Permission to be looked at: a collaboration between Theatre Siperia and Wärjäämö, the centre for arts and activity for disabled people

ABSTRACT

The article describes the author’s subjective experience – as an actor-researcher – of being part of the performance Toinen katse. The performance was the first artistic part of her artistic doctoral research conducted for a doctoral degree at the University of Tampere. The article explores carefully two scenes from the performance, in order to describe the perceptions of acting with the other, in this case, with the colleague with learning disabilities. Acting with the colleague with a learning disability turned the acting for the actor-researcher, in the performances of Toinen katse, in a more interactive, dialogical, and other-focused direction.

KEYWORDS:

• Theatre
• learning disability
• acting
• the other
• Finland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note on contributor

Riikka Papunen, MA, is a Doctoral Student in the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the University of Tampere in Finland. She has conducted an artistic PhD project titled ‘The realization of accessibility on actor’s work’ since 2013. She has a strong background as a professional performer in several theatre performances.