O Meu Primeu FITEI

Realising that access to cultural participation is a right, FITEI created an accessibility plan to make the festival more inclusive and able to reach diverse audiences. Although we realise that we still have a long way to go in this area, we are committed to continuing the actions we have already taken and innovating in many other areas. 

As far as physical access is concerned, the festival avoids venues that are not adapted for people with wheelchairs or reduced mobility, but if this is not possible and the venue has limited access, we will inform the audience and provide support.

In terms of intellectual accessibility, we offer shows with interpretation in Portuguese Sign Language and subtitling for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. All our communication is in three languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish, and international shows are always subtitled in Portuguese. For the first time this year, we provided audio descriptions for blind audiences. We organise post-show talks between artists and audiences to encourage interest in the creative process. We also provide warnings if a show contains potential emotional triggers. 

In terms of social access, we continue offering two sections of the festival with entirely free activities. All the prices set at the festival are consciously affordable. We have created a safe space channel for reporting discrimination experienced in the context of the festival. Whenever the festival hosts a show, whose director wants to work with the local community, we strive to include people of different genders, ages, nationalities, professions and disabilities, ensuring to reflect the diversity of the community.

However, one group we still struggle to reach is young people. Since this demographic is essential to our inclusion efforts, we would like to start a project in partnership with the artistic school Balleteatro, that would consist of inviting students to be FITEI ambassadors with an active role and creative responsibilities. These activities would include mediation sessions with schools, in which the ambassadors would talk about the festival’s programme, build a communications plan that appeals to young people on social media and moderate post-show talks, among other things.

To begin this process, we could introduce an exercise in improvising. In this case, the motto for the exercise would be “How would a theatre student convince someone to go to the theatre?” In one bowl there are cards with situations (e.g., in the queue to buy bread, in a dentist’s waiting room) and another bowl would contain cards with descriptions of people (age, gender, hobbies, profession, nationality). The students must creatively convince the other person to go to the theatre, taking their characteristics into account. This exercise helps students stimulate their creativity and learn how to adapt to different situations. 

We would be working on the method of theatre by young people and for young people, and its aim would be to attract an audience through someone who is already familiar with theatre and is therefore already aware of the tools, that institutions like FITEI lack to engage teenagers. This would make the festival’s inclusion and diversity plan more comprehensive and effective, while bringing a fresh perspective of reality.