New Musical 'Celebrate All' Designed with Children and Accessibility In Mind - 96five Family Radio

New Musical ‘Celebrate All’ Designed with Children and Accessibility In Mind

Australia's premier disability-led performing arts festival is back for 2023 and local songwriter Donna Dyson is debuting a new musical.

By Steff WillisThursday 21 Sep 2023Guests and ArtistsReading Time: 2 minutes

‘Celebrate All’ is a new heartwarming family musical teaching children to embrace their inner courage, find resilience, fit in, and make friends.

Created by award-winning composer and education expert, Donna Dyson and her children’s music label Spotty Kites, Celebrate All follows Lucy and Miss J on their first day at a brand-new school.

96five’s Steff Willis caught up with Donna Dyson to learn more about how Celebrate All came about and what audiences can expect.

Celebrate All is a celebration of humanity really” Donna said.

“This is a really lovely culmination of great songs, a musical story about a parallel journey of a teacher and a student”.

“When Lucy turns up at the school, she realises that she hasn’t got a friend and she starts to learn from Miss J that to have a friend, you must be a friend and you must be brave and say hello first”.

Donna Dyson’s songwriting was supported by the Undercover Artist Development Program and will feature at the Undercover Artist Festival which exists to profile and promote the work of performing artists with disability.

“Not only is it a joyful production full of beautiful music but I am legally blind… my world is about advocating for disability and inclusivity and so this festival is a very important as it’s the only festival that’s not just lip service to the world ‘accessible’, but it is truly accessible.”

“We have an Auslan interpreter, we have an audio describer, before the show starts anyone with visual impairment can come and feel all the objects on the stage to have a real awareness of the whole setting and space.

Donna also described the different seating options available to ensure everyone is able to enjoy the performance.

Celebrate All takes place on Saturday 23rd September at 10am at the Bille Brown Theatre.

Tickets start from $35 for kids and $45 for adults however code “SPOTTY” will enable you to acccess tickets for $25.