Through this thesis, we intend to focus the attention of the academic and theatrical world on the contributions of performative practices to the social positioning and quality of life of blind and visually impaired people.
This thesis is a first glance in providing tools that bring visually impaired people closer to the practice of theatrical activities based on scientific theories. To this aim, I have synthesized and put in mutual relation contributions of a psychological, physiological and sociological nature. This exploratory work resulted in a comprehensive picture of the psychophysical conditions of people with visual impairments. Their psychological aspects include depressive disorders, anxieties, problems with self-conception, self-esteem and suicide risks, while the physical ones include postural stability, bilateral coordination and different forms of activity. These elements must also be associated with control of expression, sociability, and memory.
By combining these sets of characteristics with the possibilities and dynamics of the theater laboratory, various series of theatrical exercises for the blind and visually impaired have therefore been elaborated, designed and tested. However, due to the objective impediments caused by the Covid pandemic, this experimental part of the research has largely remained in its embryonic state.
Finally, two theater workshops for the blind representative of the Italian reality were documented with descriptions and interviews. I added references to theatrical initiatives and institutions: New Life, Teatro Ciego, XINMU Theatre Workshop, EXTANT, Theater Breaking, CRE Outreach.
I hope that, through this research, not only people with visual impairments will familiarize themselves with the resources offered by training practices, but also that interested scholars will be able to synthetically access an overall and preliminary overview of theatrical activities for the blind, thus contributing to the systematic development of research in this field.