Kazan, March 25 to 28, 2021
Organizers: “Art, Science and Sport” Charity Foundation of Alisher Usmanov within the framework of the “Special View” program supporting people with visual impairments, and Inclusion Centre for Creative Projects, sponsored by Zhivoy Gorod Foundation and Connection Deafblind Support Foundation.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
“Special View” Forum Festival of Socially-Oriented Theatre was held in October 2019 in Moscow. It was the first festival of such kind in Russia. It united 250 socially-oriented theatre professionals and activists from different regions of Russia, from Moscow Region to Russian Far East. The program of the festival included 12 performances by both independent and state-owned theatres. The total audience of the plays amounted to 1,500 viewers.
The first festival became the opportunity for stage directors, actors, teachers, producers and curators of socially-oriented theatre projects to come together and get acquainted. For them, the festival became not only a way to present their works but a platform for frank communication, independent creative work, making new connections and meeting people who held the same views. Theatre-goers from Moscow and guests from other Russian regions got the opportunity to discover socially-oriented and inclusive theatre and feel its great value for dramatic art and the society as a whole.
The success of the “Special View” Forum Festival proved to its organizers that such events are indispensable for the development of contemporary socially-oriented theatre. A decision was made to hold the festival annually, in the capital city and in different federal districts by turns.
The “Special View” Forum Festival of Socially-Oriented Theatre will become a major regional event. It will take place in Kazan on March 25 to 28, 2021, and attract the best social and cultural projects in Volga Federal District.“Special View: Regions” Forum Festival aims at uniting regional professional theatre community and those who care about and promote the trend to make them a driving force that will be able to form an open and inclusive society. The forum festival will present the latest and most resonant pieces of socially-oriented and inclusive drama to the wide audience and using them as an example will explain what socially-oriented theatre is, how it is developing in Russian regions and what is the real artistic potential of plays created with participation of people with disabilities and those who find themselves in difficult life circumstances. Organizers also believe that the festival will contribute to the broadening of creative partnerships in the region and enhancing the professional level of theatre groups that specialize in socially-oriented and inclusive art.
The mission of the festival remains unchanged. We hope that “Special View” will bring those who usually stay invisible (not just on stage but in everyday life) into the footlights.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The “Special View” Forum Festival is a unique platform devoted to socially-oriented and inclusive art and comprising theatrical, educational and inter-disciplinary programs.
“Special View: Regions” Forum Festival program consists of the most prominent works of inclusive and socially-oriented drama created in Volga Federal District. It comprises plays selected by curators on the basis of an open contest and also performances suggested by the organizers of the festival.
The educational part of the festival is designed for the authors and participants of current social and cultural projects and for actively working journalists. 20 specialists from Perm, Orsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Yoshkar-Ola, Saratov, Izhevsk, Ufa, Cheboksary, Ulyanovsk, Dzerzhinsk and Samara, and also 10 auditors from Kazan and nearby cities will participate in this program. The educational part will include practic discussions, workshops and intensive courses given by leading experts of inclusion and socially-oriented theatre: stage directors, teachers, producers and theatre theorists.
For the first time the festival will feature an inter-disciplinary program. It is formed out of a broad range of artistic works also created in Volga Region. It includes installations, performance art and media art raising urgent social topics.
As a result of the festival, one work will be selected to participate in the federal stage of the project, “Special View” II Forum Festival of Socially-Oriented Theatre (which will be held in Moscow in 2021)
