STET No Limits Festival
Line-up
John Kelly – Opening Performance
An activist musician that fights for equality and human rights.
As a pioneering artist John has broken new ground and continues to encourage change through his music, practice and collaboration with others. He identifies strongly as a Disabled Person and is a warm, funny, passionate musician with over 30 years’ live experience.
Els Àngels no tenen fills
Is maternity for disabled people?
A STET debut in our first Catalan performance, Els Àngels no tenen fills spreads light on one of those issues that don’t seem to exist until someone starts talking about it out loud – sexual and reproductive rights of people with functional diversity. This is Theater of Testimony that raises questions that many might not have asked until now. What makes one part of the community believe that it is more valid than another for motherhood/fatherhood?
This performance will incorporate surtitles.
Deafy
Solo performance about what it means to belong as a deaf person.
Nathan Jesper has flown in for his big talk and is desperately late. Upon arriving, he launches into his speech but things are soon found to not be what they seem.
Written and performed by Deaf performing artist Chris Dodd, Deafy blends ASL, the spoken word, and captions, to weave a tragicomedy that deals with deafness, community, and what it really means to belong.
Kitchens Lights
Short stories in Dutch Sign Language.
Kitchen’s Light is a group of performers who give their own presentations in their native language, Dutch Sign Language (NGT). Kitchen’s Light was founded in 2019, after a series of workshops by spoken word artist Elten Kiene. The group brings ‘signed word’ performances, individually or collectively, in freestyle pieces, classical sign poetry and ‘visual vernacular’ (an ‘own’ form of presentation of sign languages). Story telling and sign dancing (songs and music translated into sign language) are also in the repertoire.
The Vagina Monologues
An emotional celebration of deaf womanhood.
Written 27 years ago, The Vagina Monologues is based on writer V’s “Vagina Interviews” conducted with 200 women all around the world. This collection of funny, lively and emotional monologues represents the untold experiences of women in a powerful theatrical experience, presented for the first time in a BSL performance on this scale; an unmissable celebration of womanhood and sexuality.
Blue Badge Bunch
An interactive fun game representing different disabilities.
A hilarious game show where each game represents a different disability, giving kids and grown ups the chance to learn about Autism and Cerebral Palsy among others. Host Benny Shakes invites the audience to help join in the games, while the panellists battle it out to come up trumps, in a show where disadvantage is an advantage!
Usually I am on Top
Prevailing norms of femininity and sexuality are questioned.
In a world where beauty and perfect pictures blur the image of reality, Speels Collectief pulls the ideal image from its pedestal. In Usually I’m on Top, prevailing norms of femininity and sexuality are questioned. Vulnerable and grotesque, in words and bodies, seven women take you into their experiences and desires. In a search for a new morality (or no… the absolute rejection of it) we arrive at ‘what she really really wants’.
It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure
A powerful exploration about disabilities in social media.
Usually disabled people want to do the right thing. But what if they don’t?
What if they were out to make as much money as possible from the guilt of non-disabled, anxious people (like you)?
Hot off the back of their smash-hit VAULT Festival and Soho Theatre runs, multi award-winning, disability-led theatre company FlawBored present a scathing satire on the monetisation of identity politics that spares no one.
Industry events
Jonny Cotsen: Embedding Creative Access within your Practice
Open workshop for the arts industry
This 60 minute session is thoughtfully crafted to guide theatre professionals in seamlessly integrating inclusivity into their professional lives. As a deaf individual, Jonny Cotsen (UK), a qualified art teacher turned performance artist and inclusion consultant, shares practical insights and down-to-earth strategies in an interactive session.
Sonja Parmentier: Changing perspectives + the Dutch context of inclusive arts
Open workshop for the arts industry
Join us for a 60 minutes transformative workshop with Sonja Parmentier, a dancer in a wheelchair. Delve into Sonja’s thought-provoking exploration of inclusion in the performing arts, where she addresses the crucial question: why, despite ongoing conversations, does the journey towards true inclusion seem so challenging?
Symposium on Arts and Disabilities
With Jess Thom, Robert Softley Gale, Europe Beyond Access and the kickoff to The Week of Accessability.
With a panel of Dutch and British performers, policy makers and experts, we discuss the current state of the industry. With in-depth discussions on intersectionality, this is adding to the important conversation around access in theatre.
Schedule:
11:00 – 13:00 Short performance
Keynote & Symposium
Europe Beyond Access & Week of Accessibility kick off!
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 Industry Workshop by Sonja Parmentier (dancer in a wheelchair, NL): Changing Perspectives + the Dutch context of inclusive arts
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee and Networking Break
15:30 – 16:30 Industry Workshop by Jonny Cotsen (Hard of hearing actor, UK): Embedding creative access within your practice
16:30 – 17:00 Closure and wrap up. What have we learnt?
Photos from a previous STET symposium on disabilities in the arts:
For this show, STET is grateful for the support of:
