Jamie Hale

Artistic Director at CRIPtic Arts and CEO at Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance

Art, Fashion and Design
Image of Jamie Hale

Jamie is the founder and Artistic Director at CRIPtic Arts, and an actor, director, poet and screenwriter.

They founded CRIPtic Arts as a showcase of deaf and disabled performers for the Barbican in 2019. Since then, it has evolved into an artistic development organisation which commissions and develops new work, staging it at venues including the Barbican, and creates mentoring and development programmes, with mentors including Amy Trigg and Robert Softley Gale.

Jamie is currently running a year-round programme of workshops, drop-ins, performances, open-mic sessions and 1:1 support, leading two reports on access in theatre and developing the CRIPtic Access Consultancy as part of their commitment to change the landscape of the arts.

Their creative work includes an original television series in development with Gaumont and Channel 4, with others optioned with companies including RED. Their first play, titled I Want To Live, was commissioned by Theatre Royal Stratford East. They have had work commissioned and staged by Camden People’s Theatre, the Barbican (where their solo show, Not Dying, was staged), and the Lyric Hammersmith. They are currently redeveloping Not Dying, pushing the boundaries of creative access.

They were awarded one of three 2021-22 Jerwood Poetry Fellowships for poets becoming the “leading lights of British poetry”, and Director/Theatre maker of the Year in the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund Awards in 2020 for Not Dying.

In their policy career, they work as CEO at Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance and Chair of Lewisham Disabled People’s Commission, where they’re passionate about user-led projects and co-production.

“I am proud to be working as a disabled person within the arts, and prouder to be committed to supporting and developing the work of other deaf and disabled people”