This handbook is the result of the “Time To Change” project, an initiative co-financed by the European Commission (Erasmus+, Youth in Action) that establishes strategic partnerships between entities from Portugal (SIC Esperança; Terra Amarela e IRENNE), Spain (Globers) and Italy (Young-Effect). With the support of Pais 21
The project’s action, as stated in its application, “focuses on enhancing the intrinsic capacities of any young person wishing to engage in theater, by promoting inclusive artistic practices and their scientific support in a European transnational context.”[1]. To this end, throughout the year 2023, several multinational meetings dedicated to the laboratory practice of adapted theatrical techniques, seminars, training actions, and discussions on inclusive practice were promoted.
These meetings involved a multinational group of young people that included participants whose cognitive, physical, or socio-economic context keeps them on the sidelines of conventional educational and professional structures aimed at theatrical practice. These young people include those with physical or cognitive disabilities and/or those from socio-economic backgrounds that prevent them from fully enjoying their right to citizenship. In addition to these, the project involved a multinational team of professionals linked to the inclusive practice of theater. Among them are teachers, actors, directors, researchers, and socio-educational animators.
As mentioned in the first axis of Key Action 2 (Erasmus+), the line of action in which the present project is inserted, “innovative actions were promoted to meet the respective target groups, providing (…) education and training programs (…) in accordance with the needs and expectations of individuals, (…) new or improved practices to meet the needs of target groups with fewer opportunities and resolve differences (…) considering social, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity”[2]. The culmination of these actions, mediated by scientific research, results in the edition of this book, which aims to address theoretical and practical approaches to the recognition of inclusive theatrical art of the realities, bodies, and poetics of the young artists participating in this project.
[1] Time to Change (2022)
[2] Agencia nacional Erasmus (2022)