Theatre director, facilitator and newly appointed Artistic Director of Interplay Theatre, Kirsty Pennycook, has recently worked on organising the company’s first Sensory Theatre Symposium, an event dedicated to discussions around the possibilities, practices and importance of sensory work. The Symposium will take place on the 1st February and will be hosted and supported by Leeds Playhouse. Based in Leeds, Interplay produces work for young people with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities.
The UK has a growing scene of sensory theatre made for young people with learning disabilities, that encompasses 5 or more senses to tell stories for audiences with complex needs. Unlike traditional theatre, that relies on watching and listening, sensory theatre encompasses all the senses, to communicate narrative on lots of levels for those who often find theatre inaccessible. Many companies in this area of the sector count beyond the well-known 5 senses, and include movement, temperature, sense of self, and many more. Lots of sensory theatre is immersive, interactive, and experiential. Artists use their skills of initiative and considered engagement to communicate in new ways, and audiences share the joy of stories in ways far more accessible and tailored to them.
Joining the Interplay Theatre team a few months ago, there was talk of our symposium having a strong focus on our audience’s perspective of sensory theatre, so when I began the process of curating panels, I was keen to include audience members from our partner schools. Disabled communities have been using the slogan “Nothing About Us, Without Us” since the 90s, to remind non-disabled people to ensure they are involved in conversations relating to their experience of the world. Our partner schools are SILCs (Specialist Inclusive Learning Centres) for young people with learning disabilities, and together we co-create shows, so their perspective at the symposium will be invaluable. I was also keen to invite an artist from Mind The Gap, a learning disabled theatre company in Bradford, and I’m very chuffed to say that we’ll be joined by JoAnne Haines who has recently toured a sensory show of her own, Dancing With Colours.
Partnering up with the Playhouse felt like a natural fit, as their learning-disabled participation work is studied across the country as excellent practice. Learning Disability Programme Manager, Natalie Kyrkos, has worked with us to build an exciting week of activity for learning disabled people in Leeds, and is including our shows, symposium and sensory workshops in their Beautiful Octopus Club Festival. It feels really exciting to be linking up Interplay Theatre’s history of local working in Leeds, to our sensory theatre offer that tours nationally, and to share our work alongside the great work of the Playhouse.
Another aspect of the work I was keen to focus on, was the performer and audience relationship often present in sensory theatre work. Many shows use Intensive Interaction, a communication style using facial expressions, physical touch and eye contact, with their audiences to connect them to the story. To get an interesting perspective on this, I was keen to include an assistant head teacher who we have recently been working with, who had commented on the impact of the interactions in an Interplay Theatre show, and start conversations with some artists from other companies making this kind of work. Diane Thornton from Tenterhooks is a theatre maker and performer who co-created MESS, a sensory show for Additional Support Needs Schools across Scotland. She is also a clown doctor in paediatric health care with Hearts and Minds, so regularly provides laughter, distraction and joy for children in hospitals and hospice care with interactive creative play, song and storytelling. This kind of intensive interaction and her clowning training informed the making of MESS and provides a really interesting talking point around why this work is important, and what benefit it brings to theatre.
Although we are keen to avoid the dreaded C word at our symposium, we cannot ignore the financial implications of the pandemic on the theatre industry as a whole. One of the reasons I think it is so beneficial to get companies from across the UK in one place right now is to band together as an area of the sector who is often hit hardest by cuts in budget. Work like ours is specialist, and it costs more money to be accessible to those who are often excluded from the arts. It takes more people, more training, more time and our audience sizes are smaller. Despite all that, the companies that make, programme or have seen this work will tell you that the benefits of engaging with learning disabled audiences are huge, not only to provide access to the arts for them in their lives, but to create loyal and engaged communities in theatre spaces across the country.
I think there are really rich conversations to be had about the current climate and the future for sensory theatre work across the UK, and with the varied panels and guests attending, we will have an artist, an audience, and an academic’s perspective throughout. We are keen to share this moment widely, as many NPOs in this area of the sector are gifting us their time to come together, so we have ensured an online livestream of the event is available during and after, to document the conversations, and so our colleagues across the country can tune in.
Interplay’s Sensory Theatre Symposium takes place on the 1st February 10am – 4pm, both in-person at Leeds Playhouse and via a monitored Zoom stream.
