Access Ideas and Insights: The Future of Disability Storytelling

Join in person or online for our upcoming Access Ideas and Insights panel, The Future of Disability Storytelling.

Explore exciting possibilities for the future of disability storytelling across a diverse range of arts practices and genres as we delve into narrative, agency, identity, technologies and more.

Learn from Dan Daw (producer and performer), Michelle Cheng (Head of Creative Diversity, SBS Television and Online Content division) and Fiona Murphy (award-winning writer, editor and arts critic). This event will be MC'd by award-winning playwright and actor, Ryan Enniss.

Where and When

Thursday 25 July

2pm – 3:15pm Panel Discussion (in person and online)

There will be a one-hour panel conversation, followed by a 15-minute Q&A. Audience questions can be submitted from both in person and online attendees.

Join in person

Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company, Walsh Bay. We encourage you to also join the informal networking following the event at The Bar at the End of the Wharf.

For details on how to get to Sydney Theatre Company click here.

Join online

A link will be emailed to you upon registration.

Access

This wheelchair accessible event will be Auslan interpreted and captioned.

The in-person event at Sydney Theatre Company will be open captioned. The online event will be closed captioned.

The accessible hybrid platform for this event is being managed by Livecrowd.

About the Speakers

Dan Daw - Director and Performer

Dan is the Artistic Director/CEO of Dan Daw Creative Projects. Dan Daw Creative Projects is a disabled-led company that works collaboratively with a growing network of companies and artists to develop and tour new performance work that blurs the divide between theatre and dance. Dan has presented his work at British Dance Edition (UK), Swedish Performing Arts Biennale (SWE), Sydney Festival and Rising Festival (AUS), Kampnagel and Sophiensaele (DE), SoHo Playhouse (USA) and Sadler’s Wells and Battersea Arts Centre (UK) amongst others. From 2023 – 2025 his company has been in residence at Kampnagel, Hamburg as Agents for Change, exploring what accessibility looks like across a venue, including programming, residencies, audience experience, capital development and human resources.

Making his Australian mainstage theatre debut, Dan is Co-Directing and starring in ‘Cost of Living’ by Martyna Majok at Queensland Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company, Dan began working as a performer with Restless Dance Theatre (AUS) in 2002, and since then has gone on to work with Australian Dance Theatre (AUS), Force Majeure (AUS), FRONTLINEdance (UK), Scottish Dance Theatre (UK), balletLORENT (UK), Candoco Dance Company (UK), Skånes Dansteater (SWE) and National Theatre Scotland (UK). Throughout his performance career, Dan has worked with Kat Worth, Garry Stewart, Kate Champion, Janet Smith, Adam Benjamin, Wendy Houstoun, Sarah Michelson, Rachid Ouramdane, Nigel Charnock, Matthias Sperling, Marc Brew, Claire Cunningham, Martin Forsberg, Carl Olof Berg, Charlotte Spencer, Javier de Frutos and Priscilla Jackman. Working as Internationale Tanzmesse NRW Associate Curator (2021 – 2024), Associate Artistic Director of Candoco Dance Company (2021), Sadler’s Wells Summer University Artist (2015 – 2018) and Associate Director of Murmuration (2015 – 2022), Dan continues to work at the forefront of disability-led performance making and international performance programming.

Michelle Cheng - Head of Creative Diversity, SBS’s Television and Online Content division

Michelle works adjacent to the SBS Commissioning team, supporting SBS’s content and industry initiatives focused on providing tangible pathways and opportunities for diverse practitioners under-represented in the sector. Michelle joined SBS in January 2021. She has worked as a media advisor, with a background in TV presenting/writing, journalism and law (as a qualified solicitor). From 2016 to 2020, she worked with ITV Studios and Channel 7 as a television writer on the quiz show, The Chase Australia. In 2018, she was an ABC TV panellist on the quiz show Think Tank in over 75 episodes. Michelle also has extensive experience as a digital journalist with by-lines that include The Guardian, ABC, Yahoo News and the Daily Mail Australia, and has been Curation Coordinator for TEDxMelbourne, as well as Media & Communications Advisor at Monash University. Michelle was also the co-chair of the Screen Diversity Inclusion Network (SDIN) from June 2021 to June 2023.

Fiona Murphy - Writer, Editor and Arts Critic

Fiona's work has appeared in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review, Sydney Morning Herald, amongst many others. Her memoir 'The Shape of Sound' explores her experiences of deafness. It was shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Literary Premier's Awards. Fiona is the founder of the Accessible Communications Collective, which is a feelgood way to learn about accessible brand and content strategy.

Ryan Enniss (MC) - Playwright and Actor

Ryan is a playwright, actor, and voice-over artist originally from Tasmania, currently based in he moved to Sydney to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and graduated in 2021. His play Drizzle Boy won the 2022 – 2023 Queensland Premier's Drama Award, and was the first mainstage show in Australian history to feature an autistic lead, as well as be written by an autistic playwright. Drizzle Boy was published by Currency Press early in 2024, and is touring with Queensland Theatre towards the end of the year.

Accessible Arts is proudly supported by Create NSW and this Hybrid Event Series has been made possible with support from the City of Sydney, Sydney Theatre Company and Livecrowd.

ENDS

Image Description: White text on a black background reads: Hybrid Event Series, The Future Of Disability Storytelling. A swirling pink, purple and blue graphic appears on the right and the Accessible Arts, NSW Government, City of Sydney and Sydney Theatre Company logos are on the bottom left corner.

The Future of Disability Storytelling

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