IIAN is part of the global ASSITEJ network
ASSITEJ countries should not leave out any children, especially disabled children, when it comes to creating a portfolio of national work. There must be some opportunities for them to be able to access theatre, and witness people like themselves, creating theatre.
If you’re country is creating little or no work that can include them, or is not encouraging individuals to work for them, then please join the debate in order to change the scene. Let’s all help each other.
All children matter.
IIAN’s Home and Academic Partner, Rose Bruford College .
IIAN is extremely lucky to have Rose Bruford College, UK as an Academic partner. As well as being our physical home, their post graduate students are administering our IIAN Champions programme.
The 2020 cohort are:
MA/MFA Theatre for Young Audiences
Trinity Griffin (USA), Emily Cooper (UK), Robert Wilson (UK), Nishna Mehta (India)
MA/MFA International Theatre and Performance Practice
Caitlin Arndt (USA), Levi Sterling (USA), Huanzhang Zhang (China), Charlotte Lu (China) and Rebecca Cohen (USA)
MA Actor-Musicianship
Erica Flint (UK)
Who can be in a ASSITEJ IIAN Champions group and who is the lead Champion?
It’s down to each ASSITEJ National Centre how they choose their own Champions who will share information between themselves, and then how they choose their lead Disability Champion/s to pass on information to IIAN. That is all we ask.
As to who is involved, it’s very important to have Disabled artists leading the debate, but the individual artists and companies who dedicate their working lives to creating work with Disabled artists and for Disabled children are equally important in collecting ideas and experience.
Why not aim to have leads from each group?
The job
We ask that you contribute whatever time you can, in order to pass on news (good and bad) from your country, ideally every four months – in order for us to build a world picture and share on our website.
We are all busy and we don’t want huge documents.
Information could be in the form of bullet points with relevant web sites, or short work videos. Were also interested in articles, and research papers, and items to be put forward for the ASSITEJ newsletter.
We would welcome information in English if possible.
Again, how you collect the information is down to you, but we are all volunteers and we have no money to offer, especially being a world network.
Please understand, the position is a voluntary one and there are no fees involved.
Should you wish to attend ASSITEJ festivals or create events in your own country, we ask you to look into grants and awards and find your own funding.
If you would like to be an ASSITEJ IIAN Champion then please contact your National Centre directly. List of National Centre’s can be found here
If you have any questions about the IIAN Champions, please email iianchampions@mail.com
Our current IIAN Champions are:
ASSITEJ Member Country |
Name/s of Champion |
Work position |
| ARGENTINA | Hector Presa | Director General del Teatro La Galera |
| AUSTRALIA | Francis Italiano, Michelle Hovan | Co-Artistic Directors, Sensorium |
| AUSTRIA | ||
| BELGIUM | Yannick Boudeau | CoFounder and President, ASSITEJ Belgium |
| BOZNIA & HERZEGOVINA | Stasa Dukic | Actor |
| BRASIL | Cleiton Echeveste | CBTIJ/ASSITEJ Brasil |
| COTE d’IVOIRE | Ba Gueanena Enoc Anicet | Music teacher |
| CHILE | Bebê De Soares | Amazons Network Founder, IPAY board member |
| CANADA | Aimee Bouchard | Community Programs Manager |
| CHINA | Simeng Kong | ASSITEJ China |
| CUBA | Milagros Reyes Trujillo y Eduardo López González | |
| DENMARK | Lars Werner Thomsen | Artistic Director, Glad Teater |
| FINLAND | Sanna Kuusisto | Dance artist, choreographer and dance teacher |
| FRANCE | Francois Fogel | ASSITEJ Fance and ASSITEJ International EC Vice President |
| ENGLAND | Debbie Bandara | Artistic Director, Forest-Tribe |
| ENGLAND | Gill Brigg /Ben Fletcher-Watson | Academics |
| EGYPT | Mohamed EL Ghawy | Director Hakawy International Festival, Ciaro |
| ESTONIA | Reeli Lonks | ASSITEJ Estonia |
| GERMANY | Meike Fechner | Secretary General, ASSITEJ Germany |
| HUNGARY | JánosNovak | Hungary ASSITEJ looking |
| INDIA | Srividya Srinivas | Aakaara |
| IRELAND | Phillida Eves | Immersive theatre for neurodiverse children, their families and carers. |
| ISRAEL | Sharon Gavrielov | A Theater maker who makes relaxed performances and the co-founder & artistic director of “Safe Place” |
| ITALY | Martina Zambelli | Teatro La Ribalta work with disabled young people |
| JAPAN | Kentaro Miyamoto | Secretary General, ASSITEJ Japan Centre |
| KOREA | Seohyun Lee | |
| LATVIA | Varis Klausītājs | Laima Helena Mūrniece (visually impaired) and/or Liene Šmukste; a theater director and actress |
| LITHUANIA | Karolina Žernytė | Director (corporation) at Theatre of Senses / Pojūčių teatras |
| MEXICO | Eduardo Dominguez | Artistic Director of “Seña y Verbo” creation with deaf actors and actresses |
| NIGERIA | Jerry Adesewo | Founder/AD AROJAH Royal Theatre, Abuja, Nigeria |
| NEW ZEALAND | Stace Robertson | Access, Inclusion and Participation Advisor |
| NORWAY | Ketil Kolstad | Actor |
| NORTHERN IRELAND | Andrew Stanford | Lead Artist Inclusion, Replay Theatre Company |
| POLAND | ||
| PAKISTAN | Aamir Nawaz | President & Artistic Director Maas Foundation, Lahore |
| RUSSIA | Marina Medkova
Sasha Manuylenko |
|
| SCOTLAND | Natasha Gilmore | AD Barrowland Ballet |
| SERBIA | Olivera Kovacevic Crnjanski | Choreographer and actor, waiting for confirmation from Diana Krzanic Tepavac |
| SINGAPORE | Jean Loo | AD Superhero Me! |
| SPAIN | Jaume Belló | works in different areas of Disability |
| SOUTH AFRICA | Christelle Dreyer | Freelance dancer/actress |
| SOUTH AFRICA | Jayne Batzofin | Freelance Artist in the social upliftment of the soul |
| SWEDEN | Sandra Johansson | Eecutive director at Moomsteatern |
| SWITZERLAND | Manuela Runge | Theater and dance teacher with disabled children and adults together in inclusive groups. |
| SWAZILAND/ESWATINI | Sizwe Ndlela | Drama therapist and teacher |
| TURKEY | Hakan Silahsizoglu | Atta Festival Director/Founder |
| URUGUAY | Myriam Caprile | President ASSITEJ Uruguay |
| USA | Fran Sillau | Special needs teacher, director, educator |
| VIETNAM | NGUYEN Truong Son | Dancer, choreographer and stage director |
| WALES | Ellen Groves | Head of Casting at Hijinx Theatre and Co-Artistic Director Likely Story |
| ZAMBIA | Brian Kambenja | Munali High School for the Disabled |
| ZAMBIA | Dr. Cheela Chilala | Academic |
