Sophia Wai Yee Ginsburg

Hello, my name is Sophia Wai Yee Ginsburg.

Here is where I would usually explain more about who I am, but I am sick of using identity terms this week (Sometimes I just feel like a category, a set of boxes ticked “diversity”…can you tell I have been writing lots of applications?! Also, brain fog). Instead I will tell you some other things about me.

I often feel like a baby learning to speak and walk and a much older woman forgetting how to do both (crip time!)

I am quite new to writing.

I am very interested in telling stories about people who feel like they don’t belong. The story I am writing for Wellspring is about what it’s like when you can’t be yourself in the place that feels the most like home. I think it’s also about what happens in between the public and private spaces, and what you do when your private self is forced to be your public self.

I’ve also devised a play with friends about historical incidents of women experiencing mass hysteria, which is partially inspired by my experiences of being chronically ill. It’s going up for three days at the Camden People’s Theatre this December.

My work integrates devising, movement, feminist and disabled/crip theory, and embodied dramaturgy. I’m trying to figure out my practice as a disabled artist.

I’m really interested in performativity in both a feminist/gender sense, and a theatrical sense. I have synesthesia, which means the way I see the world is very much informed by a sensory perception of colour, texture, and what I can only think to describe as “vibes”.

I always get confused by the differences between American and British spelling and punctuation. I was very confused about British people ending all their messages with kisses, but I’ve grown fond of it.

I’m writing this while on a visit home to Hong Kong, where I am trying to eat as many mangoes as possible.

My favourite poem is “Late Fragment,” by Raymond Carver;

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

beloved on the earth.

I would remind any creative person that doing the work doesn’t always look the way you think it should, and that rest is an essential and important part of the process. I really also say this for my past and future selves as a reminder.

The main highlight of Wellspring has been being able to meet new people who are also disabled and neurodivergent theatre makers and writers, and for us to be able to share our experiences– I usually feel very isolated in the theatre community so this is a very beautiful and unique experience for me.

Sophia Wai Yee Ginsburg (she / her), Wellspring Writer 2023 – 2024

Sophia is a London and Hong Kong based interdisciplinary theatre maker who has recently graduated with an MFA in Advanced Theatre Practice at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is lead artist and performer for “Strange Contagions” at Camden People’s Theatre, returning in December 2023.

Website: www.sophiaginsburg.com 

Recent show at CPT: www.sophiaginsburg.com/strangecontagion