The vast stage in Sophiensæle set and ready for our performances of Unsightly Drag and Friends as part of Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer festival in 2022. Bright rainbow lights shine down and through atmospheric mist, illuminating a smaller platform stage in the large space. On the platform stage are two speakers in the lower corners and a single stool with stage detritus on top of it (probably a headmic and gaffer tape) placed centre. Behind the stool, dark curtains part to create an entrance bathed in blue.
what do we do?
We do a bit of everything! Training, consulting, workshops, advising, access audits, writing, researching, hosting, producing, artist development, key note speeches, performing, directing, access dramaturgy, mentoring, advocacy…
Quiplash works at the intersection of disability, LGBTQ+ identities and community, creating welcoming spaces and creative work where people come together, build skills and form stronger relationships.
By fostering connections and relationships in the LGBTQ+ disabled community, we support people to reach their potential, reduce isolation, raise disability awareness, and encourage long-term collaboration between and improvement within communities and the cultural spaces that matter to them.
We support individuals, spaces, projects, organisations, companies etc to become more inclusive and accessible, making people feel welcome, connected, and able to take part fully in professional, community and cultural life.
We also make radical artistic work with creative integrated audio description that features groundbreaking LGBTQ+ disabled talent.
our work
Photo by the wonderful @aliwright_photographs
Three stunning drag queens stand in a line on stage holding sparkly bats between their legs and making stern faces. All three are in suits that are tailored to their curvaceous bodies. Lolo on the left is in purple with green hair. Lilly is in the middle in all pink. Scarlet is on the right in all red.
“Quiplash were so informative, patient and understanding. We don't what we would have done without their great guidance, helping us on our journey to being as camp and accessible as possible”
– Lolo O’Neill, LADs
Birdie, a slim, heavily tattooed white woman, is your resident drag historian. She glares at you sternly through her retro cat-eyed spectacles and heavy eye makeup. She has one hand on her hip, and the other pointing emphatically at something out of the frame. She wears a little black dress and a flamboyant, pink patterned scholar’s robe with a flash of bright red lining showing through in her oversized sleeves. Her pastel pink hair is perfectly coiffed underneath a black graduation cap with a pink rim (lol).
Quiplash provided creative access, focusing on creative audio description for the Travelling Queer People’s History Show by the always fabulous Bird La Bird and Michael Achtman.
”The best thing about working with Bird la Bird is that she had a million ideas, and all I had to say was ‘THIS SOUNDS GREAT’ and help her work out how to make them in to a reality. She’s the epitome of best practice.”
– Amelia, co founder of Quiplash
Image of two aerial performers in a black and white costumes that looks like space suits. They are tangled together and tumbling through mid air, held up by harnesses and surrounded by shoots of rainbow light. It looks as though we are seeing them through a prism. The background is a deep black.
“Amelia Cavallo was an inspiration to work with on our project.
[Their] honest, incisive and forthright observations challenged and helped us to realise our aspirations to make our work more accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences in new creative ways. We are incredibly grateful for [their] help and look forward to working with [them] again the future.”
– Kate Lawrence of Vertical Dance after working with our co-founder Amelia Cavallo
Quiplash exists to change the nature
of work for queer disabled people
Two queer blind performers, Ebony (left) and Tito (right) goof off, standing on either side of a wall outside of Sophiensaele, a venue in Berlin they would later be performing in. Ebony is a dark skinned black person wearing a flat cap, red rain coat and black trousers. Tito is a white person with short brown hair and is wearing a colourful dinosaur hoodie, jeans and is sporting a teal glitter beard. Ebony is gleefully waving their mobility cane in the air while Tito clutches theirs in their right hand and gestures to Ebony with the other. The wall they are in front of is full of pink posters that say “queering the Crip Cripping the queer” in big blue letters. On either side of each poster are Ebony and Tito’s faces in full drag.
We work within the principles of disability justice to produce work with radical integrated access at its core, connect communities to knowledge and its roots through partnerships and embedded training. We use this experience to advocate for systemic culture change for disabled and queer people.
We create a culture where queer disabled people and the work they do, are secure and thriving.
our team
Amelia, a slim white person with a brown mullet that has grey flex on the sides and top. They are wearing a black and white long-sleeved shirt and a colourful Kufiya wrapped around their shoulders. They are cupping their hands towards the camera and their mouth is in a tight “hoooo” shape as though they are blowing fairy dust out of their hands and towards an audience that is in front of them (but unseen in the photo). One of these cupped hands delicately balances a microphone which they had been speaking into moments before.
Amelia Lander-Cavallo (they/them)
Co-founder and director
Amelia is a blind and neurodiverse artist, academic, facilitator and theatre practitioner and a co-founder of Quiplash CIC.
They’re an experienced and charismatic facilitator, speaker and host. They develop and deliver the majority of the training, consulting, workshops, etc for Quiplash.
Amelia moved to the UK from New Mexico, USA in 2006 and has worked for around 20 years in the field of performance and audio description (AD), contributing to research and writing, supporting artists and companies to find exciting and creative ways to utilise this access tool. They have their own methodology ‘Queer AD’ which is used by audio describers in projects and theatres accross the UK and abroad.
As an academic and researcher, Amelia has written multiple published pieces on AD and access, including recently co-authoring Integrated Access In Live Performance (Routledge, 2022) and contributing a chapter to Drag Vistas and Visions: Drag in a Changing Scene Volume 3 Chapter 9. Camp Quips: drag, access and queer crip joy as an act of resistance.
As a host, Amelia also won British Podcast of the Year in 2024 for their audible podcast Press Play, Turn On (NSFW).
Amelia has worked in the UK and internationally as a touring actor-musician, burlesque performer, aerialist and drag king and was even on East Enders for 38 seconds!!
Amelia’s email is amelia@quiplash.co.uk
Al, a ‘small fat’ white person with wavy light brown hair slicked back, and funky rectangular glasses stands outside happily eating an ice cream cone. They are pulling some candy off the top of said ice cream and their mouth is in a happy “Ohhh!” The main colour in this photo is pink - the ice cream is pink, Al’s knitted top (which yes they made themself) is pink, their trousers are pink with black lines all over them. Next to them is a human sized pink teddy bear with a small pink unicorn with silver hooves and horn on one of its shoulders. Behind Al, the teddy and the unicorn are big green plants, some steps and a street with cars parked on the sides.
Al Lander-Cavallo (they/them)
Co-founder and director
Al is a chronically ill and neurodiverse artist, producer, organiser, designer and a co-founder of Quiplash CIC.
After 20 years as a comms professional working across industries and roles in Australia and the UK, Al co-founded Quiplash with Amelia Lander-Cavallo and we registered as a CIC in 2022.
Al is the spreadsheets, logistics, graphic design and systems guy. They do a lot of big thinking and write a lot of emails and do a lot of maths. Occasionally they get to make stuff pretty and design creative projects and play backing guitar.
They also act as Amelia’s primary access support worker accross all aspects of Amelia’s work: from sight reading music and cuing them in, to making sure they don’t get poisoned by food they’re allergic to, down to editing emails and articles, and reading and explaining processes and spreadsheets.
(You can read more about the crucial role of specialised access support work and how it’s at risk here.)
Al’s email is al@quiplash.co.uk
Cynthia is a light skinned black mixed race woman, her braided hair is dark purple, styled in 4 ubuntu knots on top of her head with two side plaits with gold braid cuffs. She is wearing a yellow and purple African print dress and is sat at a black and brown table, on a wooden chair with red velvet in the middle. She is smiling and resting her head on her right hand on her right arm, while her left arm is folded on the table
Cynthia Chika-Franklin (she/they)
Producer and access
Cynthia comes to us at a time when our creative output and fundraising endeavours are growing and GOSH are we glad we have her help. Cynthia joins the team as a producer for our creative projects, marketing, fundraising and access support.
Cynthia is a freelance creative working in Film, TV, Theatre & Events, and is known for her work with companies and collectives such as The Cocoa Butter Club, Black Victorians, Ham It Up Productions, The Black Burlesque Revue (just to name a few) She is also the winner of The Draggies “Behind The Scenes” award for 2025!
Cynthia’s email is producer@quiplash.co.uk
Tito performing in Dortmund, Germany. They are slim and white with a teal glitter beard, wearing a rhinestoned houndstooth coat. The photo is a close up of their face with one hand holding a mic to their lips and the other reaching out towards the audience, palm flat and fingers spread wide.
Tito Bone (they/them)
Tito Bone is your average blind, non-binary, bisexual drag king who just wants you to smell the world through their nose, ya know? They are a true triple threat: they sing, dad dance, and audio describe, all while wearing large amounts of eco glitter.
Tito recently premiered their solo show, An Evening With Tito Bone (AKA The World Is Burning so Please Enjoy My Drag Show) at the Out of the Box Festival at Theatre de L’Usine in Geneva, Switzerland and Queer festival at Schauspiel Dortmund, Germany.
They are also the director and charismatic host of Quiplash’s flagship show Unsightly Drag and Friends, an accessible cabaret evening of all Queer disabled performers. Performances have included Gessnerallee, Zurich (2024), Mighty Hoopla, London (2024), Sophiensæle, Berlin (2022), Bloomsbury Festival, London and online (2019, 2020).
You can book tito by emailing them at kingtitobone@gmail.com or via our contact us form.
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