Making Theatre Accessible
DunsPlayFest is still quite far from self-sufficiency. We rely heavily on grants for which we are always exultantly grateful. Sitting at your desk when a positive, game-changing response comes in from a funder, you can hear noises coming out of your own mouth that you had never heard before, actual whoops of delight accompanied by brand-new dance moves. So, to all those august bodies which have extended the hand of financial friendship to DunsPlayFest, a million thank yous.
Filling in a grant application is not an easy task but it can help shape thinking. When DunsPlayFest was little more than an idea – we had three new plays we wanted to put on in a week that we had booked and were wondering if other events might also happen that week – we made an application to Creative Scotland which was crucial in determining the nature of the festival as it has subsequently developed. We wanted to appeal to CS and we made something happen which did appeal to them. Creative Scotland have been our biggest supporters ever since.
The forms, however, are a slog. Obviously, those funders who have helped DunsPlayFest over the years request forms to be filled in which are just perfect and perfectly reasonable. But, beware! Some of the other forms, issued by bodies who have been less kind to us, are designed to drive you … crazy!
There was one in particular which asked us how we planned on making the festival accessible and environmentally friendly five times. By the time we reached the fifth invitation to think of more ways to state the bleeding obvious, we were tearing hair and gnashing teeth.
Apart from mentioning our reliance on Borders Eco Flowers (all plants grown not flown) I will spare you a list of the multifarious ways in which we will strive to be more eco-friendly, but (breathing deeply) I will briefly touch on our attempt to be as accessible as possible.
What we wanted to say on the application form was something like …. of course we want to be accessible, what the hell do you think we are? We are theatrical types – show-offs basically – and we want as many people as possible to see our shows. We are completely opposed to prejudice of any sort, not only because prejudice is stupid and we are unashamedly woke, but because we want our audiences to be as big as possible and that includes people in wheel-chairs. The Volunteer Hall is not yet as disabled-friendly as it might be but every year we contribute in some way to improving matters. This has been our commitment since 2019 and will remain our commitment until every part of DunsPlayFest is as accessible to all as it possibly can be.
The same goes for the performers and in 2024 we were proud to present Mind Full by Lewis Teckham, a truly ground-breaking and rather brilliant show about Lewis’s life in a wheel-chair. Again, the idea that we might exclude anyone for reasons other than the quality of their work is preposterous. Preposterous and yet tedious; how small-minded and boring would one have to be to stage a drama festival which excluded, say, women or old people, the less able-bodied, gay folks, men under 35…?
Well, I suppose there is a place for the specialist festival but DunsPlayFest is not that, or not in that way. We want excellence, true, but excellence might come from anywhere, from any type of person. And we want as wide-ranging and diverse an audience as possible. We are more than accessible – we are trying to encourage people who have never been to the theatre before to come to see our shows – we invite the community to come.
Berwickshire doesn’t have a theatre and we are trying to fill a gap. Our dearest ambition is to become an essential part of the Duns/Berwickshire/Borders year while also making Duns the place for Scottish Theatre to be at the beginning of May, so of course we must make our welcome as warm, our embrace as embracing, as humanly possible.
The accessibility of the work we present is furthermore connected with its being new-minted and, often, locally sourced. These are interesting times – unfortunately – and the whole population seems more alert than ever to a rapidly changing world. The just-written play can be the best place to explore the shifts of emphasis and is certainly responding to situations with which we are all familiar. If the playwright happens to come from Duns, so much more accessible – urgent, ready, on-the-edge – might be the material.
We want people to come to DunsPlayFest, everyone to feel welcome, prices to be reasonable, we want to have shows for old and young, for the frivolous and the solemn, and we want everyone who wants to get involved to get in touch. If we weren’t committed to making DunsPlayFest as accessible as possible, we would have to be crazy; which we’re not.
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