Feb 28, 2020
Amy Leach is a theatre director and Associate Director at Leeds Playhouse, currently working on a new version of Oliver Twist.
This new adaption is by Bryony Lavery, and it’s being staged by
Leeds Playhouse in collaboration with the Ramps on the Moon
consortium, a partnership between six National Portfolio
Organisation theatres and Graeae Theatre. Ramps on the Moon aims to
create change within the UK theatre industry in terms of the
inclusion and integration of deaf and disabled audiences and
theatre-makers.
Benjamin Wilson is one of Ramps on the Moon’s Agents for Change.
He’s a cast member in this latest production, and has had a key
role in developing creative approaches to audio description for
this and a number of other shows he’s worked on at Leeds Playhouse
and Sheffield Theatres.
Amy and Ben joined Mark Smith towards the end of their rehearsal
period to discuss the Ramps on the Moon initiative, the
opportunities opened up by creative approaches to access for D/deaf
and visually impaired audiences and performers, and the reasons
behind Amy’s choice of Dickens’s work for her latest project.
Oliver Twist plays Leeds Playhouse’s Quarry Theatre from
28 February to 21 March 2020, ahead of a UK tour to Birmingham
Repertory Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres, New
Wolsey Theatre Ipswich and Theatre Royal Stratford East, which are
all part of the Ramps on the Moon consortium alongside Graeae, the
UK’s leading disabled-led theatre company.
(Oliver Twist rehearsal images of director Amy Leach and of Brooklyn Melvin and Benjamin Wilson, credit Anthony Robling.)