The 'd' Monologues

(Paperback)

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These performance texts were written exclusively for performers identifying as Deaf, disabled or neuro-divergent. This unique collection of fictional dramatic monologues was written specifically for D/deaf and disabled performers (the d of the title), informed by lived experience. But the d could just as easily refer to difference, diversity, defiance, determination, desirability and a host of other delicious ds. Covering a wide variety of form, content, and theatrical styles, the monologues offer fresh perspectives on difference and disability from across the UK and beyond. From biting satire to crip pride, observational comedy to poignant revelations of life in contemporary Britain and beyond, these texts challenge and subvert ingrained preconceptions of disability and celebrate all the possibilities of human variety. This collection is the culmination of ten years work, with fictional monologues inspired by over 100 interviews, conversations and interactions with D/deaf and disabled individuals internationally. It brings together new and previously unperformed texts alongside monologues from In Water Im Weightless (National Theatre Wales Cultural Olympiad 2012), the 70 minute stand alone one-woman show richard iii redux, co-written with Phillip Zarrilli, and the multilingual intercultural And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK d Monologues. The monologues offer a great resource for atypical performers as audition pieces and for companies and individuals as script-in-hand, full productions, solo shows or with larger casts. The variety of monologues enables flexible presentation as solo, choral or ensemble performances.

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OReilly is a writer to cherish -- Lyn Gardner

Author Bio

Kaite OReilly is a playwright, radio dramatist, writer, and dramaturg who works in disability arts and culture and mainstream culture. She has won many awards for her work, including the Peggy Ramsay Award for YARD (The Bush, London), M.E.N. best play of the year for Perfect (Contact Theatre), Theatre-Wales Award for peeling (Graeae Theatre company) and the Ted Hughes Award for new works in Poetry for her reworking of Aeschyluss Persians for National Theatre Wales in their inaugural year. She was a finalist in the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2009 for her play about memory and brain injury The Almond and the Seahorse. Widely published and produced, she works internationally, with plays translated/produced in eleven countries worldwide. 2016 productions included Cosy at Wales Millennium Centre (The Llanarth Group), The Almond and the Seahorse in Estonia and Germany, and the Taiwanese production of the 9 Fridas in Mandarin transferring to Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. These plays are collected in her critically acclaimed Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors, published by Oberon in 2016.