What exactly does it mean when you say theatre and “disability”? Exactly what disability do we mean? Health, or social, actor or audience? Aren’t we all special in our own way? Can theatre be a means of healing? Does it then mean that we should lower the artistic demands on the quality of the performance? We will try to answer all these questions and much more during our discussion.

The discussion is moderated by Ilona Labuťová (CZ). The hosts are Felix Dornseifer (DE), Justyna Wielgus (PL), Magdaléna Komárová (CZ) and Hana Chmelenská (CZ).

The Show Must Go On/OFFline online discussion series, featuring guests drawn from the ranks of theatre and dance artists, curators, cultural managers and theorists from the Czech Republic and abroad, addresses the performing arts’ sensitivity and responsiveness to contemporary social issues. Key themes include the adaptation of theatre, dance and contemporary circus to the virtual environment as a result of the anti-pandemic measures and questions related to the sustainability of our current quality of life and of the performing arts themselves. While it seems that the critical need for social change discussed in the fields of ecology, economics, politics and culture has been overshadowed in recent months by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, concerns about the sustainability of the field itself are gaining ground in the performing arts. Does a hybrid existence in real and virtual space amount to a dead-end for disciplines that rely on audience contact, or might it open up new worlds and possibilities? Will spectators stay at home forever? How are artists, organisers of cultural events, public funding bodies and arts education institutions responding to this crisis? How are they orientating themselves? What do they believe in and where are they headed? How do they communicate? In dialogue with our guests, we will try to map the performing arts’ emerging strategies and first responses to this global paradigm shift.

This series is produced by ATI’s International Cooperation Department as part of the Promotion of Czech Performing Arts Abroad program and in collaboration with the European project Create to Connect -> Create to Impact and the Performing Arts Central Europe (PACE.V4) network, with support from the International Visegrad Fund. International discussions take place on the Zoom platform and are held in English. Viewers have the chance to ask guests questions during the discussions and recordings of the webinars are made available on the jsmeIDU Youtube channel.

Moderator
• Ilona Labuťová (CZ) / drama therapist, teacher, founding member of the Association of Drama Therapists of the Czech Republic

Speakers
• Felix Dornseifer (DE) / director of the cultural festival SOMMERBLUT (Cologne)
• Justyna Wielgus (PL) / vice-president of Foundation Theater 21 (Warsaw), co-founder of the Center for Inclusive Art (Warsaw)
• Magdaléna Komárová (CZ) / actress, head of the Ježek and Čížek homeless theater, cooperates with the Theater from the Passage (Banská Bystrica) and the Theatre With No Home (Bratislava)
• Hana Chmelenská (CZ) / dramaturg, cultural manager, co-founder of the dance and theatre improvisation festival ImproEvents (Prague)

Practical information
• The meeting will take place on ZOOM; it is not necessary to download the application in advance.
• After filling out the registration form, you will receive an e-mail with a link to access the webinar.
• If possible, please register 15 minutes before the start of the event to allow time to complete the registration process.
• The webinar will be held in English.

Link HERE.