One and Three Quarters Theatre

I am the founder of One and Three Quarters and therefore, I am responsible for a bit of everything: I perform, I write, I produce, etc. and I also do an awful lot of all that background stuff (such as managing the company) together with Vicki.

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Growing up with a lot of creative hobbies, it really did not come as a surprise that I decided to go down a creative path when choosing a career. As long as I can remember, I have always been interested in storytelling and being a voice for those, whose stories haven't been told yet. I started crafting and writing stories as soon as I managed to formulate a full sentence on paper. Acting and entertaining others with my way of retelling stories is something I've done since I could speak really. No one knows who passed this over to me since no one else in my family - as of my current knowledge - has been involved in the arts. 

I studied Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent and graduated in 2018. During that time, I gained extra experience by being involved in shows and short films which I acted in. This was the first time I put myself out there in a professional context and meant a lot to me: I love what I do but due to my disability it's incredibly hard to find people that will take me seriously and are willing to adapt their usual working methods, so I can be a part of their work. It has always been difficult, and still is to this day, to fight assumptions and stereotypes that people think of when I tell them of my visual impairment. Although I am perfectly able to do most things in life by myself, I often have met individuals that think otherwise without seeing my work. Of course, this isn't just the case in a professional environment, but also in my personal life. If I don't out myself as visually impaired, most people wouldn't even notice - but when I do, it sometimes feels like people are a bit overwhelmed and don't know how to handle it. 

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Since graduating, I have been involved in several drama-related projects and I have been continuing my work as a writer and an actress. I have been involved in several projects at Moving Memory Dance Theatre Company and as of March 2019, I have joined their board. One thing I particularly enjoyed at uni - which I never thought I would, to be quite honest - was stand-up comedy. Since learning and practicing comedy during the course of my university time, my work has more and more gotten a comedic "touch", which I actually quite enjoy.

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I am an experienced devised theatre-maker and disability activist who is excited about combining both skills in making original performance. In One and Three Quarters I am the co-creative director with Susie and Artistic Director on projects. I facilitate the workshops and rehearsals and manage the company with Susie.

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I have multiple chronic conditions and disabilities which have impacted my work over the past decade. These include Behcets Syndrome, Primary Hypermobility Syndrome, polyarthralgia, Fibromyalgia and Bipolar.

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I graduated with a Masters in Contemporary Performance Practice in 2004 from Kent University. In 2007 I founded Wide Eyed Theatre, a storytelling and theatre company making work primarily for children and young people. The company ran for a decade with funding from the Arts Council, The Heritage Lottery Fund and local authorities. We worked 1000s of young people through our many projects in schools, arts venues and youth theatres. And had partnerships with arts centres, universities and festivals. The company closed in 2017 when I was no longer able to work within the traditional boundaries of theatre-making and funding. I also lectured in theatre-making and performance at the University of Kent and Christchurch University..

Being creative has remained important to me. And despite not being able to work more than 12 hours a week, and differently, I have kept my connections to performance open. I usher at The Gulbenkian in Canterbury and volunteer with Moving Memory Dance Theatre Company as a rehearsal assistant. I also facilitate a creative disability community called There's a Wolf at my Door.

I have never given up on making work again and One and Three Quarters has allowed me to redefine how work is made, sustained, and funded. I am excited about our approach to theatre-making and aim for our work to reach audiences and disabled theatre-makers alike. Creativity and performance are vital in telling stories and understanding other’s lives and experiences. They are human connection and should be accessible to all.

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I am a performer, performance-maker, lecturer and researcher living and working with a chronic illness. Having trained with the Royal Academy of Dance and at Bird College of Dance and Musical Theatre, my career path changed due to a relapse of ME after contracting swine flu during my degree. Although this change was heart-rending, living with chronic illness has taught me some important skills in resilience and adaptability, and I completed a BA (Hons) in Creative Arts at Canterbury Christ Church University.

My postgraduate study led me towards the communication of invisible disability in performance, focusing on the perception of gesture, feminist performance practice and spectatorship. During my PhD, I used practice-based research to create autobiographical live art performances, including (In)Visible: Tell Me What You See, exploring how gesture could express embodied experience, and Screening My(Self): Reflections, which examined the shifting experience of embodiment in the disabled narrative. My PhD thesis is available to read at the CCCU Research Space Repository. I have performed and presented at national symposia speaking about the invisibly disabled experience, and have written for Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal (to be published summer 2021).

I am now a sessional lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University and have also taught at Rose Bruford College.

As a performance producer I have devised, directed and choreographed performances for community, commercial and educational projects. Notable work includes The Fantastic Friends of Freddie McFinn (The Quarterhouse and St Gregory’s Centre for Music, 2013) blending sign-language with choreography to tell the story of a boy with non-verbal autism who learns to sign from his imaginary animal friends, and choreographic piece Belle Souer, exploring the relationship between step-sisters, performed as part of Made in Kent for Canterbury Festival 2012. I have a long-standing collaboration with musical theatre writing duo Donnelly and Maltby, and am currently producing new musical Ada’s Algorithm in association with The Conrad Press.

Although I have performed for many years, being part of One and Three Quarters has been a new way of working for me, finding support from a group of wom*n with similar experiences of adversity due to our embodied differences. Our work brings often overlooked experiences into visibility, and amplifies voices that go unheard. I look forward to taking Conversations with a Cripple to new audiences.

Emily is an Artist and creative enabler with extensive experience in Project Management and Governance in the Finance, Policing and Charity sectors. As an Access Project Manager she draws from her experience to support teams to overcome access barriers they may experience from governance, implicit and explicit expectations. This allows teams to work to their strengths and help create space to learn anything individuals are less comfortable with.