Social challenge and reasons for project’s initiation

Immediacy of the social problem

According to the the most recent data from the All-Russian census of deafblind people (conducted on June 30, 2019), there are 4,161 people with combined hearing and vision impairment in Russia, of which 10-15% are totally deafblind. Although most of them live in families (68% according to the census 2015), and not in social institutions, their communication with the outside world is obviously difficult: in 2015, about half of them were not capable of using a mobile phone, 76% didn’t have skills to use laptops, about 10% did not know the braille.

Deafblind people’s distinctive needs, difficulties and problems in Russia were not widely discussed until the creation of the So-edinenie Foundation in 2014. In medical history, they were listed as people with either a hearing impairment or a visual impairment. Art therapy, rehabilitation through creativity, as well as other non-drug rehabilitation did not adapt widely to their needs, although adaptations, such as from tailor-made approaches to satisfy their medical condition and addressing communication difficulties are essential.

There also difficulties to enhance inclusion to overcome social isolation for people with other types of disabilities, including people with learning disabilities.

«Inclusion» and «Inclusion. School»’s story

In 2014, right after the creation of the «So-edinenie» Deafblind Support Foundation, Evgeny Mironov, a member of the Foundation’s board of trustees and the Director of the State Theater of Nations, proposed to produce a play dedicated to deaf-blind people. During the work on the play, he decided to bring the main characters – deaf-blind people to the stage. Rehearsals began with them: search for the most effective ways to work with non-qualified actors, deprived of hearing and sight, search for technical solutions that would create an accessible environment on the stage and that would allow the deaf-blind to navigate the stage and interact with sighted hearing actors and spectators. The first inclusive play “TOUCH-ABLES” is based on real stories of people with combined hearing and vision impairment. According to the Foundation, this is the first performance in the world where the stage brought together deaf-blind people and actors who can see and hear. The play was later performed in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and also resulted in an exhibition “Touching Art” and the documentary film “Word on the Palm”. In 2016, the “TOUCH-ABLES” was nominated for the «Golden Mask» Award as the best performance experiment.

«London applauded the Russian play «TOUCH-ABLES» – a unique perfomance featuring deafbling actors. The plot is based on real stories of people, the actors communicate with the audience in the language of movement and gestures. ” / From the report of the TV channel “Culture”

The project’s founders decided to go to Russian regions – large cities where the theater (mainstream theatre, not only social) is highly developed. They adapted the training program conceived in Moscow, developed it jointly with the leading theaters, and began to look for curators who would become the “entry point” and have enough resources to gather the community around themselves and attract theaters in the region to collaborate. “As we immediately aspired to a high standards and good quality, all teachers and curators were not volunteers – they were paid. We work hard to motivate and attract the most talented and engageded representatives of the theater community in various ways, those who are not afraid of experiments and who are interested in modern social and inclusive theater, ” says Tatyana Medyukh.

Tatyana Medyukh, development director of the center “Inclusion”, did not work with deaf-blind people before joining the programme: “ I saw the  «TOUCH-ABLES» at the Theater of Nations one and a half years before joining the Inclusion. I remember it stroke me. It seemed unbelievable that deaf-blind people took the stage. Then, when I began to work in the “Inclusion” and see the backstage of this work, the magic was a little dissipated. It became clear that this is first and foremost – a long complex system work. “Inclusion” might seem to have appeared by chance, due to the unexpected rehabilitation effect of the «TOUCH-ABLES», and my mission is to turn it into a systemic, sustainable and long-lasting project that will help the development of social theater in Russia and will help change public attitude towards people with disabilies” . Ignorance of fingerspelling and sign language does not prevent from managing the programme: Medyukh communicates with actors in writing, through chat rooms and social networks, when meeting, writes words on the palm of her interlocutor or uses the services of an interpreter. Each actor has translators, and there is a group translator for classes.

Coverage

• Moscow
• Novosibirsk
• Kazan
• Yekaterinburg
• Saint-Petersburg
• Kaliningrad

The project’s educational component for experts is available to beneficiaries from other regions

Project description

The duration of the educational programme is two-three years. The center postulates general organizational and content guidelines for all schools.

Organisational guidelines:

• agreement with an established partner (theater / theater school);
• convenient location of theater schools, high requirements for training and rehearsal venues, venues for shows;
• available budget for the infrastructure: translators for the deaf-blind and the deaf, taxi fees payments, availability of ramps, coffee breaks, accompanying for actors with a disability, technical staff, decorations and props, etc .;
• replication: a network of schools (a single document flow and attempts to standardize payment and requirements for teachers, directors, exchange of best practice among schools and workshops).

Content guidelines:

• general artistic and aesthetic development of students (in addition to theater classes, joint trips to museums, cinema and excursions);
• joint classes with professional artists and students of theatre schools – both volunteers and paid actors;
• same requirements for all special and artists without disabilities  at rehearsals and shows;
• equality in paying fees for commercial performances;
• combination of different working methods and different means of communication during workshops and rehearsals;
• reporting theater sketches, performances and plays;
• adaptation of productions and performances for all viewers: sign language and spoken language, subtitles, programs and braille libretto, tiflosound translation.

Following initial experience, a methodology for other project’s schools has been designed.

For the «TOUCH-ABLES»first performance all the deaf-blind were recruited via acquaintances. These days the channels of recruitement involve newsletters for the deaf-blind database (the database is populated via the «So-edinenie» Foundation’s Regional Development program, which comprises the All-Russian census of deaf-blind people), cultural institutions and public organizations who work with people with disabilities (not only deaf-blind) publish ads on the fund’s information resources. “Everyone is welcome to come, we do not select them based on their nosologies, talents, and so on. In an open theater laboratory, potential students decide whether they want to study at a theater school and whether they feel comfortable. From day one, all the necessary infrastructure is created: a sign language translator and individual support for the deaf-blind, ” says Tatyana Medyukh.

Until autumn 2019, the programme was eligible only for adults, and then Kaliningrad saw the first theatre for children «Inclusion. School».

Plays and performances are produced following actors’ capabilities and preferences, and the content might change and updated during the process and at the classes.

In 2018, the organisation first introduced the «Inclusion. Schools» educational component for professionals: the first educational seminar «Creation and development of inclusive theater projects» was held in St. Petersburg for teachers of all five theater schools, as well as for external professionals in the socio-cultural sphere. The seminar lasted two days, and allowed to share experience and receive training from renowned experts, both Russian and foreign.

Schools’ teachers involved with the project always teach each other, come to master classes and workshops, and support creative exchanges.

In partnership with the Art, Science and Sport Foundation «Inclusion» held the first forum-festival of the social theater «Special Look» in 2019, where a specific focus was made to the educational program for professionals.

Team and partners 

Team

• Tatyana Medyukh, development director of the “Inclusion” center
• Project management, staff with specialized higher education – nine people, including five curators of theater schools;
• 20 theater directors and teachers;
• More than 60 volunteers: professional actors, students of theatrical universities, employees of commercial companies;
• External professionals with competencies on a specific topic: theater artists, composers, etc.

Partners

• Theater of Nations
• Theatrical higher education institutions in Moscow and other Russian areas
• Meyerhold Center
• Museums in Moscow
• Foundation “Art, Science and Sport” (partner for the “Special Look” forum-festival)

Other theatre organisations, culture and social protection institutions.

Resources

The only founder of the center “Inclusion” and “Inclusion. Schools ” is the «So-edinenie» Deafblind Support Foundation. According to the foundation’s annual report, the budget for the theater project in 2019 was as follows:

“Inclusion” overall costs – 16 million rubles;

Theater School in Moscow – 900 thousand rubles;

Theater schools in other Russian regions – 3.6 million rubles.

The total project budget for the period 2017-2019 amounted to about 15 million rubles. Initially, all schools were financed centrally, now co-financing models are being developed together with local businesses. New theater schools open only with the condition of co-financing 50/50 or the presence of a donor interested in opening a school in the region.

Achieved results

Immediate results

Inclusion implies the loss of the feeling of having a disablity – this what happens to actors of “Carmen”, “King Lear”, “The Seagull”, “Marriage”, created together with the actors of the “Holstomer Nights”, and already included in the classic Moscow repertoire “TOUCH-ABLES” – the «Inclusion» project changes the rules and  bring together on the same stage those people who would not interact with each other in day-to-day life without theater. What started as a performance with the participation of deaf-blind actors, “Inclusion” has grown into a network of regional theater schools for people with and without disabilities, a school for theater professionals and the Russian first social theater forum-festival “Special Look” (held in October 2019) .

During the programme, inclusive education courses in the areas of “stage speech”, acting, “movement and choreography”, “musical accompaniment”, etc. have been developed, alongside with a methodological manual on the organization of inclusive theater schools. The quality of life of “Inclusion. Schools” deaf-blind students and students with other disabilities has been improved due to regular classes, rehearsals and performances. A professional network of contacts has been created for specialists in the socio-cultural sphere. Nominations and awards in various creative contests: Golden Mask, Paradelphic Games, Inclusive art, Festival Theater and others.

Quantitative results:

Today “Inclusion. School” is:

• six inclusive theater schools;

• 89 students of inclusive theater schools;

• 20 theater teachers and directors;

• 14 inclusive theatrical performances;

• More than 60 professional volunteer actors.

Internal project assessment

The foundation makes regular monitoring of schools’ efficiency, expands/reduces the learning programme, changes rehearsals schedules, updates the repertoire based on beneficiaries’ feedback. The first cohort of students in local theatre schools graduated in 2019, the foundation is planning to make a comprehensive social effect evaluation in 2020.

External project assessment

Benefeciairies’ feedback

Project’s distinctive features and know – how

To foundation’s knowledge, “TOUCH-ABLES” is the first performance in the world where deaf-blind and typical actors are playing on the same stage. “Inclusion. School” is the first experience of a social theater bringing together people with any kind of disability (in contrast to the long-standing theaters with actors only with Down syndrome and others), as well as people from other disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, “Inclusion. Schools” – are the first theater inclusive schools for the deaf-blind. The project has advanced experience in teaching deafblind people theatrical art and already shares exoirience with other theater specialists.

Challenges and solutions

«Inclusion» still proves to the wider audience and programme’s stakeholders the importance of creative rehabilitation and creative project’s which involves people with disabilities. The theater community and regional drama theaters do not always share the ideas of social art and «Inclusion» in particular. Even in St. Petersburg, one well-known modern theater refused to provide us with a venue for a fee, the director explained that he did not want his theater to be associated with social groups, people with disabilities. Generally speaking, in our society the word “social” has pejorative connotations and is associated with something poor, shameful» – laments Tatyana Medyukh. At the end of October 2019, with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund and the So-Edinenie Foundation, “Inclusion” in partnership with the Art, Science and Sport Foundation, organized the first «Special Look» social theater forum-festival with the participation of not only reporting performances of all its Schools, but also with third-party productions on critical and important topics: inclusion, poverty, homelessness, violence, orphanhood. The main goal of the festival is to attract public attention to such topics, to show that there is a social theater, it is developing and that it will no longer be possible to drive it to the margins of art. The expert council of the festival included famous Russian cultural figures: Alexander Adabashyan, Julia Aug, Alena Babenko, Victor Ryzhakov, Sofya Apfelbaum, Elena Poldi and others. The festival was attended by over 300 actors, directors, teachers. The Theater of Nations, MMOMA, the Meyerhold Center and other Moscow cultural institutions took on their sites a “special look”.

Plans of further development   

The organisers are planning to transform the «Inclusion. School» into a grant-making opportunity to support local socio-cultural projects by 2022. These projects should be aimed at supporting people with disabilities and include modules on social and inclusive theatre into educational programmes of Russian leading theatre academies.

Recommendations

Build relationships with all stakeholders in a consistent manner, involve as many interested parties as possible in the creation of inclusive theatre projects similar to regional schools «Inclusion»

Project’s documents

«Inclusion» charter.