Not Your Circus Dog Collective!
Crip Queer Punk Cabaret-Theatre
Liselle Terret / Doris La Trine
ADHD Feminist Performance Artist
(& Director of Not F**kin' Sorry!):
Doris’s performance is filthy, dirty, shameful, all too personal & at the same time – glorious.
Grotesque, intimate, powerful, political, detailed & delicate. Simon Casson, Duckie 2017
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I am a neuro-divergent socially-engaged performing arts teacher lecturer, researcher, director, performer and facilitator. I am Co-Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance (with Clare Qualmann) in the Department of Creative Writing, Music and Performance at University of East London: https://www.uel.ac.uk/Undergraduate/Courses/BA-Hons-Drama-Applied-Theatre-and-Performance My research informs my teaching, and its impacts are intertwined and cumulative.
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I am one of the co-founders & director of Not Your Circus Dog Collective, making cutting-edge crip queer performance: Not F**kin’ Sorry!, premiered at Soho Theatre, London, Nov 2019, "Terret ...for (her) meticulous work, curating highly emotive and provocative content, balancing the show’s sorrows and joys with such finesse.” (Disability Arts Online 2020).
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My practice-based-research disrupts theatrical norms through a radical Crip, Queer, collaborative and feminist approach across my solo work (as Doris La Trine), mentoring, consultancy, teaching, writing and directing. My research practice is in the form of theatre-making and is further extended and documented by writing grounded in the ethic of care and collaboration, to bring the lived experience of learning disabled and autistic artists to the centre for emancipatory self-representation.
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My Practice as Research is conducted collaboratively with 4 learning disabled and neuro-divergent artists, co-constructing radical and political questions about continued exclusion and discriminatory assumptions around binaries of ‘ability/disability’. In 2020 I won UEL’s ACI Impactful Research Award.
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In my capacity as Senior Lecturer and Co-Programme Leader for BA (hons) Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance at University of East London, I am committed to teaching socially-engaged performance practice with contemporary theatre, with a focus on the politics of making performance for and with specific audiences, often in the margins and ethical concerns it raises.
UELMakeTheChangeMiaCunningham.
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In 2014, I co- founded with Nick Llewellyn (AD of Access All Areas) the Diploma in Performance Making for adults with Learning Disabilities & Autism that won the Guardian University Award for Student Diversity and Widening Participation (2015) at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. As Doris La Trine, I have curated & hosted Women of the World), Southbank Centre Wickedly Wild Cabaret and Take-Up Space Cabaret for Royal CourtTheatre (2018). Between 2005 and 2019 public performances featuring Doris La Trine’s autobiographical show Flushed toured to venues including for Duckie’s, Café De Paris, The Chelsea Theatre with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stevens, Limerick Arts Festival, The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Southbank Centre, Royal Court Theatre, DaDa Festival, Glastonbury Festival, and Word Of Warning, Domestic and Haphazard. My solo-performance practice has been written about by Commane (2020), Nally (2013) & Perlman (2018). I also present, facilitate workshops and publish on Re-Staging Learning Disability.
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Prior to teaching at UEL I was lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, Coventry University, Brunel University and NYU. She originally began as a Drama and SEN Teacher, before working at Half Moon Young People’s Theatre and the Unicorn Theatre and freelancing inter / nationally.
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Testimony from Jude Kelly CEO & Co-Founder of Women Of The World:
Liselle was commissioned to curate & host WOW 2018 cabaret, and she coined Wickedly Wild Cabaret with 800 people in the audience:
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In Wickedly Wild Cabaret a line-up of women perform slovenly and bedraggled pieces on gender, the body and disability. Watch renowned and emerging feminist, queer and crip performance artists in an evening hosted by Doris La Trine with her disgustingly gorgeous golden toilet. She programmed a diverse range of performances that all explored the theme of the abject and messy boundaries of gender, the body and disability’.
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The event had a longer-term impact upon as it has influenced the programming of other cabaret / feminist events to include learning disabled artists at other WOW Festivals. The feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive; some audience talked about the relief in seeing such a range of life experience represented, and others reported it made them think how rarely they saw disabled bodies on stage. The event was radical and we know that audiences feel safe at WOW to be taken to new places - as well as see their favourites. This event was able to do both - 800 people saw the event, and over 50,000 saw and engaged with WOW events in 2018.
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It impacted upon Southbank’s thinking and practice in terms of learning disability and access, and Southbank Centre was very proud that across the year, excellent work by disabled artists was being presented and addressed so many different themes. When society refers to intersectionality, so often disability and class are not centred and sometimes not considered; this performance brought those intersections front and centre, in a feminist context. We were very proud to be able to facilitate the show and be a place for progression and experimentation.
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The theme wasn’t just a line up feminist crip and queer artists. Terret (Doris La Trine) created an overarching narrative around survival, celebration and strength of women and utilised the cabaret to disclose, perform and seduce the audience into uncomfortable and important abjective places. Terret took some risks as host, and performed as Doris La Trine – with her golden toilet – re-framing bulimia – the secret disorder as it is known as – and she was able to perform the pain, and humility constantly inhabited when people have eating disorders. The other performances also bravely performed strength and resistance. Again, these conversations are often hidden, and this show brought them right into the spotlight.
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We would like to consider further the idea as Cabaret a as a political Theatre form that is accessible and celebratory, and can help engage us in both the most light hearted and the most serious of topics.
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We were so proud that the event formed such a central part of WOW 2018, and to work with such radical and brilliant artists.
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Jude Kelly
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
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Keber, E & Terret, L (ed L.Terret) (2020) Report: ARTIST DEVELOPMENT AND CREATIVE COLLABORATION: The systemic barriers to independent and sustainable career opportunities for learning disabled and autistic artists and how we might begin to dismantle them (Arts Council / Access All Areas for a copy of the report)
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Smith, A, Selwyn, E Terret, (2020) a published conversation (edited L Terret)
“Not F**kin’ Sorry!” is the powerful performance that embraces disabilities”
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Terret, L (2019) Jornadas sobre la Inclusión Social y la Educación en las Artes Escénicas” (Social Inclusion in the Performing Arts Journal)
I have a chapter in the Spanish Ministry of Culture 10th Anniversary publication on the UK ‘ An Overview of the performing arts and Disability in the UK’.
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Selwyn, E. and Terret, L. (2018) Defiant Bodies: A Punk Rock Crip Queer Cabaret, Cripping and Queering Emancipatory Disability Research. in: Duffy, P., Hatton, C. and Sallis, P. (ed.) Drama Research Methods: Provocations of Practice Sense Publishers. pp. 161-180
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Selwyn & Terret (2017) Defiant Bodies: a presentation at LADA. Available LADA Public library
http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/whats-on/access-all-areas-at-lada-2/
LADA’s Live Channel: https://vimeo.com/channels/artistsondisability/348677885
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Terret, L (2016) Re-Positioning The Learning-Disabled Performing Arts Student as Critical Facilitator in Preston, S. ed, Applied Theatre: Facilitation Pedagogies, Practices, Resistance, Bloomsbury, pp 131 – 150 (Google Scholar 365 citations)
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Mackey, S. & Terret, L. (2015) Move Over, There's Room Enough: Performance Making Diploma: training for learning disabled adults in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance (Volume 20, Issue 4), Taylor & Francis (Google Scholar 4 citations)
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Terret, L. (2013) Boy in the Dress: queering Mantle of the Expert in Farrier, S & McNamara C. (eds.) Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance Volume 18, Issue 2, 2013 Special Issue: The Gender and Sexuality Issue, Routledge (Google Scholar 15 citations)
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Terret, L. (2009) ‘Who’s Got The Power? Performance and Self Advocacy for People with Learning Disabilities’ in The Applied Theatre Reader. Preston, S & Prenkti T (Eds.), Routledge
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Terret, L., with Graeae Theatre Company and CETT (2008) The Next Stage: Disability at Central School of Speech and Drama. (RCSSD)
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SELECTED ONFERENCES, SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATIONS & PUBLIC WORKSHOPS
July 2021: Neuro-Diversity Creative Research Network: on NFS as a medium to encourage the public to look at how they are implicated in the continuation of disability-discrimination.
Neurodiversity In/& Creative Research Network
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June 2021: A practical session designed for secondary and college teachers that are looking for ideas and methods for inclusivity in performing arts
About this Event to create a culture of inclusivity, challenge discriminatory taboos surrounding learning disability, sexuality & disability hate crime in your classrooms.
https://www.uel.ac.uk/news/2021/07-july/uel-lecturer-is-not-fkin-sorry-about-breaking-social-taboos
May 2021: Singapore Conference https://www.sdea.org.sg/event/theatre-arts-conference-2021-creative-disruption-exploring-new-ground Presentation & Workshop: Can Crip Queer performance create an accessible, counter-cultural aesthetic to engage and challenge the wider public’s perceptions of disability and their own implication in the disability-discrimination with specific reference to Not Your Circus Dog’s, Not F**kin’ Sorry! ?
April 2021: Exeter University MA Performance students.
A presentation on Not F**kin’ Sorry as subversive crip protest theatre-cabaret.
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Guest presenter and facilitator for MA Educational Theatre NYU students on Re-Staging Disability Performance: 2016 2017, 2018, 2020)
https://www.nafsa.org/Professional_Resources/Publications/International_Educator/Act_Globally/
Nov 2019 Invitation to present to 500 international delegates in Tel Aviv, Israel for the disability-led International Inclusion organisation. http://akim2019.org/ Presentation to international audience about the impact and processes of NFS!
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2017 http://www.duckie.co.uk/events/queer-fun
http://www.accessallareastheatre.org/archive/2017/6/13/queer-fun
Liselle and Emma from Not Your Circus Dog Collective presented their co-written paper as a performance.
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Terret, L & Commane, G (2015) Queer Feminist neo-Burlesque: Doris La Trine’s Flushed at Roehampton University, Contemporary Performance & Feminism
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Terret, L (2015) Flushed: An ethnography of low art performance on eating disorders at Sentiment, Memory, Object at The Centre for Dance, Coventry University
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Commane and Terret (2015) – “Contemporary Feminism and Low Art Performance: Flushed” at Congruence and Contestation: Contemporary Feminism and Performance University of Roehampton :
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Terret, L & Commane, G (2015) Queer Feminist neo-Burlesque: Doris La Trine’s Flushed https://feministfutures2015.tumblr.com
Feminist Futures: Critical Engagements with the fourth Wave : A Symposium at Queen Mary’s University
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Terret (2014) G(u)ilt and Glitter: Economic Crisis and Burlesque in Ireland 5
Dublin College University: LipSiCk Queer Feminist Neo-Burlesque: Reclaiming the form
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Terret, L (2014) Women and Mental Health through comedy. A paper-presentation at, Playing for Laughs symposium at De Montfort University in Leicester
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/11/science-comedy-academics-social
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Terret, L (2014) Feminism and Performance Comedy, Kings College, London
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Terret, L (2013) Move Over, There’s Room Enough. Performing Arts training for people with learning disabilities at TAPRA, University of Glasgow.
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Terret, L (2013) Gender Identity in the primary school: queering Mantle Of The Expert presentation at National Drama, University of Greenwich.
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Terret, L. and Busby, S. (2013) 'You can act out without making too much noise'. '5th Conference on Social Inclusion and Education in the Performing Arts'. Held Mar 2013 at the British Council, Barcelona, Spain, [Keynote Speech] Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEUfw-zPsPY
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CURATING CONFERENCES, SYMPOSIUMS & SPEAKER/PANEL EVENTS
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2020
ADHD Performance Practices Round table (PILOT PROJECT)
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2020
ALEX JARRET AND EFE EWADIE for Black History Month at UEL. Presentation
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JULY 2020
Royal Court Theatre, Head of Participation Public Interview with VISHNI VELADA BILLSON
The Young Lyric, Director Public Interview with ROB LEHMAN:
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March 2019
Reclaiming Women’s Bodies Panel & Performance event: Performance and panel event consists of three feminist performance artists sharing their professional practice and exploring the meeting points:International women’s day https://uelresearch.com/2019/02/28/international-womens-day-uel-celebrates/
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Dec 2014
Curated seminar event at CSSD – Lynen Gardner invited Prof Sarah Whatley https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2014/dec/11/learning-disabled-theatre-diploma-lyn-gardner
https://www.cssd.ac.uk/course/performance-making-diploma-learning-disabled-autistic-adults
2008 TO 2010
Roundhouse Kunst wevent lipsick website Terret, L. (2013) LipSiCk Queer Feminist Neo-Burlesque - Curatorial Practice. Available from http://www.lipsickqueerfeministneoburlesque.wordpress.com
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Publications by other authors on
Practice as Research: Doris La Trine & for Not F**kin' Sorry!
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Commane, G. (2020) Bad Girls, Dirty Bodies: Sex, Performance and Safe Femininity, Bloomsbury Academic, London. (Pages 44-51)
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Beck Tadman (2020) Diffractive Co-conspiracy in Queer, Crip Live Art
Production, Performance Research, 25:5, 92-100, DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2020.1868850
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Pearlman, L (2016)
Le Vrai Spectacle: ‘Queering the French, Frenching the Queer’. In: Campbell A., Farrier S. (eds) Queer Dramaturgies: Contemporary Performance InterActions, Palgrave Macmillan, London. (page53-64)
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Nally, C (2013) Cross Dressing & Grrrly: Twenty-First Century Burlesque in Naked Exhibitionism Gendered Performance and Public Exposure, Bloomsbury, London (Page 109 to 132) (Google Scholar 67 citations)
SELECTED WEBSITES:
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https://notyourcircusdog.wixsite.com/liselleterret
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Terret, L (2019) Liselle as Doris La Trine Online interview with Diva Hollywood
https://burdy.co/featured-act/doris-la-trine/
https://performanceprocesses.wordpress.com
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http://diversefutures.org.uk/pioneers-liselle-terret.html
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http://www.pascal-theatre.com/project/jewish-womens-video-archive/
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https://www.stagesofhalfmoon.org.uk/personnel/liselle-terret/
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https://lipsickqueerfeministneoburlesque.wordpress.com
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SELECTED PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
Sep 2021 ‘Princess’: Duckie’s public event: Audiences will travel, from site to site, around Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to encounter an interconnected programme of performance installations that reveal the social archaeology of queer and crip (the word taken by the disabled community as a self-empowering title) in underground Georgian London. Not Your Circus Dog Collective is collaborating with Neil Bartlett & Duckie’s (Arts Council Funded) at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens https://www.duckie.co.uk/events/princess
Sep 2021 FEAST Theatre Festival in Malvern : Doris La Trine Performance.
Sep 2020 Doris La Trine, Flushed: Online performance for : What’s Going On In Your Head. https://whatsgoingoninyourhead.org/2020/11/29/neurodiversity-20-sep-2020/
Nov/Oct 2019 Soho Theatre Oct/Nov 2019 Not F**kin’ Sorry! at Soho Theatre, London by Not Your Circus Dog Collective. http://www.accessallareastheatre.org/notfckinsorry & https://sohotheatre.com/shows/not-fkin-sorry/
NFS! Trailer: https://vimeo.com/mannbros/review/368002097/72400afd6f
Behind the scenes of NFS: (2 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=dXEjia5vnSw&feature=emb_logo
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Dec 2018 Take Up Space Cabaret at Royal Court Theatre: I co-curated, performed and directed feminist/queer public event & also directed an extract from my larger production of Not F**kin’ Sorry! & my own solo act, Flushed as Doris La Trine. Royal Court Theatre’s Take Up Space Cabaret , London Photos Available https://royalcourttheatre.com/cast/dorislatrine
https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/takeupspacecabaret/
March 2018 I curated, produced and hosted Women Of The World Wickedly Wild Women Cabaret (800 people in the audience) at the Southbank Centre, London Photos available https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/126936-wickedly-wild-cabaret-2018
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Jan 2018 Soho Theatre: Research & Development week at Soho Theatre to invited producer’s performance. Arts Council recognition, & direct impact into their Let’s Create 10year plan&focus on disability-arts. (Elevate Funding) http://www.accessallareastheatre.org/news/creative-collaborator-search
Dec 2016 Not Sorry! for Duckie at the Electric Brixton 1,500 audience https://twitter.com/AAATheatre/status/805200123370307584
Photos available: http://www.duckie.co.uk/events/duckie-is-21
Nov 2016 Not Sorry! at Bar Wotever at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern
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July 2016 Not Sorry! ensemble performance at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama following a 3-week intensive devising
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2008-2017 Touring Flushed as Doris La Trine to theatres, live arts festivals (& with the Laundretta's )including: The Sisterhood, Shangri La, Glastonbury Festival (2018), Dada Festival (2016&2018), Word of Warning & Hazard Live Arts Festival , Manchester, (2015 & 2017), The Birmingham Old Rep (2015), The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh (2008), Duckies (2008,2009,2018), BAC (2008)
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2007 The Chelsea Theatre, London: Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stevens (performing with them & Jay Stewart) for a one week run of The Arts Lab.
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2004-2006 Director of Croydon Contact All Stars, with learning disabled drama group for young-adults.
Directed two public productions: Heart ‘n’ Soul’s, Octopus Club (pus chapter published (Terret, 2009) )
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2005 Director of The Golem (an adaptation for children) by Julia Pascal. Toured inter/nationally (The Tricycle Theatre, Jackson’s Lane, The Kommedia), International Children’s Theatre Festival, Croatia. 2002
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2003-2004 Director & Facilitator:
Deviser and facilitator for SHAPE (disability arts) working in collaboration with adults with Multiple Sclerosis
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2002 Director of God Of Vengeance by Shalom Asch at Camden People’s Theatre-3 week run
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2002 Director of Take Away by Jackie Kay for Half Moon Young People’s Theatre & The Albany (Connection)
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