Blind in Theater (BIT):
There is an international blind theater movement currently underway…
Croatia has organized and hosted the first (and consequently, biannual) international, blind theater festival, in 1999; it has now been held four times. This festival is a big deal in Croatia: it is attended by the nation’s Ministry of Culture, the country’s Vice President, and the Mayor of Zagreb, all of whom spoke about the social, humanitarian, and artistic functions of the festival. There are banners across the central square and covering kiosks in downtown Zagreb.
Theater as social space occupied by blind and visually impaired people is atypical. By becoming performers, these actors destabilize notions of appropriate behavior for blind people: from objects of pity to agents of cultural production. On stage, they play with cultural symbols of blindness and sightedness, and manipulate the social "gaze" towards productive and empowering ends. They similarly interrogate the social construction of blindness and shared cultural experiences (e.g., workplace or housing discrimination, lack of professional training in and access to the arts.)
I twice accompanied members of Theater By The Blind, an off-Broadway theater company from New York, comprised of visually impaired and sighted artists, to the festival. I have also conducted fieldwork in England at the U.K. Premiere of Weights.
Photo of Gary at kiosk [need to scan]
For more information, visit --
Theater By The Blind:
Novi Zivot, “New Life” Theater Company, Croatia: http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/blind.html
Lynn Manning’s Weights:
http://www.lynnmanning.com/current_events.htm
Extant Theatre, United Kingdom:
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