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>> Good afternoon. Welcome. I am going to encourage all of you who are standing to take a seat. All of the Toronto people are in the back. That is nice. Great. Good afternoon. This is a shaky laptop stand. Great. I am the director at the festival. I want to say that we are gathered on the unseeded territory of the -- We think this is important to do . I think we all agree, in this year, in particular, when Canada celebrates a national anniversary, that it is important to recognize the indigenous communities. We are thrilled to have you here. We are here with Jess. A truly outstanding show here at this festival. It's such a great show. If you have not seen it, get there and see it. I do not know the last time I have enjoyed myself so much at the theater. I enjoy myself always, obviously. This is a series of four we are presenting with caravan. There is a blurb. This great partnership received support. They supported our lunch this afternoon. Thank you to the Council. I am going to invite my colleague to the stage. I cannot see anything. There we go. Great. 

Norman: Um, very quickly, I want to say that the festival would not be here today without some of the people locally. I know this seems to be a place of influence. The local people are extraordinary. Please, a big round of applause. Also, the city of Vancouver cultural services and the County Council for the arts. This is a major transformation and I will be brief. This is a partnership. I would venture to say that it is a collaboration. We have discussed how that might happen and this notion of collaboration. This idea has not fundamentally changed since the beginning and the end. Robert gave this is sort of a definition, coming out of the era with others. It was really about radical thinking of the work they may create. Working on Caravan was a thing over the years. This is the second time we have worked together. We talked recently, earlier, a few of us, about a couple of groups that came over and I think of this as forest fringe. This is built on a history that we are extremely proud of. It is built on financial resources and bringing things to the table. It is a real serious change that will happen. We are going to bring money to the table for the first time in 10 years. That is significant. Most of you know Gavin. He is a dear friend and colleague. I stated his house. -- stayed at his house. I do not stay at everyone's house. We do not sleep in the same room anymore. I snore. In Edinburgh, we did once. It is a pleasure and an honor to have him here. We talked about what he should cover versus what I should cover. I mentioned the books. "Be here now." You don't have to buy the book. You can just write down the title. People are always interested in "Why?" What is the reason you are working with Push. What is the reason that shows we have chosen together. Why did point blank poets come to work with us? Answer the Why and we are in a good place. To answer Why, Gavin. 

Gavin: I need to apologize. I have no idea what I'm going to say. He had notes. [breathing] OK. So, I have never done this before. I have done these things before. Yeah. OK. We going to start with a song. We should sing. You have to join in. Everyone will know the song. When you sing the song, you will work out why. It feels like a political act. Trust me. Go with me on this. The last words of this song is where the fun is. It is a song that you have to dance to. So, as soon as I start to sing, when you work out the song, will you join in with me? I have never done this. Damn. I shouldn't have said that. So, it goes like this. It is from "Nelly The Elephant." Nelly the elephant went off to the circus. Off she went with a trumpety trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump is the word the elephant makes when it goes off to join the circus. That is the start. We are here because -- well, first of all, let me set the sentiment. I'm not interested in partnerships or collaborations. In my experiences, people put aside differences to get money. I'm so not up for that anymore. I just want to fight with people and work with people who might become my friends and who it matters more to me that they achieve with they want to do than I achieve the things I want to. I am not doing collaborations or partnerships. Norman is right. He stayed with us. That is what has come out of our relationship. Now, it matters to me more that PuSh is successful than we are. Of course, reciprocally, we achieve the things we want to do and that is great, isn't it? It feels like the world is being divided up. I belong to a group of people that think we need to unite and find collaborative relationships with people who share our values in the world. It is promoting generosity and promoting a counter view to the dominant view of the world that is being led by someone who has the appearance of being a fascist without the ideology to support it. It scares me and I say that we should find other models and other ways to work together to make common sense of the world. We know that we do not allow people to divide us. Caravan is based on that premise. I am very chaffed with the artists who have come here. They have a curiosity and something to say about the world, like Jess, who'll will speak to you in a few moments. Despite what you think you have read in the papers about the United Kingdom, I think there is an opportunity for us to really find and express a place in the world in the post-Brexit model. I don't welcome it. But there is a chance for us to walk into the dark with a torch and that excites me. I told you that I had no idea where the sentence would end. 

Roxanne: great. This partnership received support from the British Council. I hope hearing that ramble has not impacted that. I am pleased to invite Maria to the stage, who is the director for the British Council. 

Maria: thank you so much for that and for those words. I could not agree more with those words. This is an important time for us to connect and use art as a fool to help people connect. -- as a tool to help people connect. I want to thank PuSh and Caravan for being the best partners we could work with. I am pleased that we have the support of the arts Council of England to bring four incredible organizations to participate in the festival. I hope that many of you had the chance to see the performance is taking place. I am glad that I could be a part of this. The reason why the British Council does this and partners with organizations like this is because we are the leading cultural relations organization and arts, education, society, English, are important to us. We have offices worldwide and we deliver cultural programs with aims to bring amazing people on similar platforms to have important conversations to connect and talk about things that are important for the shared future. This is a true delight for us today and I would like to say thank you to all of the partners we worked with. I hope you engage with the rest of the program. I plan to and I look forward to the rest of the day. Thank you. 

Roxanne: thank you so much. The 2017 keynote address features the English writer, Jess Thom. She has Tourette's syndrome. Thom debuted the piece at the Edinburgh Festival and has performed in Glastonbury. Thom explores wide ranging experiences. I just could not be more thrilled to welcome her to the stage right now. 

>> Uh, it is muted right now. [inaudible] 

Jess: here is a photo of me in my superhero costume. I have Tourette's syndrome. I make movements and noises that I cannot control. Having Tourette's makes me neurologically incapable of staying on message. A lot of what I am about to say is going to be a surprise to everyone. On the plus side, I only have to write half of a talk. Awkward sciences -- silences are not something I worry about. Before I begin, I would like to thank the festival for inviting me to speak to you this afternoon. There are three things that you need to know. First, you are going to hear biscuit and hedgehog a lot in the next half an hour. So nothing gets caught in translation, when you hear biscuit, think cookie. Second, if I say something funny, you are absolutely allowed to laugh. We will be at odds if we don't. Several times a day, my ticks intensify. These as to follow -- episodes look seizure-like and need management. If this happens, my support will help me and I'm hoping that Roxanne will take over. Biscuit. Or, Norman will take over. They will do a dance. I hope you prepared that. This get. -- biscuit. Hedgehog. I will give a brief description of myself. I'm a 30-something woman of average build with a wheelchair. Having Tourette's just me a body that is constantly on the move. I am hitting my chest. It is happening now and now. Do not worry. I have gloves to stop my knuckles from getting sore. All of these slides I will be showing our colorful and hand-drawn cards. Stop I will read each of these out loud intern. Creativity, visibility, and opportunity. A call to action. I will share with you five ideas that are useful for building creative spaces. First, I would like to tell you more about my journey from sufferer to superhero and why celebrating difference matters. In 2010, I cofounded Touretteshero after a conversation that changed the way I viewed my condition. My friend described this as a crazy language generation machine and not doing something with it would be wasteful. This idea took root and I see my ticks as my power and not a problem. My life was changed by a single sentence and it taught me that every conversation has the power to create change. At Touretteshero, we increase understanding by sharing the creativity of the misunderstood condition. I believe that we all share the power and responsibility for inclusivity. Legislation, resources, knowledge, all have important roles to play. We need to think, talk, and take action together. A report from 2014 of public attitudes towards disability by charity scope found that 67% of British people felt uncomfortable talking to a disabled person. Statistics like this have no place in open and engaged societies. As professionals working within the arts sector, you are perfectly placed to make a significant contribution to catalyzing needed social change. I want to share with you a personal experience from my work at a play project in Southland. One weekend, I was lucky enough to witness a moment that was both unremarkable and almost too beautiful for words. It was a busy Saturday and I had just come in through the gate. All of the children -- children of all ages were playing everywhere. In the general buzz, there was a flurry of activity on the soccer pitch that caught my attention. Teenage boys greeted each other. They enthusiastically through their arms and grinned. One of the boys had a soccer ball and the other said, "a quick penalty shoot out before lunch." Along with some other people, they began to play. This was an ordinary scene that could have happened anywhere. It is the ordinary that makes it special. One of the young men has an intellectual disability and the other does not. They go to different schools and probably would not have met, if not for the inclusion project at the playground. This moment had seemed insignificant, until I heard Idris Elba addressing MP's about the lack of diversity a few days later. He said there was a lack of diversity in the TV world. He said that people in the television world are not the same people as in the world. That ordinary moment in the playground is what my real world looks like and it is what the world looks like for many children and young people around the world. Too often, it is not reflected in our cultural spaces. This speech was powerful because it did not just focus on one area. He explained that diversity in the modern world is more than just skin color. It is about gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, social background, and diversity of thought. He said, talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. This gets right to the heart of the issue. If you are not white, male, or non-disabled, you face barriers in the creative sector and wider society. Without Jack, the lack of diversity comes self-perpetuating. Stop if you do not see yourself represented on the stage, you are less likely to think that performance is a possibility for you. If Drama schools are inaccessible and policymakers continue to strip away -- it is your mother, would you like to go on a date? Probably not. This get. Hedgehog. Biscuit. Biscuit. Hedgehog. If non-disabled actors, directors, reducers, programmers, do not experience this at the start of their careers, how can they consider that within their practice later on. It also leads to nondisabled actors playing disabled roles and being praised for how closely they mimic disability. Or, "crip up." While I believe that positive steps have been taken, now is not a time to be complacent. There are too many who do not see themselves reflected on the stage or screen. This is bad for the industry and for us all. Biscuit. Hedgehog. A wealth of talent and creativity is going to waste. Seeing the same stories gets boring. This represents a financial and moral risk for the sector. It is time for us to rescue -- recognize the opportunities we are missing when we do not embrace diversity. Stop consider the potential of broader stories and find ways to connect talent with opportunity to lead to a dynamic creative sector. I want those I work with to know that all of possibilities are open to them and I want them to see people who look, sound, move like they do and are being successful in all sorts of rol es. The boys on the soccer pitch could not have met. It is only through the increased visibility of difference in our cultural life and communities that discrimination and assumptions can be broken down and the equality of opportunity is achievable. At a moment in our history when so much is under threat, this is more important than ever. I would like to share with you some ideas that have made a big difference in how I think about disability, my creative practice, and my identity. I am not disabled by my body. I would like to start by talking about the models we used to conceptualize disability. For a long time, the consensus was that we followed a medical or charity model. You see a person as disabled because the body or mind is impaired and they are in need of pity or cheer. Both focus on what is wrong with the person and not what the person needs. By contrast, the social model says that disability is caused by how society is organized. For example, if I cannot get into a building because it is surrounded by steps. Biscuits. Biscuit. Beans. The medical model, the charity model, it asks for money to help me walk. In contrast, the social model identifies the steps as the disabling barrier. People are nervous about calling me disabled. I don't see it that way. It recognizes the barriers I face because of the collective failure to consider difference. Only if the barriers are recognized can they be changed. The social model may be familiar to you, but I want to mention it , because of how pervasive the models are around the world. Understanding disability through the social model has raised my confidence and has been instrumental about how I think about my body and experiences will stop it is the -- and experiences. Beans. Don't headbutt the mic. Disability is not subbing I carry around with me. It is not a permanent and unchanging state. The exciting thing about this is that, by working together, we can create less disabling spaces, systems, and attitudes. Biscuit. The next idea is adjustable environments will stop permission to adjust the surroundings to meet my needs is essential and transformative. Being able to leave my apartment seemed impossible. When I realized I could change my environment as and when