This week, in our series of things that make us proud as we celebrate our 35th birthday, we’re highlighting our commitment to access. We’re proud to offer touch tours, audio described performances and relaxed performances in partnership with the theatres that we tour to. We offer these in the UK for our touring productions Nobody and Starchitects and also for WILD, our hit outdoor touring production. This approach extends to all of our activities, including our education and participation programme, which is accessible and inspiring, offering a fully inclusive environment where everyone is welcome.
We’re proud that our continued work to make our activities as accessible as possible was recently recognised when Wondrous Stories, the opening show of the Birmingham 2022 Festival that we created, featured an inclusive cast of 250 people from the West Midlands, won the prestigious Access All Areas award in the Diversity and Inclusion category at a ceremony in London in January 2023. This was an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate all the hard work that went into making this show as inclusive as possible. Wondrous Stories was created by Motionhouse and produced by Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS). Generously supported by Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Our continued work to make our activities as accessible as possible has recently been recognised in an interview with RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey who was joined by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the channel Islands.
Alongside our partners at MAC Birmingham, we’ll be offering BSL interpretation, relaxed performances and audio description at some performances of our Christmas residency, Starchitects Save Santa. As part of our four-show run at HOME Manchester, we’re delighted to be working with the theatre to offer a relaxed performance and audio description of one of the performances of our family show Starchitects, on Saturday 3rd June at 11am.