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ABOUT

Act Up! Newham is an inclusive theatre company made up of disabled and non-disabled people who work together to create high quality performances that challenge audiences' perceptions of disability. Act Up! produces work that reflects the lived experiences, stories and views of our members and most of our productions have been devised by our members. Act Up! aims to become a beacon for good inclusive practice and demonstrate to other groups how to develop good inclusive theatre.

 

Act Up! aims to provide opportunities for actors who are overlooked by other theatre companies to have main roles in high quality performances and by doing so proves to others that this is possible. This includes people with communication difficulties whom people often assume cannot have significant lines in performances. We work together in innovative ways to adapt our work so that all our actors are able to express themselves in an equal way. We use these differences in communication to enhance our productions. We have actors with different levels of support needs including actors with high support needs who have found that they are not always welcome in other integrated settings.

Current Members

Sterre Ploeger

Sterre is one of the founding members of Act Up! She speaks with signs and loves performing. She is recently achieved her Gold Arts Award and makes poems using signs.

Grace Fundu

As well as acting Grace loves dancing and would like to be a professional dancer. One of her favourite things with Act Up was taking part in carnival. As part of her Gold Arts Award she set up a dance class for kids.

Jade Sempare

Jade has been involved in performing arts for a number of years. As well as acting with Act Up she is also part of a wheelchair dance group. Recently her and Sterre taught workshops to students in Rome.

Awa Jagne

Awa is currently studying at Orpheus centre after starting her drama career in Act Up! and performs with us on her breaks. She is still an important member of the group and contributes alot.

Pritesh Patel

Pritesh is our newest member. He came to us from Mapsquad where he recently achieved Level 1 working in the Creative Industries. He is very enthusiastic and has contributed great ideas  already!

Paizah Malek

Paizah is a very experienced actor She recently won an award for a show about dementia. She also organises community lunches accross Newham.

Glory Sengo

Glory loves performing. He particularly likes acting, congolese music. and writing poetry. Glory achieved his level 1 diploma in performing arts recently his Gold Arts Award

Hannah Facey

Hannah facilitates the group. She is passionate about inclusion, social justice and equal rights. She is a Signalong tutor and recently completed a masters in Applied Theatre at RCCSD.

Abdul Qureshi

Abdul studied level 2 performing arts at Newham college. He likes acting and martial arts. He is trained in sword fighting. He has been in 2 films, one in London and one in Pakistan. 

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