rhianne, Author at EXTANT

A trio of performers on stage. From left to right, a bald white man wearing a beige jumpsuit with his neck craned to the middle, a person wearing a full body white hazmat suit standing elevated, and an older woman with curly grey hair smiling with hands clutched.

Thinker-In-Residence (Internship)

Posted on: 11 Jul 2025

Applications are now open for our Thinker-In-Residence (internship) Extant is delighted to be offering a Thinker-in-Residence (Internship) as part of the Get Set Progress scheme. Extant is the UK’s leading professional performing arts company that explores visual impairment to create unique and innovative artistic experiences, placing visually impaired people at the centre of all it […]

The Extermination of Disabled People at Work

Posted on: 27 Jun 2025

The Extermination of Disabled People at Work – Access To Work in 2025 Each week at our Extant team meeting we offer a nugget of information from the arts news world that has caught our attention. My initial go to place is Disability Arts Online, so imagine my alarm last month (23rd May to be […]

Exterior of ZOO Southside, a large stone church-style building with pointed towers and arched windows. A sign reading 'ZOO SOUTHSIDE' in bold black letters on a white background hangs above the entrance.

Visually impaired access doesn’t need to break the budget

Posted on: 19 Jun 2025

Access for visually impaired audiences doesn’t need to break the budget At Extant, we are often approached by artists keen to make their work accessible to visually impaired audiences, but commonly they feel blocked by lack of knowledge, time and resources. We know that for many artists, particularly those working at fringe level, these can […]

Ava is a young white woman. She has long curled light brown hair, wears a necklace and a navy lace-patterned v shaped dress.

Extant’s First Trainee Creative Producer

Posted on: 9 Jun 2025

Welcome Ava Brewster Extant are delighted to announced that Ava Brewster has been appointed as our first Trainee Creative Producer and starts her role in June 2025. Our Artistic Director, Maria Oshodi states that “with the current paucity of skilled theatre producers in the industry, I am proud that we are going some way […]

8 visually impaired people and a sighted access worker are moving around the space during a status exercise. They’re holding low body positions with their heads down.

No Dramas- The Process of a National Pilot

Posted on: 13 May 2025

No Dramas – The Process of a National Pilot From October 2024-March 2025, we delivered 20* (*actually 21 but who’s counting?) No Dramas workshops across the country. No Dramas had previously only happened in London and online with a focus on improvisation, so our task with this pilot was to create a new 5 session […]

Announcing our second Trainee Artistic Director

Posted on: 29 Apr 2025

Extant are delighted to announced that Tam Gilbert has been appointed as the second Trainee Artistic Director (TAD2) and will start her role in April 2025. Our Artistic Director, Maria Oshodi states that “it is with great excitement that we welcome Tam as our second Trainee Artistic Director to Extant – I am sure she […]

Three people are standing in the space about to perform to an audience. The facilitator stands in between them explaining the task.

No Dramas Meets Some Unexpected Characters

Posted on: 17 Apr 2025

No Dramas Meets Some Unexpected Characters As part of my Projects Assistant internship at Extant I was able to attend 4 different No Dramas sessions. It was interesting getting to learn about the different facilitators’ styles and the importance of creating safe accessible spaces to deliver drama workshops in. My first trip was to The […]

Two Actors stand on a stage in blue lighting. To the left a black woman holding a folder. She wears glasses and is dressed in a smart red top and black trousers. To the right a white woman holding a folder and speaking in mid sentence. She wears glasses and is dressed in a smart green top and black trousers.

Digital Inclusion Award Winners

Posted on: 15 Apr 2025

Digital Inclusion Award Winners We are thrilled to announce that we are joint winners of the 2025 Digital Culture Awards Digital Inclusion category for our audio drama, Unseen, sharing the award with Zoo Co for their work on ‘Perfect Show for Rachel‘. Our Sound Designer, Ian Rattray, was longlisted for the Digital Ambassador award. Ian […]

Blazing a trail to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Posted on: 15 Apr 2025

Extant and ZOO announce Edinburgh Festival Fringe Partnership Extant and ZOO are working in partnership to make ZOO the first fully accessible venue for visually impaired audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2025. All shows in ZOO’s programme will offer different forms of access for visually impaired audiences, including audio described performances. Headlining ZOO’s […]

A group of 12 people are sat round on chairs in a circle chatting in a darkly lit space. There’s a large square window to the right.

Recruiting: Regional Enhance and Access Workers

Posted on: 2 Apr 2025

Enhance Regional Recruitment We are recruiting for freelance visually impaired facilitators and access workers to work on our Paul Hamlyn funded Enhance programme 2025-26. We are particularly interested in freelancers based in these regions: North East, Liverpool, Leicester, Norwich and Edinburgh. Visually Impaired Facilitators We are recruiting visually impaired facilitators to deliver Enhance. Extant are […]

A drawing by Sally Booth of a zoom screen. There are 9 windows arranged in a grid of three-by-three, with a pencil or watercolour sketch of a face in each.

Guest Speakers: Extant Connect

Posted on: 18 Mar 2025

Fascinating Guest Speakers at Extant Connect Every month, Extant hosts an online session called Extant Connect, an informal opportunity for blind and visually impaired creative people to network, talk, learn and share ideas with one another. Sessions are often loosely focussed around a theme, and we regularly host guest speakers to speak on topics related […]

Two women are acting mid-scene, behind them three audience members are watching on intently.

The Halfway Point – National No Dramas

Posted on: 21 Feb 2025

A National Pilot of No Dramas In October 2024, we set out to play our part in building confidence and combating loneliness and isolation through our participatory project: No Dramas. These are a series of drama workshops, delivered by visually impaired drama facilitators, which generate community spirit, collaboration and allow visually impaired adults, with or […]