Bree Hadley

Associate Professor Bree Hadley is Study Area Coordinator for Acting & Drama at Queensland University of Technology. She is author of The Routledge Handbook of Disability Arts Culture and Media (2019, with Donna McDonald), Theatre, Social Media, and Meaning Making (Palgrave 2017) and Disability, Public Space Performance & Spectatorship: Unconscious Performers (Palgrave 2014), and has written dozens of articles academic journals, newspapers, and online platforms such as The Australian, ArtsHub, and Australian Stage Online.

As Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council LIEF grants with the AusStage consortium, Hadley has documented the history of disability theatre in Australia, and made information about innovative performers, performances, and organisations available through the AusStage database.

In her most recent practice-led research, Hadley has been investigating current interest in ‘creative integration’ of sign language, captioning, and audio description into performing and visual arts works – as part of the aesthetic, not alongside the work – for example, in the Vis-Ability Exhibition collaboration with Dr Janice Rieger.

Her performance text, The Excentric Fixations Project, is also about to be published internationally in At the Intersection of Disability and Drama: A Critical Anthology of New Plays in September 2020.

Prior to joining QUT in 2007, Hadley worked as a writer, dramaturg, director, arts facilitator, and administrator for a number of independent theatre companies, and for the Glen Eira City Council.