Enormous thank you to everyone who came to the event on 1 April. If you missed it or would just like to be kept up to date with any future events, please sign up to the Allies in Activism mailing list.

10.30am – 4pm, Wednesday 1 April, Eric Liddell Centre, 15 Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4DP

Allies in Activism is a one-day event taking place in Edinburgh led by Jack Hunter, Ellen Renton and Independent Arts Projects.

The day will explore how we can build a safer, more supportive arts sector for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists, arts workers and audiences.

At a time when Access to Work grants are being slashed, we want to talk about what we can do in the performance sector in Scotland.

Registration for the event has now closed. If you’re interested in hearing excerpts from the day, receiving a transcript or photography, please email us at allies@independentartsprojects.com with your request.

Schedule & Venue information below.

We very much hope that this event marks the beginning of something.

This event has been made possible with support from Birds of Paradise, Eden Court Theatre, Federation of Scottish Theatre, Imaginate, Magnetic North, National Theatre of Scotland, The Work Room & Unlimited.

* The title of the event came from an article in The Stage at the beginning of the year, where arts leaders were asked about the year ahead. Jenny Sealey (Graeae’s Artistic Director) was quoted “as saying: “For companies like Graeae, this past year has been fraught with Personal Independent Payments, Access to Work and Universal Credit. We need more allies in our activism. 2026 needs to be all-embracing to ensure the theatrical landscape is rich with diversity of people and narratives.“

Allies in Activism – event pack [pdf]Download
Allies in Activism – event pack [large print]Download
Allies in Activism – event pack [docx]Download
Lunch: complete ingredients list [docx]Download

Schedule

10.30am Arrival

11am Welcome & Keynote presentations (45 mins)
  • Welcome from hosts Jack Hunter & Ellen Renton
  • Keynote presentation by Dr Sonia Allori
  • Keynote presentation by Kirin Saeed
  • Held in the mainspace, 4th floor.
  • Live captioning, BSL.

11.45am Break

12pm Panel Discussion: Access (45mins)
  • A panel discussion on the subject of access
  • Held by Ellen Renton & Jack Hunter
  • With our keynote presenters, Sonia Allori, Kirin Saeed & Liz Strange
  • Held in the mainspace, 4th floor.
  • Live captioning, BSL.

12.45pm Break

1pm Lunch
  • A vegetarian lunch with vegan & gluten free options, catered by Embo:
    • Falafel with dips & mezze (gluten free & vegan)
    • Samosas (vegan) with raita dip (contains dairy)
    • Feta salad (vegan & gluten free)
    • Super salad (vegan & gluten free)
    • Dressings on the side
  • A detailed document with a comprehensive list of ingredients is downloadable above (if you need this in an alternative format, do please ask).

2pm Session in Mainspace: Activism (45mins), facilitated by Briana Pegado
  • Activism session, facilitated by Briana Pegado
  • In the mainspace
  • Live captioning, BSL.

2pm Session in Rest Space: Rest (45mins), facilitated by Liz Strange
  • Rest session, facilitated by Liz Strange.
  • This session will have auto generated captions provided by Otter.ai


2.45pm Break

3pm Final reflections & pledges (45mins)

Facilitated by Ellen Renton & Jack Hunter

  • Space to reflect on the day and generate pledges or actions that we can take individually or as a collective.
  • Followed by a final reflection from Nichelle Santagata
  • Closing remarks from Jack and Ellen
  • In the mainspace, 4th floor
  • BSL, captions


4pm Event programme ends (attendees welcome to leave when ready)


5pm Spaces close to attendees

Speakers & facilitators

A composite image featuring Ellen Renton (a white women in her 30s with white blond hair) and Jack Hunter (a white man with short brown curly hair in his early 30s). The image reads "led & hosted by Ellen Renton & Jack Hunter) and includes photo credits for each image.
Poet, performer, and theatre maker from Edinburgh. Ellen Renton intertwines her own life with that of her family’s past creating a living, breathing record of history with contemporary relevance.

She published her pamphlet ‘An Eye For An Eye For An Eye’ with Stewed Rhubarb Press in 2021. Following this in 2023, she released the collaborative album ‘My Noise is Nothing’ with Lord of the Isles.

Ellen is the writer of one-woman show ‘Within Sight’, and the 2023 Stellar Quines production ‘Disciples’. In 2021 she was awarded an Emerging Scottish Literature Residency at Cove Park. In 2022 she was an Imaginate Jerwood Fellow, and an associate artist with the Edwin Morgan Trust and Disability Arts Online in 2022-23.

Jack Hunter is an award-winning disabled actor, writer and poet. Originally from Inverness, now based in Linlithgow. He graduated from Queen Margaret University’s BA Drama & Performance course in 2017.

As an actor, Jack has worked on stage and screen across the UK and Europe.
Jack’s solo autobiographical play One of Two, presented by Independent Arts Projects, was staged at the Traverse Theatre in 2023 and has toured Internationally across Europe.

The production premiered, in association with Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022 (Winner of the Summerhall’s Mary Dick Award). This production was nominated for Best Production (Scottish Theatre Awards at the Fringe). One of Two toured Scottish Schools as part of the Theatre In Schools Scotland Programme 2024.

Jack’s comedy drama The Wolves at the Door was part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s 20th anniversary season in Autumn 2024. Most recently, Jack has been awarded a Cove Park Residency in 2026. During which time he will research and write a new play.
A photo of Dr Sonia Allori, a middle aged white woman & wheelchair user with dark hair). She is playing a wind instrument.
Sonia Allori is a deaf and disabled composer, performer, researcher, music therapist, and multi-instrumentalist who sings from time to time. Her work explores access as a creative and generative force. Working across music, text, and live performance, she integrates live descriptive captioning, BSL, and multi-sensory approaches as core artistic material.

Her practice centres collaboration, shared authorship, and alternative ways of listening and experiencing performance, alongside a curiosity, a love of nature and place, and a sense of humour in the everyday. She is currently undertaking practice-based research at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, examining access-led approaches to composition and performance.

Sonia completed a PhD in composition at Edinburgh Napier University, where she explored interactions between words and music through the lens of gender and Italian contemporary classical music post-1900.

In 2023, she was commissioned by Drake Music Scotland to create Random Eddies in the Space-Time Continuum (for PRS Foundation’s Beyond Borders programme). In 2024, she created Robots and Dinosaurs for Nordic Days Festival, and was commissioned by Illuminate Women’s Music to create The Goddess of Ballachulish for their Scottish Concert Series (2024/25).

Recent work includes Adventures in Captioning, an improvisatory performance system working with live and AI auto captions. Upcoming work includes There Are No Words and The Focus Group, both in development for 2026/27. Later in 2026, she will develop Creative Space, a pilot for an access-led online arts therapies practice.

https://soundcloud.com/ultraviolet101-1
A photograph of Kirsin Saeed a middle aged woman of south asian heritage with light brown skin and dark hair. She is carrying a white stick.
Kirin Saeed is the founder of Visually Impaired Creators Scotland (VICS) supported by Creative Scotland, a professionally trained actor, early career playwright and senior disability consultant. 

Kirin has over 30 years’ experience of working in the disability sector as a disability consultant, and holds an MA in Human Resources from Northumbria University. 

She is a professional actor trained through Graeae Theatre Company and London Metropolitan University through Missing Piece Program in 2003. She has toured with Extant, Britain’s leading professional performing arts company of visually impaired people, both in the UK and Europe.

Kirin is an avid user of audio description in theatres, cinemas and leisure facilities and hopes that one day access provision will be the norm for all blind and partially sighted people.

Kirin is also a Non-Executive Director and Trustee of the National Theatre of Scotland.  
Photo of Liz Strange a white woman in her 30s with dark brown hair. The photo says, "Rest space & rest facilitator: Liz Strange"
Liz Strange is an Edinburgh based actor, theatre facilitator, and physical theatre performer who specialises in visually driven theatre that is devised, interactive and subversive.

She has worked with companies such as Company Of Wolves, Mischief La-Bas, Al Seed Productions, Hearts & Minds, Tatraum Projekte Schmidt, Imaginate, Plutôt la Vie, Salty Dolls, Dance Base, Active Inquiry, Magnetic North and Surge.
A picture of Briana Pegado, a black woman with short dark hair in her 30s. The image says, "Activism facilitator: Briana Pegado"

Briana Pegado FRSA is a neurodivergent author and artist. She explores the intersections of rest, grief and access in her work through poetry, moving image and contemporary art. When she is not making she is an anti-oppression and governance specialist working across the third sector to support organisations with ethical, values-led work. She is the Chair of the Scottish Government’s Independent Culture Fair Work Task Force, which published a report last December containing 16 recommendations for ScotGov to implement fair work in the cultural sector.

She currently works for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Creative Enterprise Development Office (CEDO) as a Career Advisor and is a Critical Friend for NEUK Collective’s Spectra, a neurodivergent creative leadership programme pilot that launches next month.

Briana published her first book Make Good Trouble: A Guide to the Energetics of Disruption with Watkins Publishing in April 2024.

Photo: young black woman with tight curly hair. Text reads: "Final reflection: Nichelle Santagata"
Nichelle Santagata is a Cultural Knowledge Bearer; a Designer of Spaces and the Future; Prose-Poetry/Nonfiction/Fiction Writer; Hip Hop and Contemporary Dancer/Movement Artist; Spoken Word/Sound Artist; Radio Show Host-Disc Jockey/Music-Sound Art Selector; Filmmaker; Photographer; Archivist; Curator; Scrapbooker/Collage Artist; Textile Artist; Videographer; Illustrator; and Creative Director from so-called Arizona, United States/Turtle Island and currently based in Scotland. Nichelle will obtain her PhD in Sociology focusing on Black Women’s Mental Health and Healing Through Arts-based Methods and Autoethnography, which incorporates many Practices such as Black and Indigenous Feminism and Disability Justice. Nichelle shares her Knowledges and Voice while on a journey of reimagining and rebuilding the world. She navigates learning and unlearning through a wide range of social, political, and economic justices and injustices amongst an abundance of cultures while living in and visiting various environments. 
 

Venue

  • The venue is located on a busy junction. There is 1 step free entrance and 1 entrance up some steps. 
  • The event will take place over 3 floors with 1 lift available to shuttle people from floor to floor.
  • There is a welcome / registration space on the ground floor. The Robertson Suite.
  • There is a break out space, the rest space, (on floor 2) the Liddell Suite. This is where the rest session will take place. But attendees can use this space whenever they like.
  • A separate quiet space is on the ground floor. Note that this has a large window looking on to the street. This is the Cafe Annex. (There are also nooks on the ground floor where you should be able to be alone.)
  • The main event / gathering space will be on the 4th floor with seating for 50 people at dining/event tables. This is the Myreside Space.
  • Access to green space is a short journey away (by foot). 
  • Please note that the venue is quite warm overall. So you may want to dress in light clothing/layers.
  • We aim for this to be a relaxed event – everyone may come and go, move & stim freely.

If you have any questions about the venue, do ask and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. 

A small hall with wooden floor, panelled ceiling and lights. There are 2 doors at one end and no windows.
This is the main event space, the Myreside space on the fourth floor. This is where most of the event programme will take place. There are no windows.
Exterior of the Eric Liddell Centre at 15 Morningside Road, Bruntsfield in Edinburgh. It is a large renovated church with both a stepped entrance and ramp.
Eric Liddell Centre, exterior – a large renovated church at “Holy Corner” in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh.
Photograph showing the interior of a small room that is the lobby of a converted church. There are small armchairs and sofas and cafe style tables. There are glass doors on two sides and a large window on the other.
This is the Cafe Annex. It is our chill out space for people who would like to decompress. There is a large window looking on to the street from here.
Photo showing the interior of a high community style hall. There are carpet tiles, a curved roof and doors at one end. There is a large window (not shown) at the other end. There is also a small balcony or mezzanine area with 2 doors. The room is lined with loose red chairs.
This is the Liddell Suite. It is our dedicated rest space, on the second floor.
Photo of a low ceiling'd room with ceiling tiles and strip lights. There are windows and glass doors in the space with blinds covering each.
This is the Robertson Suite on the ground floor. There are windows and glass doors covered and looking onto the interior of the building. There is no access to natural light in this space. This is the Welcome space. This is also where we will have lunch.