Creating Autobiographical Theatre

There are a million ways to tell a story, to tell your story.

This workshop is part talk and part practical activity exploring what is autobiographical work, and asking yourself the various questions Jenny asked herself when creating her own one-woman show Self- Raising.

• How do you frame your narrative – or not as the case maybe?
• How do you choose what to keep in or leave out?
• Why are you telling your story?
• How do you want to benefit from creating an autobiographical performance?
• What do you want your audience to go away thinking?
• How do you protect yourself throughout the creative process?

About the facilitator

Deaf since the age of 7, Jenny Sealey has been the Artistic Director of Graeae since 1997. Since then, she has pioneered a new theatrical language and aesthetics of artistic access experimenting with bilingual British Sign Language (BSL) and English, pre-recorded BSL, creative captioning, and in ear/live audio description methods.

Credits for Graeae include: Self-Raising (in association with Soho Theatre and Theatr Iolo. Developed with The Incubator at The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath), The Paradis Files (commissioned by The Stables for IF: Milton Keynes, in partnership with BBC Concert Orchestra and Curve Theatre); Reasons To Be Cheerful (2010 co-produced with New Wolsey and Theatre Royal Stratford East); Sarah Kane’s Blasted (in association with RADA).

Jenny co-directed the London 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF).

In 2022 Jenny was made an OBE. She has been awarded the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and is an honorary Doctor of Drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Middlesex University and a Fellow of the Central School of Speech and Drama and Rose Bruford College.