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Performers with a disability have come together to create a devised performance through a program initiated by Arts Queensland and Access Arts. (Kirstin Sillitoe) By Emma Sykes http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/07/24/3809863.htm A real blind person playing the role of a blind person is unfortunately still a novel scene on a Queensland stage. But not for long, if a collaboration between Arts Queensland and Access Arts, a not for profit arts organisation can help it. By putting the spotlight on Disability Arts in Queensland the partnership is removing barriers to arts and cultural participation for the one in five Queenslanders with disability. Already the partnership has created opportunity for performers with a disability from across all disciplines to come together and produce performance art which showed at the Judith Wright Centre in Brisbane this week. Artists spent two days in a disability arts master class under the guidance of Lead Artist Gaelle Mellis before their public performance of 'Tiny Little Lies'. "I haven't heard that anything like this has happened in disability arts. She says the focus for 'Tiny Little Lies' was devised performance making, where a group of people come together and use personal experiences to spark an idea that is workshopped in the group. "It's different to working with a script, or in dance, with a choreographed dance. The director may have an idea about what they want to explore, so you go from there." The concept behind 'Tiny Little Lies' Ms Mellis says "examines the private self and the public self and the expectations for how you behave publicly - particularly as somebody with a disability." Diversity on stage Ms Mellis believes more diversity on stage is important for both performers and the audience. "Over 20 per cent of the population are people with a disability," she says, "we don't see a lot of people with a disability on our stages and screens, or when we tell stories about a disabled person, they're told from a non-disabled perspective and usually played by a non-disabled person." Mr Mellis compares the lack of opportunity on stage for people with a disability to tell their own stories with a time in theatrical history where Indigenous people were played by white people who would "black up". "People with a disability need to tell their own stories. This opportunity for the performers is giving them skills and new ideas to take away and put into their own practices," Ms Mellis says. Access Arts' Kirstin Sillitoe says the long term aim of the partnership is to build the capacity for disability arts sector in Queensland. "I think we're looking for people to take on board this way of working, we're not going to be creating musical theatre - but we're interested in challenging people's perceptions with performance. She says it's not about creating a disability arts organisation, but to ensure that inclusion in the arts sector for participants from across the state becomes embedded in how view and produce works of art. Giving self-confidence 28 year-old Rachel Missingham has been practising circus arts for two years and became involved in two day master class. As a performer who is profoundly deaf she says the experience has been very interesting to be part of. "It gave me the creative space to work with a variety of different people," Rachel says, "I have never worked with a visual impaired or blind person before. I have just adjusted what I do to be creative." Ms Sillitoe says people interested in programs run as part of the partnership between Arts Queensland and Access Arts can find out more at the website.