Toria Banks is a disabled writer, director and dramaturg. In 2018, she co-founded Hera to make inclusive music theatre by gender-minoritised artists, with Linda Hirst and Simone Ibbett-Brown. In 2021 she made ‘We Ask These Questions of Everybody’ with composer Amble Skuse: a digital opera commissioned by Sound Festival and made remotely by an all-disabled team during the pandemic. It transformed a DWP benefits assessment into something beautiful: “Politically important and an artistic triumph” ***** The I. Also for Hera, she has written and directed a short video opera “Sleeping and Waking are Their Names” and operatic gig theatre show “Generation” (premiered York Concerts, 2019). She was dramaturg to acclaimed director John Wright from 2006 to 2012, and has written three plays for rural touring. She has previously staff-directed for ROH and ETO, and was Resident Director at Trinity Laban from 2009 to 2021. Last year, she programmed SWAPra’s online festival Forgotten Voices and is currently writing a guide to opera by women before 1800 for Wordville Press (forthcoming, 2022).