Not even a micro pig. A VERY LARGE 11 YEAR OLD SOW. Absolutely besotted.
I’ve been scheduling my emails to send at random times like 8:17am so it’s less obvious that I wrote them at 4:30 in the morning because what is time anymore.
I’ve been walking around like Winnie The Pooh for the last 4 days (hoodie/no bottoms) I’ve binged tv & finished off a lot of wine & everything my mum left in the freezer. I’ve also dyed my hair. This is fine. I don’t miss West Side at all... This is completely normal behaviour🙃
Been a long time coming for me…
The word “freak” is ableist.
“Freaking out” etc is ableist.
Instead try: “I got stressed/worried/perturbed/bothered/concerned” etc.
Language is a rich tapestry with plentiful options. Let’s try make our words more inclusive and less harmful.❤️
My housemates and I freeze lemon and lime wedges for G&Ts etc so we can use them instead of ice so it doesn’t water down the drink but keeps it cool and adds to the flavour.
You’re welcome 🍋x
Feeling beyond lucky and shocked to be a finalist(?!?!?!????!!!) for the
@EveningStandard
#FutureTheatreFund
😭🥰
Huge love to
@graeae
for nominating me and all my love and luck to my fellow nominees!!
You can watch live TONIGHT at 7pm here:
❤️❤️❤️
Accessibility in theatre is weighing down on so many & we need your help! It’s a big insurmountable task when we look at the entire industry, but we can & do make a positive change. If you notice that any space isn’t fully accessible mention it to the premises & see what 1/4
Just did a beautiful discussion about the Queer Disabled Experience
@switchboardLGBT
It was an honour to listen to my fellow panellists talk with such passion & honesty. However, I opted for “just like a puppy isn’t only for Christmas, accessibility isn’t just for lockdown”
Oh no
Reasons to be Cheerful is out TODAY!!! To stream for free!! FOR TWO MONTHS!!! 🔥🖤 Here are some of my reasons that this show made me cheerful. I’m forever proud to have been a small part of this mighty show. I hope you enjoy it too! ❤️
It’s
#IDDP2018
today & I wanted to say that disabled isn’t a bad, or a dirty word. It isn’t a descriptor I use to put myself down. It’s a culture, it’s strength, & it’s powerful. It may be hard, but I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am any other way. I’m so proud to be disabled.
The incredible
@anaismitchell
wrote “to the world we dream about” & I have been lucky enough to live out my dream of being an actor. I want to ensure d/Deaf & disabled people never feel like they don’t belong/don’t deserve to chase their dreams.❤️
#WeShallNotBeRemoved
#EndAbleism
BEYOND THRILLED!
I utterly adore
@NationalTheatre
Public Acts & SOMEHOW am lucky enough to be doing my second show with them THIS SUMMER at
@castindoncaster
(who took a chance on an archaeologist & I started my career there?!)
Very humbled and excited and YAY
LET’S GO DONNY ❤️
EXCITED to announce the big names joining the company in The Doncastrian Chalk Circle this August:
Benjamin Armstrong; Daisy Ann Fletcher; Beth Hinton-Lever; Charlotte Mills; and John Partridge (Rum Tum Tugger himself!!)
Tickets and more info here:
It is SUCH an honour to be a part of this production! Here’s a look into what we’ve already been up to. I can’t wait to get going and create something incredible with these absolute dreams 🥰
🎵 Could it be, yes it could! Something’s coming, something good... ❤️🎵
This Christmas, join us for our Made at Curve production of West Side Story from 23 Nov - 11 Jan!
Take a sneak peek behind the scenes of our photoshoot 👀
Tickets:
Devastated for all the casts, crew, & FOH
#Cinderella
How dare a man of such obscene privilege not take the step to TELL THEM ALL before announcing two cancellations & then bizarrely/disgustingly the Broadway transfer in the same breath.
Tactless. Heartbreaking. Quasi-illegal.
Couldn’t be prouder of this magnificent company, crew, &
@NationalTheatre
for getting our beautiful show filmed in time for the festive period.
Do tune in, if you can!
The show was made with more laughter, light, & love than I can say.
Now, it’s recorded for us all!
🤟🏻❤️
🔔 One day to go until
#DickWhittington
premieres on YouTube. 🎉
Join our panto party from 3pm UK time tomorrow until midnight Sunday:
Celebrate the joy of this brilliant tradition with us by supporting your local theatre in any way you can.
Whilst I’m on this.
I am disabled.
“Disabled” isn’t a bad word.
I’m a disabled person & a disabled actor & I couldn’t be prouder of that fact. I’m so honoured to be part of my strong & beautiful community.
Please do call me disabled, it’s my preferred terminology. Thank you❤️
I have so much I want to say but can’t right now.
@dtoole764
was the reasons a seed was planted inside my heart that I could do anything I wanted. He’s magic. He’s a warrior. & somehow I was lucky enough to call him my friend. Thank you for everything. I miss you so much already.
Anyone else still checking their emails once every 5 minutes as if they’re waiting to hear back from something despite not having auditioned for anything?
Just me? Cool.
I am INCREDIBLY proud of my
@hadestown
family. Especially,
@anaismitchell
and
@rachelchavkin
who have not only have created a show that is audibly, lyrically, and visually stunning, but a story that will touch & help so many people through their darkest and loneliest hours. 1/4
I loved
@EmiliaThePlay
inexplicable amounts at The Globe, so tonight I took my mum. OH WOW I SOBBED & she made sure I was okay. Spoke to me about how powerful & important Emilia & my own anger are. This is what Emilia/being represented onstage can do🔥💙💛
#IAmEmilia
A man has just sat opposite me on the train. Already, sir, please don’t, there are so many seats. He’s not wearing a mask, again, absolutely no. Most perplexing of all, he has just taken off his shoes and socks. I just…
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE 🍃❤️
Spending my evening reconnecting with the beautiful As You Like It team, with the gorgeous companies & teams of Pericles & The Caucasian Chalk Circle. I will forever be beyond grateful and humbled to have worked on such a life-affirming project! 😭❤️
Just in case anyone was wondering, that sweet smell that comes with rainfall after a long period of heat is called petrichor.
A beautiful word for a beautiful thing. 🌧❤️
OI OI🔥🖤
Getting to rock out with these legends again made my heart SING 🥰🔥
Being proud to be disabled was a long route for me, but I’m happy to say that because of this show, these people, & the phenomenal Ian Dury, I’m there.
I love
@Graeae
& my Reasons family so much. ❤️
I’m sat in
@ucl
, my alma mater, writing out lyrics for As You Like It with
@QueensTheatreH
@NationalTheatre
before I go to chat about my career in MT. 18 year old me is beside herself with excitement, disbelief, and utter joy. Don’t worry, you’ll get where you’re meant to be ❤️✨
I’m so honoured to be playing Marie in
#Maryland
@royalcourt
Fri/Sat this week.
To be able to tell Marie’s story & the story of countless women like her is a true honour & yet horrifying it needs telling so poignantly.
Every three days a woman is murdered by a man.
Every 3 days.
Just announced: Next week we'll be sharing script-in-hand performances of Lucy Kirkwood's new play Maryland.
The play will be performed from Thu 7 Oct– Sat 16 Oct at 7.45pm.
#Maryland
More info:
🚨
@GraeaeJennyS
&
@graeae
gave me my first job out of drama school & I couldn’t be prouder. The fire I have inside me is because of them.
The industry is a better place with them & I wouldn’t feel theatre had a place for me without them. Now I’m ready to fight for my place 🔥❤️
Can’t believe it’s been 2 months since a stranger has yelled at me... Gonna have to slap my own ass & call myself a freak soon.
Luckily, my shitty mental health and internalised ableism & homophobia has stepped up and is doing wonders in my time of need.
#BreakingTheSilence
❤️
No doubt tonight’s announcement will be tough.
Tough to understand why it’s taken this long. Tough to accept. Tough to listen to that colossal idiot.
But we will endure, persevere, & we will come out the other side & hugs will be even sweeter.
I’m here if you need me.
Always.❤️
My mother and I decided to start eating more healthily. Thus far, she has made two cakes. TODAY. Two. That’s a cake each.
I mean... I’m not mad about it. But still.
This article articulates everything I want to say, but haven't quite known how. I am so proud to be a disabled actor, but more than that, I am proud to be a disabled person. I will never stop fighting for representation and equality in the arts.
@104Films
It is an honour to be a part of the Disability Arts Alliance and have my name on this letter.
Let’s build an industry based on equity and access.
How are we still working in a system that our friends cannot access, let alone safely work in? Time’s up.
#WeShallNotBeRemoved
❤️
The
#Disability
Arts Alliance
#WeShallNotBeRemoved
has today sent an open letter to Culture Ministers across the UK warning that the pandemic has magnified inequalities for disabled people working in the creative industries & demands renewal be inclusive
You’ve got just under 30mins to book to join us for the livestream of the
#LivingNewspaper
Edition 3 Front Page direct from the theatre.
Booking closes at 5pm. Book now:
The 10 min musical performance starts at 5.30pm and the team are standing by...
Honestly. As an (former) archaeologist and a (quasi) Liverpudlian I cannot recommend A House Through Time more. (Especially if you are interested in/like Liverpool). What a city. What a programme!!
@BBCOne
❤️
#AHouseThroughTime
My twin has thrown his shoulder out from installing his own washing machine (he’s a maths teacher so not qualified to do this) instead of asking how he is I just asked if we match now.
Mum is not pleased.
How has it been 5 years since I made my professional debut?! Dancehall was so special.
I never dreamt that one day I would be an actor, but 5 years ago because of luck, trust, & some wonderful people it happened.
I’m so proud to be an actor & I can’t wait to get back to it🤟🏻❤️
What a beautiful & special show As You Like It was.🥰🍃
Poignant, beautiful, & timely. “The show much still go on, we keep a ghostlight for the ones who start again when we are gone”.
Forever grateful & humbled that I got to be a tiny part of it. It will stay with me forever❤️
This musical adaptation of As You Like It 😍
Public Acts stages extraordinary acts of community and theatre.
Over one hundred performers took part
@QueensTheatreH
last year.
YOU HAVE ONE DAY LEFT TO WATCH REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL!
@graeae
not only created a raucous, beautiful, and punk paradise onstage with Reasons, they taught me how to be Cheerful again.
This show is important. It is powerful. It is absolute magic. You have ONE DAY!
OI OI! 🔥❤️
@sophieLstone
@SpotlightUK
Furthering this, the production teams simply cannot just presume what any person can or cannot do, whether they belong to the aforementioned communities or not.
We can’t wait for The Doncastrian Chalk Circle! Hear what it means to be part of the
@NationalTheatre
's Public Acts programme.
Next up, actor: BETH HINTON-LEVER!
@BethHintonLever
Beth: 👉
Tickets: 👉
How on earth is it our last show of
@Spring_Mcr
tonight?! Thank you so much to everyone who has come and supported this frankly magical team & show. I’m so lucky! LET’S SMASH IT TONIGHT 🦋❤️
Devastated our ship isn’t sailing. It’s been a wonderful, fun, & inclusive few weeks & I’m so sad we’re to remain landlocked.
It’s the right decision for the safety of all.
Huge love to all involved in this beautiful show. I love you all.
Forever yours,
Long John Silver 🏴☠️❤️
UPDATE: Please see below our updated statement regarding coronavirus
#COVID19
Everyone here at Derby Theatre would like to thank our audiences, participants and staff for their support and understanding.
We send best wishes to you and your loved ones’ health and well-being.
GUYS!!! My mum has just said to me “I’ve just spent a very happy half hour looking at the
@DogsTrust
website. Let’s go on Sunday”. CHRISTMAS 2018 HAS COME VERY EARLY. OH MY GOD! WOOOOO.