Abstract
This session explores research conducted during the staging of a secondary school production of a musical as a “relaxed performance.” The research engaged with practices of inclusion and examined the interaction between arts and broader social and community agendas. Relaxed performances, with sensory-sensitive accommodations, flexible audience expectations, and other supports, are increasingly recognized in professional arts contexts as responses to disability activism. Their translation into school-based settings, however, remains underexplored. Through interviews with students, teachers, and parents, the study investigated how neurodiverse audiences and performers experienced the adapted production, and how the school community negotiated questions of access. The findings reveal a tension between institutional and social constraints and the imperative to create equitable cultural spaces. By situating the school auditorium as a site where disability, education, and performance converge, the research highlights the stakes of inclusion in the arts, especially what forms of accommodation are reasonable and how communities facilitate belonging. The findings dictate that relaxed performances in schools can function as prototypes for more inclusive educational and arts futures.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Inclusion, Neurodiversity, Access, School theater/education, Community Engagement
