A Neurodivergent Theatre
Theatre is evolving in the UK
This is a talk I gave on the 1st December as part of Deaf Explorer’s Access and Inclusion Event at Moseley Community Hub. The event was supported by Culture Central and attended by those working in the Midlands Culture Sector. Since giving the talk a number of people have asked if they could read it so I thought I place it here for people.
Hello, my name is Matthew Gabrielli, I am freelance playwright & producer and I also work part-time at Women & Theatre. My pronouns are he/him. I am also neurodivergent. My work is interested in speculative fiction, weird tales & mythology, I love these genres because they’re big populace dramas driven by ideas. I like playing to and rejecting the conventions of these genres. In recent years I’ve also become increasingly interested in how my neurodiversity impacts on my creativity and how I tell stories.
In May 2020, I set up the West Midlands Neurodiverse Theatre Network, an informal network for neurodiverse writers and theatre makers, to discuss obstacles, opportunities and to create positive change in the region’s theatre making community.
I set up the network as I felt there was a lack of representation and a lack of conversations about the neurodiverse experience within the local theatre making community.
Background
Neurodiversity refers to variations in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood and other mental functions. It is an umbrella term for a number of conditions, including but not limited to ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, tourettes and some people with certain mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, OCD and bipolar conditions regard themselves as being neurodivergent, however some do not.
1 in 7 more than 15% of the UK population is ND, according to the Equality Act of 2010, neurodiverse conditions are classed as a disability. Whilst many in the community are happy to be called disabled, some do not find that a helpful description. Likewise, many ND people who would call themselves disabled have expressed confusion, shame and embarrassment about using the term or accessing support for fear that others do not treat it as a “real disability”.
These are life long conditions which people are born with, however due to failures and lack of resources both within the health care and education system many people will not be diagnosed until adulthood. Getting diagnosed as children or adults is a lengthy, complicated and often expensive process, and even with a diagnosis finding the support you are entitled to can be difficult. We have been repeatedly failed by systems that are supposed to support us.
These conditions are very different and affect people in different ways and the needs of ND people will change from person to person. There is not one size that will fit all approach to supporting us.
ND people are asked to work in ways which are designed for the benefit of NT people, the actions and language people use treats the NT experience as a baseline or goal that ND should aim for, even though for many of us this is unachievable. ND people are repeatedly asked to adapt and change their behaviour and fit in within NT systems, but those systems never ask how they can be flexible and adapt to us.
The culture sector is ableist, built and designed by neurotypical people for the benefit of neurotypicals and thus excludes neurodivergent artists, workers and audiences. This is a national and historical problem, which has a very real and harmful impact on us.
How can the Birmingham Cultural Community support ND Artists?
Whilst every ND person’s needs are different it is probably fair to say that being neurodivergent has a huge impact on individuals executive functions which creates huge barriers within the industry.
The Birmingham Cultural Community should think about how it can make the local industry more accessible in the short, medium and long term. Today I’m going to present a number of suggestions which have come out of conversations with members of the West Midlands Neurodiverse Theatre Network about how you could make this happen, this list is not exhaustive.
Short term
Three simple steps every organisation could do to support us
1. Allow artists to submit application forms and job applications in video and audio format as well as written. Formal writing is not necessarily the best way for ND people to share their thoughts.
2. Interview Questions in advance — Many people have difficulty retaining verbal information, especially when experiencing anxiety. Also let applicants take notes into the meeting.
3. Access and well-being riders — simply put a document that asks artists what they need from an organisation to create the best working environment possible.
These should all be offered as standard, an artist should not have to request them.
Medium Term
The industry heavily relies upon networking to engage artists but networking can be very exclusivity to ND people. Opportunities to network are often vague, they lack structure, rely heavily on social cues and are often held in loud, crowded spaces that can lead to sensory overload. There is too often a failure to act on verbal commitments, which can create a lot of anxiety. A phrase like “let’s go for a coffee” is an absolute mind field for many ND.
There is a lack of transparency about how artists get commissioned/employed, given our difficulties with executive functions, the process of finding out how an organisation can support you can be very time consuming and very frustrating when you discover you’ve been wasting your time.
Neurodiverse is often missing from call-outs and given as I’ve already mentioned the confusion and debate around these conditions in relation to disability means it should be named separately. It is also rather frustratingly not always included on equal monitoring forms.
Moving forward organisations should consider
- How and why they use networking to employ people is this approach open and accessible to all.
- Rather than offering meetings and “coffees” ad hoc, formalise one to one sessions on a regular basis which anyone can book onto to meet staff and learn more about how said organisation works/offers support.
- Clear and honest descriptions about how you develop artists that are easy to find on your website.
- Actively seek out ND artists, specifically name them in call outs and job opportunities.
- Commit to producing work created by ND Artists who live in this city and region.
Long term
There is a cliff edge in artist development in the city, artists might get to scratch or R&D something, maybe there’s a couple of hundred quid as seed funding, but after that they’re left to their own devices and actually, as organisations you haven’t given the artists the skills or support they need to move forward. A common complaint artists have is development feels more like a publicity exercise than a serious commitment to setting up artists to have a career in the industry. Given the barriers d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent people face this cliff edge is particularly sharp. Birmingham based artists feel they don’t have the same opportunities compared to other cities and regions.
Often artists are encouraged to make work independently away from organisations to help them stand out. But that isn’t always an option open to disabled artists. Navigating the industry as we all know can be hard at the best of times, but when you add the everyday barriers we face. It’s great to see so many artists thriving and making work outside of established organisations but deaf, disabled and ND have so many other barriers they have to contend with, the lack of support can kill creative projects before they’ve had a chance to begin.
We need arts organisations to be more joined up in their thinking. Where are the gaps in your organisation and in the region how can you work together to support us?
One suggestion which came out of discussions with the West Midlands Neuordiverse Theatre Network.
A long term investment into developing deaf, disabled and neurodiverse theatre makers via the creation of a production house or theatre company committed to commissioning and touring professional theatre created by disabled artists. An opportunity for artists to move beyond scratch performances through to full production (whatever that looks like) along the way upskilling artists so they have the knowledge and resources to thrive on their own. A sort of on-going development programme which is honest about what barriers these artists would face and works with them to remove them. An open and transparent organisation, that is clear and precise about what it can and cannot achieve. A company which would encourage collaboration over competition, giving artists the chance to share what they’ve learned with their peers. A production house that would devise its timetable around the access needs of the groups, not the other way around. Push the boundaries of what access in theatre could be working from the principle that access is a creative opportunity. Re-think how theatre companies are structured instead of a top down approach, democratise give the artists involved the opportunity to steer how resources are spent. Making institutions learning from the artists a feature of the programme as much as artists learning from institutions.
And finally I just want to say being neurodivergent is great actually, we are an asset to your organisations. We’re hard workers, creative, problem solvers, with a unique way of seeing the world. ND artists are making incredibly exciting work and as more people feel confident in sharing their experiences the more collectively we understand about the community. It’s a really exciting time to be neurodiverse, it’s a really exciting time to be collaborating with ND artists. I want to push back against this idea that hiring us is a risk, in recent years company’s such GCHQ, Microsoft and JP Morgan have changed the way they recruit in order to hire more ND people because they believe a neurodiverse workforce gives them an advantage. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, ran for more than 1,600 shows in London. 800 performances on Broadway and has had multiple tours in the UK and around the globe. The protagonist of the story is a neurodiverse. There is clearly an audience who want to see stories about neurodivergent people; it is not a risk to tell those stories. Employ ND people, commission work from ND Artists, make it accessible to ND audiences and enjoy the work and environments this approach will create.
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