Theatre as a “Way of Life” for Persons with Disabilities: Anthropological Observations

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/50-60

Abstract

Based on a pilot study, the article traces the links between disability and art: what path does a person with a disability take on the way to theatrical creativity?  The answer to this question is built through an attempt to consider the life of a person with a disability as a kind of social drama, and to see what transformations occur when real lives interact with real theatre. The usual context of a theatre is shifting from the format of fictional characters and their stories, packed in the framework of the imaginary world of one author, towards characters who co-create an artistic project with realistic details of their individual life narratives. This is made possible by the phenomenon of social theater. Social and inclusive theater contains, in addition to the aesthetic component, a horizontal hierarchy, where each participant is a creator on an equal footing, with his/her own areas of responsibility. The image of an inclusive theater is revealed in the article on the concrete example of the big Russian project "Incluzion", which works in seven cities of Russia. The Novosibirsk case of a theater network demonstrates which values are positioned by artists with disabilities as those that make a person's life “fulfilled”, despite “limited opportunities”.

For Citation: Torlopova, L.A. 2021. Theatre as a “Way of Life” for Persons with Disabilities: Anthropological Observations. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 50-60.

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