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DIY: 2019 – Quiplash: Unsightly Drag

Bringing visually impaired queers and drag performers together to share skills and fuck shit up.

Deadline for applications: 2pm, Thursday 4 July
This DIY is supported by National Theatre New Work Studio

Project summary

This will be a DIY that will explore how drag and visual impairment interact. The purpose is to look at how putting access for blind and VI people in to drag performance (for both performers and audience members) will inform and evolve the artform. We will bring queer visually impaired people, audio description experts and established drag artists together to share skills and create new work.

The R&D will focus on teaching blind people to do drag. It will help blind performers find their drag characters and give them skills to develop and perform. It will also focus on how to integrate audio description and access in to their practice from the beginning. The access then becomes a creative tool that is as important as the makeup and costuming.

How to apply

We are looking for four blind and visually impaired people who are anywhere on the LGBTQQIA spectrum, ages 18+.

This will be an exploration of drag, movement, audio description and the queer world.

Previous performance experience (outside of drag) desired but not required.

Dates, times and location

Dates: 27 – 30 August and the possibility of more time in September/October
Location: National Theatre, London

The artists

Amelia Cavallo is a queer blind theatre practitioner and academic. Al Lander is queer non binary artist, organiser and a senior designer working for a national disability organisation.

Quiplash is Amelia and Al’s creative endeavor to create space and inclusion for queer Crip (quip) people, and to explore and expand ideas of queer and Crip in performance and audiences.

This means:

  • “fucking with” perceived norms within LGBTQ+ spaces and disability lead spaces in order to facilitate discussion and change.
  • Pushing the boundaries of performance in more radical and inclusive ways.
  • Facilitating the creation of bespoke access for queer spaces and performance.
  • Creating and promoting community based models of access for the queer community

For questions about this DIY, please contact the artists.

Banner image credit:

Image courtesy of the artists

We are looking for a better quality image for this page or to replace it if it's missing.

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