The first outdoor immersive drama ＂Firebird＂ premiered, and children with different needs watched the play together.

On October 26th, Firebird, the first outdoor immersive drama in China, premiered at Roewe Shanghai Children’s Art Theater. The play ran for six consecutive performances, with 10% to 20% seats open. Nearly 60 groups of children with special needs such as autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities and developmental retardation and their families were invited to watch the play for free. Due to the weather, the premiere was moved indoors, and the enthusiasm of the small audience remained the same.

Firebird

Firebird is another powerful combination of Roewe Shanghai Children’s Art Theater and British Banbuluo Troupe, which combines drama, music, hand puppets, props and games. The theater is equipped with barrier-free seats, sensory friendly rooms and professional volunteers to ensure the viewing experience of audiences with different needs. All the tickets for the performance will be used for the follow-up development of the "Starfish Wish" special needs children’s art inspiration public welfare project. The audience said that they had heard of "autism", but the performance made them approach children with special needs and their families for the first time and deeply felt that "art has no boundaries and love has no difference".

The small audience responded enthusiastically to Firebird.

Roewe Shanghai Children’s Art Theater has cooperated with British Banbuluo Theatre for 7 years. As the only theater in China that continuously provides artistic inspiration for children with special needs, it provides free immersive dramas for families of children with special needs every month, and has performed more than 400 performances and served more than 5,000 groups of children with special needs.

On October 23rd, more than 30 professional workers from special education, children’s medical social work, psychological consultation, drama performance and other fields shared their experiences and information around "giving children value", "creating a safe environment" and "100% attention and investment".

Recently, Roewe Shanghai Children’s Art Theater released the first sensory-friendly service manual for children’s theaters in China, which helps children’s audiences get a better viewing experience in the theater by combining pictures and texts. In the future, the theater will fully consider the needs of different children, adopt special audio equipment and lighting design, adjust the sound, light, smell, etc., reduce the sensory stimulation to children, and enhance the children’s audience’s experience in the theater; Set up special rest areas and auxiliary facilities to provide convenience for children and families with special needs, and build it into the first sensory-friendly children’s theater in China.

Shen Li, general manager of Roewe Shanghai Children’s Art Theater, said that the theater emphasizes "equality and respect, love and care, inspiration and creation" and adheres to the concept that "every child has the right to enjoy art". After seven years’ practice, the theater has formed a public welfare project model which integrates immersive drama inspiration, actor team incubation, professional training and volunteer team organization. In the future, the theater will strengthen in-depth cooperation with foreign high-quality performing arts teams, special education institutions, medical institutions, etc., extensively link resources from all walks of life, and radiate the achievements of the special needs children’s art inspiration project and the high-quality experience of integrating immersive drama to the Yangtze River Delta and more urban areas across the country, benefiting more children’s families.

Editor-in-Chief: Li Junna

Author: Zhuge Yi