Performance
In 2003, I became a student on the Graeae Theatre Company performing arts training course for disabled people, Missing Piece 3. The culmination of this was the professional production of Brecht’s Mother Courage directed by Jan Willem Van den Bosch. I played the role of Mother Courage in this well received Greater London tour performing at venues such as Riverside and The Young Vic.
Since then, amongst others, I have played the Guide in Brecht’s The Exception and The Rule at the Young Vic Theatre, I have worked with Paines Plough Theatre Company at the Young Vic, I was in the chorus of The Vagina Monologues at the Cochrane Theatre and was cast as Madame de Twitville in Moliere’s farcical, George Dandin by Graeae Theatre Company.
In last couple of years, I have become involved in the world of burlesque after working with Jo King and the London School of Striptease. Our first show in 2007, with 2 other disabled teasers, was called Peelers On Wheels, followed by Vegetable Peelers in 2008. I now occasionally perform under the burlesque name, Funny Divine. In August 2008 I became a member of The Rhinestone Rollers –a spoof all women, wheelchair using line dancing troupe.
I was commissioned in 2007 by Wolverhampton Arena Theatre to write and perform in my first one woman show, ‘It Hasn’t Happened Yet!’. Based on a disabled woman’s experience of the stand-up comedy world, I was directed by Huw Thomas (Downstairs at the Kings Head) and mentored by Gordon Anderson (League of Gentlemen and Catherine Tate). Following it’s success, the play will be showcased in 2009 at The Soho Theatre, various UK comedy festivals and at disability festivals in New Zealand and Australia.
I am a member of Equity and have recently been awarded a bursary for The Actor’s Centre, London.
