Project overview

Jenny Sealey co-directed the London 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF). She has been Artistic Director and CEO of Graeae since 1997 and has pioneered a new theatrical language, coining the term “Aesthetics of Access”; the creative integration of sign language and audio description within performance. Jenny has directed work, run workshops and given presentations internationally including Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Brazil. In 2009, Jenny was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Honours and became the Artistic Advisor for the Unlimited 2012 Festival.

Hiroe lives in a world without sound. After graduating from high school, she began performing in sign language and dance and made independent films. In 1999, she gained attention when she was chosen to play the lead role in a play produced by the Haiyu-za Theatre, for which she won the 7th Yomiuri Theatre Award for Outstanding Actress. Aiming to produce plays created by both deaf and hearing people, in 2005 she founded Sign Art Project.AZN. She is currently active as an actor, sign language choreographer and workshop instructor.

Born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Yasushi is the director (playwright and direction) of the theatre company Gogo no Jiten. He founded the company in 1996 after participating in the Shizuoka Theatre Festival, where both disabled and non-disabled people performed on the same stage. Since 2013 he has been involved in the Shizuoka theatre project "Loud Hill Project" as a member of the directing staff, and has been the Secretary General of the Shizuoka Theatre Association since 2013.

Born in Tokyo, Sachika is an actress and singer-songwriter with prosthetic joints. She started acting when she was a child. At the age of 23 she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and underwent artificial joint replacement surgery. She started her music career after her diagnosis and has since released several albums. She now organises performances that combine dance, theatre, music and other genres.

Born in 1996 in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Rio lost her vision at the age of two due to retinoblastoma. She enrolled in the drama department at Nihon University College of Art, and while there she dedicated a lot of time to organising performances and workshops. Since graduating, she has worked as an attendant at "Dialogue in the Dark", an immersive sensory exhibition. She also works to bring the visually impaired closer to the theatre. 

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Hidetada has been a member of the Japanese Theatre of the Deaf since 2009. He began his acting career in October 2010 with the company's independent performance of "Elephant Man". In January 2012, he made his debut in sign language kyogen (traditional Japanese theatre) with his performance in "Higeyagura". Since then, he has participated in the company's performances almost every year, either as a performer or as a staff member. The Tempest is his first appearance in a Shakespeare play.

Born in Tokyo, Kazumi attended a school for the deaf from childhood to high school. In 1981 she joined the Japanese Theatre of the Deaf, where she recorded sign language kyogen and independent performances. In 1999 she began directing, and in 2019 she wrote and directed a film. She is currently working for the Japanese Theatre of the Deaf, recording sign language kyogen, producing kyogen scripts and teaching sign language.

Kotaro was born in Berlin, Germany and gained popularity with the musical "The Prince of Tennis". In December 2003, while returning home from a rehearsal, he was involved in a traffic accident that left him with higher brain dysfunction disorder. After rehabilitation, he returned to the stage. Despite various challenges, he has been active on stage, in films and on TV as a sub-leader of the theatre group D-Boys.

Born in 1999, Sakura started her career as a pop-idol in her hometown of Hiroshima when she was in junior high school. She is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), raised by a hearing-impaired mother. The music video of her song “HANDSIGN”, which is based on her own true story, has been viewed over 2 million times to date. She has appeared in many films and on stage.

Philippa is an Actor and Amputee from South Wales. She trained at Drama Centre and has worked as an Actor for 6 years. She’s extremely passionate about the fair representation of Deaf/disabled and feels more could be done to show a true picture of society on stages and screens. She continues the fight along with the strong Deaf/disabled community in the arts. Her television credits include: "Coronation Street", "Holby City" and "4 O’clock Club". For stage: "The House of Bernarda Alba" (The Royal Exchange Manchester and Graeae Theatre Company)  "And Others" (The National Theatre and Graeae Theatre Company) and "Another England" (Little Cog).

Fatima Niemogha is an oral, deaf British Nigerian who forged her own route to the stage. A London College of Fashion alum who trained in broadcast journalism with first class honours, traversed into the world of television production, and worked as an independent videographer supporting local community initiatives before finding her way into the arts. Most recently appeared in a live signed performance for "Signal Fires" (Fuel / Coombe Farm Studios). Credits also include "Small Island" (National Theatre), "Mirror Mirror" (Oily Cart) and the stage production "Medicine’s Monstrous Daughters" (Vital Xposure), set for a UK tour back in March 2020 but due to the outbreak of coronavirus the show was cancelled for the foreseeable future. In television; "I Hate Suzie" (Sky / Bad Wolf), "Something Special" (BBC) and "Supersonic" (BSLBT).

Jack graduated from the BA (Hons) Drama and Performance at Queen Margaret University in 2017. TV credits include: "Annika" (Black Camel Pictures). Theatre credits include: "Cost of Living" (Hampstead Theatre); "All You Need is LSD" (Told By An Idiot/ Birmingham Rep) and "Let Me Play the Lion Too" (Told By An Idiot/ Barbican Centre). Radio work includes "Bartholomew Abominations" (Naked Productions/ Graeae Theatre/ BBC Radio 4). In addition, Jack has appeared in the web series "Crips Without Constraints" (Graeae Theatre). Jack has also performed his own comedic and poetical works at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and on the BBC Social.

Saddam hails from Madaripur. He was one of the artists who took part in Bangladesh’s first disability theatre production "A Different Romeo and Juliet", a theatre play produced by the British Council in association with Dhaka Theatre and Graeae Theatre. 

A recent HSC graduate from Narayangonj, Morshed aims to break the shackles of the concept of ‘disability’ and mark his name in the world of theatre. Morshed started his journey in the world of theatre with Bangladesh’s first disability theatre, "A Different Romeo and Juliet".