Founding member and Artistic Director of Extant Theatre Maria Oshodi talks about creating opportunities for visually impaired and blind artists and the introduction of a 3 year initiative – Extant Evolve

Formed 25 years ago by a small group of artists as a response to the underrepresentation of visually impaired and blind artists on our stages, Extant have gone on to blaze the trail for disabled artists to receive arts training equipping them to succeed both on stage and off as well as creating various opportunities for artists to perform in plays reflecting their own experiences. Founding member Maria Oshodi and Artistic Director continues on with the company’s incredible legacy, introducing ‘Extant Evolve’, an initiative adamant on nurturing the leaders of tomorrow. Currently celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary, Maria tells us more about the company’s beginnings, continually working to achieve sustainable change, and what her hopes are for the company moving forward.

Hi Maria, Extant celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. How are you feeling?

Proud, incredulous and a bit tired!

Extant was formed in 1997 with the aim of creating a new dynamic space intended to redress the invisibility experienced by visually impaired and blind artists and explore new creative territories. What did the first year of Extant’s journey involve?

An inaugural  meeting  in April 1997 of 5 or 6 blind and partially sighted  professional actors who answered my call out to start a conversation about how we could improve things for ourselves in the industry.  It was at this meeting that we made a commitment to form a group to move things on and one of the group suggested the name Extant. None of us  knew what it meant, and when he told us it meant, ‘still survives’ we immediately thought it was the right name for a group of blind theatre makers who felt a bit invisible  but were never the less still here.

We then went on to apply for a small pot of Arts Council funding and with that, set up a series of exploratory workshops into different forms of physical movement and performance to work out which suited us best – Also, we worked with some technology in the form of sound-beam to the same end.

Within Extant’s 25 year history, the company have staged 8 ground-breaking national and international tours including ‘Zeros and Nils’ (2002), ‘Resistance’ (2005), ‘Sheer’ (2012), ‘Flatland’ (2010-2015) and ‘Flight Paths’ (2019) led by visually impaired artists. What have you learned/taken away from creating this crucial collection of works?

We also produced an outdoor show called Obscurity in 2009 and The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco twice, touring in 2014 and then again in 2016.  All these productions were pushing the envelope in one way or another regarding innovation of presenting blind performers on stage, or in the way they told stories in new accessible ways for blind audiences. Breaking new ground is exciting but it also takes lots of  additional hard work on top of what is already a hard job in creating a production generally. Proper time and resources need to be factored in when committing to making work inclusive from the start, which is always Extant’s aim, and to also make this part of the aesthetic texture of any piece.

Your most recent co-production with New Earth and Upswing, Flight Paths, was re-interpreted in 2020 as a digital production in response to venue closures in light of the pandemic. How did you find creating work during this unpredictable time?

Challenging.  We were actually commissioned by The Space before the pandemic struck so had the interactive version of Flight Paths already lined up to work on when we went into lockdown 1. However we had to totally re-think how the team worked together remotely  and get all the animation, editing and online interactive elements completed when we had originally been intending to work in-person.  Getting to grasp with platforms like Zoom, enabled us then to present a live interactive online show in the summer of 2020 that was   based on the life of PC David Rathband – This was an interesting blend of pre-recorded drama, hosted live by an actor who mediated  the live audience chat-room.

The next three years will see Extant focus on innovating the arts sector with new disabled talent and taking a proactive role in creating an answer to the under-representation of disabled artists. What will this involve?

It will involve Extant Evolve!

In 2023, Extant is launching a new, ground-breaking programme that we aim will be the change we want to see – developing new models of culture & leadership shaped by VI creatives. In 2026 I will step down. Instead of carrying out a standard recruitment process to find my replacement, Extant will embark on a three-year project to invite new disabled leaders into the heart of the company, share what we have learnt so far, and together discover the shape of Extant’s leadership for the future.

At the centre of EVOLVE is training for two blind or partially sighted Artistic Directors, who will each work with us for 15 months. They will be involved in all strategic and governance decisions, and be supported to produce their own public, creative work, and they will embark on a bespoke journey of training and mentoring designed to meet their personal needs.

At the same time, we are partnering with Middlesex University to develop a new MA programme in Radical and Inclusive Arts Leadership, and to fund a PhD on the history of Extant in relation to inclusive and innovative arts practise which I will research.

We will also work with Performing Leadership Differently (a research collaboration between the arts organisation Something to Aim for and Dr Amit Rai at Queen Mary University of London), to evaluate the internal processes of EVOLVE. This evaluation will include everyone from the board to the staff, our artists and participants.

You’ve been actively working to achieve sustainable change in multiple ways, one of them being through ‘Pathways’, Extant’s flagship training and development programme supporting visually impaired and blind practitioners across the theatre industry in acting, directing, writing and backstage. What does this training involve?

It involves a year’s training, including  masterclasses, shadowing opportunities and mentored personal development for 15 visually  impaired people per year in acting, directing, writing and crew and theatre design. Each  skill-set has received it’s own end of year show-case at a theatre venue, where the  Pathways participants work has been presented to an invited audience of industry professionals.

What are your hopes for Extant moving forward?

This is for us to discover through Extant Evolve and the participation of our trainee Artistic Directors who will debate and shape  the Company’s next 25 years!

Questions by Lucy Basaba.

To find out more about Extant, visit here…

To read our interview with Maria Oshodi about Extant’s co-production with New Earth Theatre – Flight Paths, visit here…