Towards an inclusive theatre
Active Access Design Research Labs.
Western Theatre Force Collective (Vancouver, Canada)
AAD Lab 1 – Awaken: Dancer Andrea Cownden improvises movement to Awaken (Yes, 1977), via a laptop, choreographer Susan Gingrasso provides conceptual artist Collin van Uchelen live audio description.
in association with Bouche Theatre Collective
LAB. 2: NEW WRITING
Conceived of with playwright Paul D. Power
“Thanks again for having me as part of the group. I enjoyed the discussions and an opportunity to connect with alike minds”
– Chris Dodd, Deaf Theatre Maker (Calgary, Alberta)
Imagine an essential moment from any production that moved you and ask: What (if any) element of this moment is inaccessible to an artist or audience? What information is the essential and how can we give the same “experience” differently?
Working closely with stakeholders in the community, our Active Access Design Labs. examine how to integrate Access tools and Cross Sensory Translation directly into the generative process of theatre weaving access into the very fabric of a work.
Access tools, like Captioning or Audio Description, are commonly used in theatres. How can we apply them creatively combined in with creation practices to make space for imagination and engagement?
For our second AAD Lab., we partnered with Newfoundland theatre maker Paul D. Power (Powers Productions) in a pan Canadian digital laboratory to examine how to apply the philosophies of Active Access, Cross Sensory Translation and Universal Design to the creation of new Canadian playwrighting.
The Lab. examined the role of the playwright in access and pathways to intergrate access into new writing. Guest Speaker Workshops included new media artist Milton Lim, conceptual artist with sight loss Collin van Uchellen, sur titles artist Anika (An) Vervecken, sighted describers, and interpreters.
Participating playwrights include (West Coast to East Coast):
- Justin Neal (Vancouver, Canada)
- Hannah Siden (Vancouver, Canada)
- Chris Dodd (Edmonton, Canada)
- Debbie Patterson (Winnipeg, Canada)
- April Hubbard (Halifax, Canada)
- Paul D. Power (St. John’s, Canada)
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Canada Council for the Arts.
Gallery – AAD Labs.
Meet the New Writing Research Team
Chris Dodd (he, him)
Chris Dodd is an Edmonton-based Deaf performing artist, playwright, accessibility advocate and Governor General Innovation Award finalist. He is the founder and artistic director of Canada’s national theatre festival dedicated to the Deaf performing arts, SOUND OFF. He is an artistic associate with Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre and is one of their Playwrights in Development. His solo work, “Deafy”, began touring beginning at the Summerworks Performance Festival in 2019 and will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2021. Chris holds a degree from the University of Alberta’s Drama program. He was recently the recipient of the Guy Laliberté Prize for innovation and creative leadership by the Canada Council of the Arts.
April Hubbard (She, her)
April Hubbard is an arts administrator, accessibility consultant, Disability educator, circus artist, drag performer, tv host, event planner, and a proud queer, Mad, Disabled, settler/Mi’kmaw woman based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Over the past two decades, she has worked to create spaces where those with unseen bodies and unheard voices can feel welcome in the arts. April empowers community members to be leaders in designing the society in which they wish to live by challenging assumptions and normalizing the presence of Disabled people in our world.
Justin Neal (he, him)
For years Justin Neal juggled day jobs with his love for theatre in San Francisco and New York. Settling in his family’s traditional Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territory, he earned a joint MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre from the University of British Columbia. In 2020, he founded Holy Crow Arts in Vancouver, producing his play So Damn Proud with the fledgling theatre company. His feature The Skins Game is in development with Curiosity Pictures and Really Real Films. Neal’s original series for television, Boundary Bay, and his feature, The Traveller, have received development funding through the Indigenous Screen Office and Creative BC. He is a resident of the 2022 Norman Jewison Film Program Writers’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. www.justinbneal.com
Debbie Patterson (She, her)
Debbie Patterson is a Winnipeg playwright, director and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR), served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) from 2012 to 2018 and is a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit. She is in demand across the country as a consultant on crip aesthetics/accessibility and as a dramaturge versed in disability aesthetics. She was honoured with the United Nations Platform for Action Committee’s 2014 Activist Award and the Winnipeg Arts Council Making a Mark Award in 2017. She was twice shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize. She is a proud advocate for disability justice through her work as founding and current Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre. She lives a wheelchair-enabled life in Winnipeg and in a cabin on the shore of Lake Winnipeg with her partner and collaborator, Arne MacPherson.
Collaborating Artist - Paul D. Power (he, him)
Paul David Power has spent the past 20 years working as a writer, actor, director and communications professional in various mediums and for diverse organizations – including dramatic script for the stage. His formal training includes holding a BA in English with a concentration in theatre and a BAA in Journalism. Paul has a long history in raising awareness and understanding about disability issues through his work as a playwright, columnist, director and actor. He is the arttistic director of Power Productions. www.powerproductionsnl.com
Hannah Siden (she, her, hers) - Associate Artist
Hannah is a director, writer, producer and actor. Most recently she assistant directed alongside Jack Paterson on The Ballad of Georges Boivin (Western Gold) and Haven (United Players). She has an MA in Acting from East 15 and a postgrad filmmaking diploma from the London Film Academy. www.hannahsiden.com
Project Leader - Anika (An) Vervecken (SHE, HER, HERS)
Over the years, from her youth in Belgium to her life in Canada, there have been two constants in Anika’s life—her passion for the performing arts and a fervent desire to ensure anyone would get an opportunity to share that passion. Be it by providing access to the story through surtitles, live description, or creating visual stories allowing people on the autism spectrum to anticipate their experience rather than being overwhelmed before the show even starts. Her work testifies to an ongoing pursuit of new ways to invite people to experience live performances by developing new initiatives, such as connecting patrons with refugees to see a show together, as well as innovative techniques like writing introductions when there are no resources or the show only requires minimal additional information to become accessible. Access Co-ordinator for PuSh, Anika also continues to work as a translator, live describer, surtitler, and consultant for various local organizations such as Vancouver Recital Society, VocalEye, Axis Theatre, Revolver Festival, Kidd Pivot, and more. On an international level, she collaborates with Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussel, Peter Brook in Paris, and CDN d’Orleans in France amongst others. Another ongoing passion is working with people with lived experience, supporting them to develop their skills and careers as consultants. Anika balances her career with life as a single mother while supporting a Deaf man with a developmental disability. And a creative soul often requires the inspiration and refuge of nature, which Vancouver luckily offers.
Project Leader & CREATIVE PRODUCER: JACK PATERSON (HE, HIM, HIS)
Jack is an award winning theatre maker whose work and practice has taken him across Canada, UK, EU and around the world. Work has ranged from devising creation, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-ligual projects to new works & texts, contemporary approaches to classical theatre. www.jackpatersontheatre.com
On Active Access & Cross Sensory Translation
“Accessibility as a springboard towards new forms of communication. Accessibility not simply as a practice for otherwise excluded audiences, but as added value. Accessibility as a creative challenge and experimentation with new languages.” – Redattore Sociale (Piacenza, Italy 2022)
Active Access Design was born from work with Global Hive Labs., an international network of artists and companies, co-founded by Jack Paterson and Denise Yvette Serna, working together in devised creation. With collective members across multiple countries, we identified access as a priority.
The 2019/20 International collaborations Medusa USA (Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre) and Medusa UK (London’s The Pleasance Theatre & The Cockpit), we focused on incorporating Audio Description and Touch Tours into Dramatic Narrative.
Feb. 2020, in collaboration with Global Hive Labs. (Int.) and Teatro Trieste 34 (Piacenza, Italy), we asked ourselves, how could we take this further? on the devised creation project Atlantide, we were able to test the early concept of Active Access Design (AAD). The potential was revealed.
“…a full house for Teatro Trieste 34 and Global Hive…a fusion of epic and contemporary, myth and poetry, in a fascinating total and inclusive theatre, triggering emotions and new perspectives…” – Liberta
“…smashing nationality and accesibility borders in a Total theatre that merges so many artistic languages in a full emotional voyage…” – IMA Magazine
Atlantide (Italie’s Teatro Trieste 34 with Chez Art, Global Hive Labs. and Bouche Theatre Collective): 3 people in white are silueted against a background video of melting ice.
About our Partners
About Bouche Theatre Collective
Founded in 2012, Bouche has been bringing artists and audiences together separated by language, distance, and culture locally, nationally, and internationally. With a specific focus on the cross pollination between Canadian francophone and anglophone artists and the international community, Bouche reaches out through translation, multi-lingual work, and devised creation. www.bouchewhacked.com
About Global Hive Labs
LOBAL HIVE LABS. is an international network of artists and organisations working together in devised creation with inclusivity, equity and access central to the work. www.globalhivelabs.org
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