For people living with disability, life can sometimes feel almost insurmountable, especially if one’s unique capabilities remain hidden, misunderstood and unexplored. It can be like navigating an ark through ever-changing prevailing winds, NDIS changes, funding challenges, and just daily life. Unless a calm breeze brings that ark to a welcoming shore.
No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability has been that warm breeze in many performers’ lives for more than 32 years. Dr Kari Seeley, CEO said that ‘Investing in the growth and development of our performers is key to what we are all about.’ How true that is. Just take a look at the long list of activities, collaborations, masterclasses, intensive programs and other initiatives that keep No Strings very busy indeed, and the company wouldn’t have it any other way:
Supporting local disability talent through partnerships with professional practising artists
Weekly performance skills development workshops. Currently our performers are working with Juha Vanhakartano, Cynthia Schwertsik, and Lisa Lanzi, incredibly accomplished artists who are our Guest Directors, collaborating with our performers to create works for the end-of-year showcase performance season of AMPLIFY 2026. These classes are supported by more amazing performers, presently including Charlie Barwa, John Charles, Jane Miell, Catherine Purling, and Quinn. We can’t wait to see what they create together.
Weekly Creative Writing workshops have been mentored by critically acclaimed playwrights, directors, and artists, including Ruby Award-winning Michele Saint-Yves and Phillip Kavanagh, winner of the Patrick White Playwrights Award, the Jill Blewett Playwrights Award, and the STCSA Flinders University Young Playwrights Award. Our creative writers are in very good hands. Watch this space for more news!
Weeklong “Masterclass” intensives are run by amazing theatre professionals. Here are just a few of the recent masterclass intensives: Kung Fu Drama with Nick Bennett, The Drama of Movement with Lisa K Lanzi, TV, Ads and Film Auditions with Chris Asimos, Theatre with Songs with Taylor Nobes, How to Write a Play (in 5 days) with Phillip Kavanagh, Roving Improv with Hew Parham, and Stand-Up Comedy with Jo Zealand. The ‘stand up’ performers then got to present a set of their work to a very appreciative audience at Winter Wonderland.
Artistic collaborations across the sector
At No Strings, the stories we live and tell are powerful. Some of those powerful stories have become major productions, including HIGH (2024), The Construct (2025), Hamlet the Loneliest (2026), and now ARK, which will be presented 3 to 5 September 2026, in association with Adelaide Festival Centre (AFC).
Callan Merrispring, Programming Executive at AFC, said the team ‘is eager to work with this team again, supporting and building on the success of their recent season to engage with and grow audiences for their work.’
No Strings’ work is both artistically excellent and socially transformative, for the performers as well as for mainstream audiences. Dr Seeley said, ‘The partnership with AFC means the world to No Strings. To bring our stories to the stage in a world-class venue is such a privilege, and a range of in-kind resources go a long way to enabling this presentation of ARK, for which we are very grateful.’ Partnering with the AFC, as one of the home companies, gives No Strings an opportunity to build its reputation with a broader audience, some of whom may not otherwise have encountered its work.
The first play by Deaf and Disabled SA playwright JW Smith premiered by No Strings was The Construct (2025), which has been nominated for 2026 Ruby Awards in both the “Outstanding New Work” and “Outstanding Access and Inclusion” categories. The winners will be announced in November.
ARK is the second play by JW Smith and explores the twists and turns in the mind of a high-flying executive crushed by the chaos and insanity of the daily grind. Ready to give it all away, he is drawn to the gritty underworld of a stranger on the docks. What happens next will change both their lives forever. As JW Smith said, ‘The unhappiness, the despair, that leads to (suicide) is rarely spontaneous. There is almost always a story, a narrative that has brought a person to this mortal brink. ARK is one such story.’
We have other industry partners and collaborators who have also enabled our powerful stories to come to life and be presented, including Slingsby Theatre, who supported both The Construct (2025) and Hamlet the Loneliest (2026). Adelaide College of the Arts’ Head of Design, Casey Van Sebille, has guided design students through the process of creating set and prop designs to a director’s brief, building scale models, sourcing materials, constructing the set, making props, and being an integral part of successful No Strings productions. It was especially wonderful to see the work of one recently graduated design student, Stewart Boag, recognised with a national award from the Australian Production Designers Guild for his work on the set and props for The Construct (2025).
New initiatives and announcements
No Strings has already released publications including the Anthology of Poetry and Prose, written by participants in our Creative Writing workshop, and a coffee table book celebrating our first 30 years, Fearless. Limitless. Boundless. 30 Years of No Strings. And now, great news! No Strings is adding to our growing library of publications with our first book of plays.
‘No Strings is proud to announce we will be publishing the two plays by South Australian Deaf and Disabled playwright JW Smith that No Strings has premiered, The Construct (2025) and ARK (2026),’ Dr Seeley said. ‘The book of two plays will be available for purchase in the foyer of Space Theatre from Opening Night and through the premiere season of ARK, 3rd to 5th September 2026.’
For the Love of Theatre podcast
The welcoming shores of No Strings certainly have been buzzing with activity, but there’s more! Wonderful local theatre podcast For the Love of Theatre has produced a great “Creative Conversations with No Strings” episode, focusing on what we do, and our upcoming production of ARK. It’s hosted by our CEO, Dr Kari Seeley and features interviews with JW Smith (writer), Patrick Suto (actor), and Casey Van Sebille (Head of Design, AC Arts). You can listen to it here
At the beginning of the episode Dr Seeley shares one of her favourite quotes, “It always looks impossible until it’s done!”’– and that is part of what sustains our small but mighty team in pursuing our Artistic Director’s expansive artistic vision, with our CEO setting the sails to make the most of prevailing winds and the Board’s steady hand on the tiller to ensure safe passage.
At No Strings, each performer charts their own course toward professional success, backed by a company that believes in their ability, not their limitations.
Lesley Reed