This year, No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability celebrates thirty years of offering access and opportunities for disabled actors to develop their craft, creating new employment pathways in the performing arts and amplifying the voice of disabled artists through new works that deeply move audiences.
No Strings latest production, HIGH, opens on Thursday 29 August for a limited season at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. HIGH is a story of rising expectations around people with disability.
As the first person in Australia with Down Syndrome to graduate from university, Rachel High is used to people having preconceived perceptions of her abilities.
Yet the trailblazing 46-year-old continues to refuse to let this become her reality, breaking down barriers and taking on new feats – including bringing her tertiary studies journey to the stage.
Rachel is sharing her unique story with others, partnering with No Strings Theatre of Disability to co-write, co-direct, and perform in a new theatre work called HIGH.
With performances at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre from 29-31 August, HIGH invites audiences behind the scenes to travel Rachel’s long road to university, starting in country South Australia, moving to the city, and fighting for opportunities that others take for granted.
Her 12-year journey to achieve this accomplishment was not without its challenges but in particular the social isolation almost pushed Rachel to breaking point many times.
“People were reluctant to talk to me and some fellow students assumed I could not make valuable contributions to group work,” Rachel recalls.
HIGH is also a homage to those who have fought alongside, supporting her to pursue her dreams of becoming an actor, an academic, and of bringing those two worlds together.
This is a timely show that highlights the barriers associated with disability, and the synergy of support and the myriad micro-triumphs in this quest for the right to pursue education.
This is no overnight sensation.
This is a story of the long hard slog, the persistence required to overcome almost insurmountable obstacles.
Each milestone achievement building on the one before, Rachel calls these her ‘stepping stones’ along the way, and she hopes that her story will inspire others like her.
“Studying not only changed my world, it changed my whole life and I want people with a disability to know they can also change theirs,” Rachel said
HIGH
August 29 – 31, 2024
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
For further information and performance times, visit: https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/high
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