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The Cultural Frontline: Art and disability: Actor Madison Ferris

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Art and Disability: Actor Madison Ferris

28/08/2021 GMT

Art and disability: Actor Madison Ferris

BBC World Service - The Cultural Frontline, Art and disability: Actor Madison Ferris

Broadway star Madison Ferris on taking the big stage in her wheelchair

Broadway star Madison Ferris on taking the big stage in her wheelchair and author Rebekah Taussig on writing characters with visible disabilities.

As the Paralympic Games take off in Tokyo, presenter and former Team GB sitting volleyball player Kat Hawkins, hears from some of the most exciting artists with disabilities globally.

Madison Ferris, star of New York’s Broadway, made headlines when she became the first leading actor to take the stage in her wheelchair. She talks about the extent to which theatre is evolving to become more diverse.

American author and teacher Rebekah Taussig discusses writing characters with visible disabilities into stories on the page and screen, and her own book Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body.

British dance group Atypical with Attitude, whose members are neuro-diverse or live with a disability, talk to BBC reporter and former dancer Anna Bailey about breaking down barriers in the dance world. 

And Pakistani-Qatari comedian and disability rights activist Nawaal Akram, who has muscular dystrophy, on finding material for her comedy in frustrating moments and using her performances to change attitudes.

Presenter: Kat Hawkins
Producers: Paul Waters, Kirsty McQuire, Olivia Skinner and Lucy Wai
Reporter: Anna Bailey

(Photo: Madison Ferris. Credit: Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images)

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