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In 2014 and 2015, barrier-free theater, Barka, in Brno, Czech Republic, produced Dale Wasserman's stage adaptation of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in translation into several languages and also mediated through a variety of channels to accommodate actors and audiences with various types of impairment: spoken Czech, Czech Sign Language ("CSL"), written Czech, and a voiceover for the blind. Theater group Divadlo Járy Pokojského ("DJP"), which combines performers with and without various disabilities, collaborated with the group of visual interpreters Hands Dance and CSL interpreters at Masaryk University, Brno.
The project stemmed from nearly 20 years of joint efforts by the venue, the Barka theater, and the DJP company to develop "a theater, which has never accepted artificial social borders between persons with disability and the others" (DVD booklet, p. 7). The combination of communication channels in the production was based on a concept of Universal Design, which aims at a universal accessibility to persons with a wide range of impairment, such as the deaf, the blind, and wheelchair users.
There were about a dozen performances in total, four with a cast including sign language interpreters and a commentator. Eventual difficulties related to funding led to the production closing, but all performances were sold out. It was a unique theatrical event in terms of artistic quality, combination of various disabilities and their compensation both on and off stage, and contribution to the community, as it managed to intertwine an artistic company, academic institution and assistance services.
The Barka theater is located in Brno, Czech Republic and run by an association for persons with mobility impairment, The League of Wheelchair Users. The manager of the venue is Zdeñka Vlachovská, a doyenne of disability theater in Brno. The Barka, with an auditorium of 150 spaces-including wheelchair spaces-can be hired by anyone, but is a natural option for disability theaters in Brno, both domestic and visiting. The Barka defines its attitude as inclusive in a publicity message: "[Actors] play the main part here. And their...