News & Opportunities

A person with short curly brown hair, glasses, and a nose ring is smiling warmly at the camera. They are wearing a dark sweater and standing on a balcony overlooking a London street lined with terraced houses. The background is softly lit by the setting sun, casting a golden glow over the scene.

Performing Ethnography and Diaspora

Posted on: 18 Nov 2025

Performing Ethnography and Diaspora: Irish Women Migrants and the Lived Archive My practice-led research uses photography, moving image, and archiving to explore the experiences of Irish women migrants in the UK. In this piece, I look at both the performance and performativity of ethnography and diaspora from an Irish migrant perspective. I use performance in […]

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Maria is talking in a workshop space to participants, with Ellen and Ben standing and laughing next to her.

State of access consultancies – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Posted on: 18 Nov 2025

What is the difference between access consultancy, access dramaturgy and a car crash? My experience of three recent AD consultancies has prompted this question in the ever confused, grasping and turbulent world of theatre making, where including integrated audio description (IAD) or VI representation in productions has been a desire, to do the right thing, or maybe not. The three […]

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A wide angle shot of the stage space. A simple set showing a grimy room with pipes on the wall and a dirty mattress on the floor is situated at the centre of an all black stage. One person sits in the mattress, one stands near them and one sits on a chair in front of the stage. Above them the set are the arched white walls of the BAC theatre space with a lighting rig.

Book your bespoke Extant Enhance training today!

Posted on: 13 Nov 2025

Calling all venues and theatre companies: why not commission us to tailor your access delivery? Extant the UK’s leading visually impaired theatre company delivers tailored Enhance training for venues and theatre companies. Enhance is a tried and tested two-part access training and consultancy programme, led by professionally trained visually impaired facilitators.   We can Enhance your show […]

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A person with short curly brown hair, glasses, and a nose ring is smiling warmly at the camera. They are wearing a dark sweater and standing on a balcony overlooking a London street lined with terraced houses. The background is softly lit by the setting sun, casting a golden glow over the scene.

Extant’s Thinker-In-Residence

Posted on: 24 Oct 2025

Welcome Aisling Keavey Extant are delighted to announced that Aisling Keavey has been appointed as our Thinker-In-Residence as part of the Thomas Pocklington Get Set Progress Scheme and starts their role in October 2025. Our Operations Director, Ian Abbott says:  “We’re delighted to welcome Aisling to the team as Thinker-in-Residence, a unique role which is […]

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Call Out: Organisations with experience of visually impaired prisoners and prison systems

Posted on: 2 Oct 2025

Call Out: Extant seeking organisations with experience of working with visually impaired prisoners and the prison system process.  Extant, the UK’s leading company of visually impaired artists, is developing a new project exploring the realities of prison life from a visually impaired perspective.  We are looking to speak with organisations/individuals who have either firsthand experience […]

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Call Out: Visually Impaired People with Prison Experience

Posted on: 2 Oct 2025

Call Out: Extant Seeking Visually Impaired People with Prison Experience  Extant, the UK’s leading company of visually impaired artists, is developing a new project exploring the realities of prison life from a visually impaired perspective.  We are looking to speak with visually impaired individuals who have either firsthand experience of prison or who have visited […]

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A group of Courtyard Hereford staff members standing in a line posing for a photo with Anthony, Post-Enhance VI facilitator.

Enhance Year 1

Posted on: 12 Sep 2025

Extant – Post Enhance – Evaluation Summary – 2024/25 (Year 1) Contributions from Caroline Jeyaratnam-Joyner (Enhance Training Manager), Ian Abbott (Operations Director) and Matthew Cock (Independent Evaluator) Background Over the last 10 years we’ve created and honed the idea of ‘Enhanced Performances’, a form of affordable access provision to support small-scale touring companies to engage […]

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The Extant team VICS and Holly Gifford stand for a group photo outside ZOO playground. Louisa and Ellen are holding the ZOO playground show board.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025

Posted on: 21 Aug 2025

Extensive BBC Press Coverage for Extant at the Edinburgh Festival 2025 Our aim to make the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025 more accessible to visually impaired audiences has been a resounding success. Thanks to funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation who support our Enhance programme, we’ve been able to attract a lot of press attention, demonstrate […]

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A wide landscape shot of two white people onstage. One is fully lit and wearing yellow. The other in shadow. The stage is lit a smokey blue.

Collective Dreaming Callout

Posted on: 24 Jul 2025

Collective Dreaming – October 2025 and January 2026 Opportunity This Collective Dreaming is part of a series of Extant wide interventions across 2025/26 including: organisational research and development periods and a brand-new role we’re currently recruiting – Thinker-in-Residence. Extant are in the middle of a period of planned leadership and organisational change and are exploring […]

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

Starting Out In The Arts

Posted on: 23 Jul 2025

What’s Useful To Know – Insights for Blind and Visually Impaired People When Starting Out in the Arts After completing a Masters in Applied Theatre and gaining experience through internships, placements, and a mix of freelance and contract-based work, I began to reflect on all the things I wish I’d known when starting out. These […]

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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 […]

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Tam has a broad smile. Her blonde, curly hair is shoulder length, and is she is wearing a predominantly blue and grey striped hooped top.

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 […]

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