Be IN! (clusive): Theatre and Diversity as a Way for Self-Awareness, Self-Development and Change of Society Erasmus Project

Project Title

Be IN! (clusive): Theatre and Diversity as a Way for Self-Awareness, Self-Development and Change of Society

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Recognition of all people as equal members of society is one of the main European values. Nevertheless, we are often facing prejudice against people with disabilities. It seems like art can help to break down these stereotypes – especially in theatre, where many characteristics of people with mental disabilities (MD) become an advantage and an opportunity for a unique theatrical experience. Theatrical activities that stimulate an inclusive way of thinking are great especially for young people: they are more willing to leave their presumptions, since these stereotypes in the way of thinking are not yet indelibly engraved in their minds. The young generation are the ones, who will create the European society in the future and will lead the way of thinking in the years to come.

The aims of the project are: to break down stereotypes, to show people how to see the world from new perspectives, to provoke the ability of critical thinking and to lead them to the self-development and self-awareness through theatre and theatre-related activities (workshops after performances, discussions, exhibitions of these activities, etc.). This would help to the change the viewpoint of the whole society.

Teatr 21 from Warsaw (PL), Blue Apple Theatre from Winchester (GB) and Divadlo Aldente from Brno (CZ) are participating in the project under the leadership of the Rytmus organization. They create theatrical productions with actors with MD on professional basis that may be supplemented by other educational activities. Each of the theatres has their own way of staging and their activities to promote inclusion. These activities are often based on their national specifications.

Rytmus provides the external view. It will select a group of young researchers, who will (under the guidance of a psychologist and an inclusive creative instructor) monitor the activities of these theatres, reflect the reactions of the audience and present their own opinions and ideas to theatres as representatives of the young generation. The method is to let the young, based on a vast number of activities, including their own theatrical experience, compare the approaches and reflections of a diverse spectrum of people (a person with a handicap versus a person without it, an amateur versus an experienced educator and psychologist, an author versus a spectator, a person of a different nationality). The efficiency of different approaches will be evaluated, based on these experiences, and the innovation of theatrical work will be concluded in order to support the development of inclusive thinking.

We will achieve our goals through two educational (C1, C2) and four multiplication activities (E1, E2, E3, E4).
Educational activities will include workshops in Brno and Winchester. The workshops aim to develop the participants, who will consist of disadvantaged actors from all three countries, a group of young researchers and university students. Knowledge will thus be the result of mutual encounter of people with and without disabilities as well as people of different nationalities.
Multiplication activities will be theatre festivals in Winchester (E3) and Brno (E4), where spectators will be able to learn about different methods of enlightenment through theatre across nationalities, and the opening of an interactive exhibition (E1), which will be the result of the entire project. The opening and the first 5 runs for schools and the general public will take place in Brno. The exhibition offers interactive parts “Socrates´ questions” and “live meeting” with the opportunity to meet actors directly, and an exhibition part “My way”, which presents the stories of individual young actors with MD and young researchers: what path of self-awareness and knowledge of the world they took during the project. A conference in Warsaw (E2) will be a multiplication activity mainly focused on educators.

The exhibition (02) will be available both in the online and material version. In addition to the exhibition, responsive web (01) will be created, where important inspirational moments for further dissemination will be captured after the project: online exhibition, examples of public awareness through theatre, interactive section Socrates´ questions. The set of material outputs will be supplemented by the printed publication Be IN! (O3), which will include examples of common educational work through proven theatrical procedures (best practice). It will also be possible to download the publication on the 3IN website. While the exhibition represents a young specatator’s view of the whole issue, the publication is a statement of experienced theatre makers.

The impact of these events is not only self-awareness and self-development of the individuals, including the development of critical and inclusive thinking, but also the motivation of young people for similar activities and inspiration for innovative ways of education for young teachers and theatres of this type.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 204469 Eur

Project Coordinator

Rytmus – od klienta k obcanovi, o.p.s. & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Divadlo Aldente, z. s.
• Fundacja Teatr 21
• Blue Apple Theatre