In this longer interview, taken at the January 21st Launch for the Bruntwood Prize, Jenny Sealey gives some advice to writers on creative techniques on redrafting and evaluating your work, and talks about how lip-reading has influenced how she reads scripts.

Jenny Sealey MBE

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.

Recent theatre credits for Graeae include: This Is Not For You; Reasons To Be Cheerful (2017 tour, 2012 tour and 2010 production), In Touch (co-directed, performed at the National Theatre), The House of Bernarda Alba (co-produced with Royal Exchange Theatre), Blood Wedding (co-produced with Dundee Rep Theatre and Derby Theatre), The Threepenny Opera (co-directed with Peter Rowe, co-produced with the New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Nottingham Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse); Limbless Knight (GDIF); Belonging (co-produced with Circo Crescer e Viver); ); Blasted; Whiter than Snow (co-produced with Birmingham Rep); Peeling and Bent.

Additionally, Jenny has directed work, run workshops and given presentations internationally including Russia, 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.  Jenny has been awarded the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award, is an honorary Doctor of Drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at Middlesex University and is a Fellow of the Central School of Speech and Drama and Rose Bruford College. In 2015, Jenny won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Signature Deaf Awards.

www.graeae.org