Creative Conversation #3
Debbie Bandara
Inclusive by Design: Multi-sensory Storytelling
Monday January 16th 2pm GMT
Coming Monday 16th January we present our third Creative Conversation at All the Screen’s a Stage, our free programme on how to develop digital skills in performing arts.
Debbie Bandara is the founder & Artistic Director of Forest Tribe Theatre, a carbon-neutral dance digital theatre company that produces immersive and interactive work. She is invited to share insight from her most recent work New World and discuss the digital aspects such as haptic technology from an Inclusive Design Approach. They’ll highlight how this framework is applied with audiences with additional needs, and how this can impact wider audiences.
All the Screen’s a Stage is a collaboration between Z-arts (Manchester), Young At Art (Belfast) and KOPERGIETERY (Ghent). All the partners have been working on a free international online programme of creative conversations: 1-hour expert-led talks will explore how to produce post-lockdown hybrid digital theatre.
Further details of the session
In this session, Debbie Bandara, Forest Tribe Theatre, will be sharing her most recent work New World and discuss the digital aspectsfrom an Inclusive Design Approach. She will discuss her IDA framework when working with audiences with additional needs and how this can impact all audiences when makingcreative content.
She will also offer a practical session for the guests to inspire their own practice. Debbie is offering her first of a series of new online immersion lab courses and will besharing more details about this during the talk for fellow practitioners.
In conversation with Tom Shennan, Z-arts (Manchester)
*This talk will be captioned. If you require BSL, please request this in advance to the host organisers.
About the speaker:
Debbie Bandara is the founder and Artistic Director of the Award-Winning Forest TribeTheatre, a carbon-neutral, immersive dance digital theatre company based in the NorthWest of England. Recent works include making an immersive show called “New World” delivered in specials schools using 5G and haptics.
She also works in collaboration with organisations who share the same ethos, most recent with Manchester International Festival. She currently leads the Makers for the Royal Exchange Theatre Young Company in Manchester as well as making new pieces for audiences with additional needs.
Her background stems from her BSc hons in Artificial Intelligence with European Studies(Spanish). Her knowledge of A.I. and computers/robotics naturally draws her to digital technology and ways to embed into pieces that are naturalistic in form.
Further details of the project
All the Screen’s a Stage is a monthly programme on how to develop digital skills in performing arts.
During the pandemic, digital interactive performances were the new reality. What did work? What didn’t? What new opportunities can be found in the outcome of the pandemic? What would be needed to make digital, interactive theatre become a new form of art? Can it be a sustainable alternative model to (international) touring? And can it take form to an inclusive design so it can be both engaging and accessible for diverse audiences?
All the Screen’s a Stage is a collaboration between Z-arts (Manchester), Young At Art (Belfast) and KOPERGIETERY (Ghent). All the partners have been working on a free international online programme of creative conversations: 1-hour expert-led talks will explore how to produce post-lockdown hybrid digital theatre.
These conversations culminate into a hybrid on- and offline Make-a-thon in February (think marathon, but with your mind and working in a team). This will be an opportunity to work in teams with a mix of disciplines, generate ideas, and create new prototypes. The offline portion will be happening at KOPERGIETERY in Ghent, Belgium.
0So far we have heard from IT developer turned artist Tim De Paepe and director Zoe Seaton. The recordings of these sessions can be viewed here.