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Into the Scene and its impact on inclusive performance training

In Autumn 2006 the Arts Council England set up the Into The Scene Project in order to increase the number of disabled and deaf theatre practitioners graduating from accredited training courses and to increase the quality of their experience. A team from Graeae, the disabled led theatre company that profiles the skills of actors, writers and directors with physical and sensory impairments was chosen to work on the project. Rose Bruford College was selected as the main institutional partner for the project because Prof. Dacre had been identified as a “champion” of work on accessibility in performance training, (Member of On Disability: Creative Tensions in Applied Theatre Panel – Aesthetics and Disability, Research in Drama Education Symposium, RCSSD October 2007; Keynote Lecture on Creating an Accessible Curriculum, University of the Arts London, May 2005). The DVD created to accompany the project report, Into the Scene: Accessible Performance Practice was organised and directed at Rose Bruford College by Prof. Dacre with RBC tutors and students and actors from Graeae. In this article the author discusses with the project lead at Graeae, Alex Bulmer, who is visually impaired, some of the achievements of the project pointing to future developments for accessible performance practice. The article Dacre, K. “Case Study: How working with a company of actors with physical and/or sensory impairments has changed a college curriculum”, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 3 (July) 2006, Gloucestershire: Park Lane Press identifies some of the work previously undertaken with the company at Rose Bruford College. The work on accessibility in performing arts training continues with Dacre becoming a member of the Arts Council England Technical Theatre British Sign Language Project Steering Group in 2012-13