BSL Interpreter

 British Sign Language interpretation for  The Cycle

For several years now I have been interested in BSL. I have been to see a few live performances with BSL. But my main inspiration for having BSL in my performance was meeting Caro. Caro is a Deaf, BSL speaking performer, who I worked with as part of Milesians in 2022. We formed a friendship and Caro would spend breaks in rehearsals teaching me various signs.

Pictured, Caro centre, me knelt to the left of her.

With The Cycle being my most text heavy piece of work to date, I felt passionately about making sure that BSL was available. However, that meant I needed to source funding. So I tried my hand at Crowdfunding for the first time.

This was scary, I wasn't sure if anyone felt as passionately as I did. The imposter syndrome was strong.

But I was overwhelmed with the speed at which support came. From people sharing, to people donating. I felt incredibly validated, supported and driven.

Then came finding an interpreter who could help me realise my vision. Turns out, this was going to be harder than anticipated.

There are so many lovely incredible interpreters out there. I had to find someone who was available on my show day, within my budget and was interested in being integrated into the performance.

After spending sometime talking to various interpreters, I realised I also needed someone who was fem-presenting. This is because the care industry is heavily female dominated. I think it would have felt, disingenuous to have a male-presenting interpreter being a carer on stage.

My search came to a conclusion when I found Lynne Bateman. I am really excited to work with her and am looking forward to seeing how we can build the world and stories of The Cycle together.