#a11yArts: International Creative Leadership Series with Artistic Director Alex Bulmer - Adaptive Performance Techniques & Leadership in Disability Theatre

Join Touch Compass for the second webinar in our fabulous series #a11yArts: International Creative Leadership Series, featuring Toronto-Based Alex Bulmer, award-winning writer, actor, theatre maker and educator who has transformed disability theatre across Canada. In the early 2000s, Alex left Canada to work in the UK, pulled across the Atlantic by the allure of its strong disability arts scene. After 15 years, Alex returned to Canada to help shake up that country's accessible arts landscape.

Alex will share techniques on how to adapt scripts and performance environments to allow for disability arts to flourish from disabled performers and disabled audience members alike. Her discussion will include a short piece of work to illustrate her talk, and Touch Compass Artistic Direction Panel member, Lusi Faiva, will also join the kōrero.

There will be plenty of time for Q&A after Alex's talk to discover more about her journey into creative leadership, how her non-disabled ambitions factored into her success, and why throwing a ball is not imperative to being a good performer.

This webinar will be New Zealand Sign Language interpreted.

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About Alex Bulmer –

Named one of the most influential disabled artists by UK’s Power Magazine, Alex carries over thirty professional years’ experience across theatre, film, television, and radio. She is fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable, dedicated to collaborative art practice, activated by obstacles, well exposed to the absurd, and embraces the disciplines of generosity, listening, time, and uncertainty within her artistic and personal life.

Alex is former artistic director of Common Boots Theatre, co-founder and artistic director of Cripping The Stage, and is lead curator of CoMotionFestival 2022, an international disability arts festival with Harbourfront Centre. Her work has been produced internationally including with The Royal Court Theatre, the BBC, Graeae Theatre Company, Nightwood Theatre, Buddies In Bad Times, CBC and both the Rio and London Olympic Games.

As an accessibility consultant, Alex is creator of “imagine Beyond the Assumed” and “Blind Imaginings” which she delivers to arts and educational organisations across Canada and the UK. She continues to mentor disabled artists and allies, and is deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind.