Learning from Our Survival: Patty Berne and Nomy Lamm (Sins Invalid), In Conversation

Patty Berne (executive director/artistic director) and Nomy Lamm (creative director) discuss the work of their performance collective and disability justice advocacy group, Sins Invalid. They address their company’s attempts to implement the principles of disability justice within their own collaborative processes and how theaters might cultivate a culture grounded in care work. Reflecting on the lack of support for queer, POC, and disabled artists in US commercial theater, they discuss the ways that Sins Invalid’s work challenges those institutional paradigms. Finally, they consider what the company—and theater in general—has learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: namely, the challenges and possibilities of producing work online and that addressing accessibility presents rich opportunities for artistic discovery.