Jenny sealey of graeae in conversation, february 2018: Gender and disability

Abstract

Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director of Graeae, the UK’s most successful disabled-led theatre company, talks frankly to Clare Smout about the challenges of her early life and career, her experiences of acting in all-female productions in the 1980s and 1990s, the marginalisation of women, particularly disabled women, and her own theatrical practice. While Sealey is most famous for her campaigning and creativity in the field of disability arts, this is underpinned by an equally strong feminist instinct and support for ‘the girls’. Much has already been written about Jenny Sealey’s years at Graeae, most recently in the company’s 2018 volume Reasons to be Graeae: A Work in Progress. This chapter explores the other strands of her practice and the way in which the two commitments have been interwoven throughout her life.