I WENT deaf when I was seven from a bang on the head – I was just messing about with my best friend when I fell and banged my head on a desk.

The local deaf school was closing so I continued my education at Colonel Frank Seely School under the headship of Mr Galloway.

I then went to Haywood Comprehensive. Mr Galloway and John Furber, who was my form teacher for five years, were always supportive but never allowed me to use being deaf as an excuse for poor results. They and my parents gave me the resources to be self-sufficient and work independently. There were no sign language interpreters or note-takers so I had to lip-read my way through school and am mostly self-taught.

I had started ballet with Nora Morrison school of dance when I was six. Nora saw no reason for me to stop dancing because I had become deaf and said: "You can always follow the person in front." Dancing was my saviour and has given me skills, discipline and a whole physical visual language which serves me to this very day.

Nora and Marilane Church, who taught me drama at Clarendon College, were my inspiration and my mum and dad always said: "You can do anything you want but you have to want it, work at it and earn it."

I then went on to major in dance at Middlesex Polytechnic – still following the person in front.

I then left and acted with Theatre Centre, Red Ladder and Half Moon, touring issue-based political theatre all over the UK. However, it was acting with Graeae that gave me my first experience of working with a sign language interpreter and suddenly I felt like I had come home.

According to Greek legend, the Graeae were three sisters, Pemphredo, Deino and Enyo, whose survival depended on a shared eye and a single tooth. It was the first professional theatre company for disabled people and has paved the way for others both nationally and internationally.

It aims to create and tour high-quality theatre with plays written by disabled and non-disabled writers.

My directing career started in 1994 and I joined Graeae as artistic director in 1997. I have been with Graeae for 12 years and over that time we have trained 49 deaf and disabled artists in performance.

Our current show, Signs of a Star Shaped Diva, is a collaboration between writer/director Nona Sheppard and actor Caroline Parker.

It is a one-woman show about a woman called Sue Graves, who runs a funeral parlour. She is a diva fanatic and by suggesting she signs a Whitney Houston song for a deaf widower at his wife's funeral, her whole life changes and soon Las Vegas beckons.

Caroline Parker is deaf with speech, so the dialogue she speaks is all captioned. She signs as a whole range of songs play, from Roberta Flack, Tammy Wynette, to Gloria Gaynor to Amy Winehouse. Blind and visually-impaired people can use headsets and have audio description throughout the show. The show is really good and Caroline is awesome.

Signs of a Star Shaped Diva is at Lakeside Arts Centre on April 19 and 20. For tickets, call 0115 846 7777.