Articles

Explore our archive of news and blog posts from the team and our guest writers.

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Blog 15 Mar 2024

Accessible Britain? Careful what you wish for!

A response to Don’t. Make. Tea. by Dr Sally Witcher.

BOP Work Experience

Guest blog post by Cleopatra, one of our BOP Young Artists.

Company News 5 Sep 2023

BOP Turns 30!

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company is celebrating 30 years as Scotland’s disability-led professional theatre company.

Making Locked World (1st installment)

The process of making Locked World - BOPs disabled-centred digital arts platform

Blog 29 Apr 2022

Don’t. Make. Tea. Benefits Debate

A debate on disabled people's experiences with the benefits system was held in April 2022, featuring key panellists discussing societal attitudes and the new Adult Disability Payment in Scotland.

A young Asian woman sits in a wheelchair, facing away from the camera, but with her head turned over her left shoulder to face the camera. A red cape billows off from her neck line, rippling in the wind. The word BOLSTER is overlaid in capital letters.

Bolster: Application Process

A creative development opportunity from Birds of Paradise (BOP) and Bijli Productions for artists who identify as disabled and as a person of colour or from a mixed heritage

The naked figures of two disabled people lie above the covers of a bed. They are a white woman and man, and the bed spread is a bright yellow.

Placement Blog: Anne Kjær Joergensen

This year, BOP has been working with Anne Kjær Joergensen, a student at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - who is on a placement with us as part of her degree.

Innovation for Culture

Giving consultation about Disability Equality

Collage of performances and films from ‘A Wake’. Left-Right, Top Row: Emilia Beatriz reads from their phone, they are Puerto Rican American with short brown hair and glittery lipstick, a caption reads “You’ll see, it feels beautiful, it feels good.”; Emilia is being interpreted into British Sign Language by Lisa Li, a British Chinese woman with shoulder-length black hair and glasses; Jeda Pearl reads a poem, she has a patterned top and long, brown curly-frizzy hair, bronze-brown skin, brown eyes and no makeup, a caption reads “Hold fast”. Left-Right, Middle Row: Brooklyn Melvin performs sign-song with a pleasant expressions, they are white with short brown hair with shaved sides and wear an orange hoodie, a caption says 'to dance again'; a still from Raman Mundair’s short film, she is adorned as a Goddess with yellow flowers, a crown, and Punjabi tribal folk markings, to her left and right are different ocean horizons; Etzali Hernández, a nonbinary latinx queer femme with brown eyes, hoop nose piercings, long black hair and glasses, they sit smiling in front of a bright turquoise background; Etzali is in conversation with San Alland, a smiling white person with short brown hair, glasses and a red and black striped tie, interpreted into BSL by an also-smiling K.Yvonne Strain who's a white woman with wavy shoulder-length brown hair. Left-Right, Bottom Row: Bea Webster performs Hamlet, Bea is Scottish-Thai with straight shoulder-length dark hair and brown eyes, she wears glasses and holds a tiny toy skull she's pointing at with a shocked expression; Lake Montgomery plays a song on her guitar into a large mic, Lake is African-American with chest-length finger-thick dreadlocks, brown eyes and no makeup, a caption reads "Heal a suffering mind"; Lake’s lyrics are being interpreted into BSL by Lisa Li, described above, whose hands move over her head.

Mourning the Present, Demanding a Better Future

Back in June I was invited by artistic director Robert Softley Gale to work with Birds of Paradise Theatre Company on Freelance Task Force

Graphic reads: 7 inclusive principles for the arts in covid-19

Seven Inclusive Principles

This initiative is aimed at the non-disabled cultural industry to ensure deaf, neurodiverse and disabled people are not discriminated against as work restarts and venues re-open

A middle aged woman lies stomach down on a yellow floor. She has her arms and legs lifted off the floor, as if pretending to fly. She is wearing blue jeans and a blue top and has medium length blonde hair.

Flexible Working

Mairi from BOP was invited to speak on behalf of PiPA at UK Theatres Theatre Means Business webinar with Parent and Carers in Performing Arts on Thursday 9th July 2020.

Freelance Task Force

BOP joins hundreds of other companies across the UK in working to establish a #FreelanceTaskForce – to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community during these uncertain times.