What exactly is “inclusive theater”
Inclusive theater brings together people with different life experiences and abilities, including artists with disabilities or developmental conditions. But its goal is not to evoke pity or tell a story of overcoming. Rather, it aims to show a person in all their complexity and uniqueness, giving them the right to their own voice and a place in art. In such theater, differences are no longer an obstacle but part of the artistic language, turning the performance into a space where everyone can be seen and heard.
Photo: personal archive of Katya Dzvonik“Deystvie Bukvalno”
However, inclusive theaters should not be seen only as a classic set of stage, troupe, and scenery. For example, “Deystvie Bukvalno” is a laboratory where, through theatrical practices, professional artists and adults with mental health conditions (autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome) create performances, happenings, and various collaborations with interdisciplinary projects in contemporary art. The curators of the “Deystvie Bukvalno” project have trained with many theater specialists from around the world and share their experience, helping to develop inclusive theater in Kazakhstan.
Over the nine years of the project’s existence, there have been more than twenty different collaborations with contemporary Kazakh artists, cultural institutions, and international foundations. The laboratory’s artists have participated in the contemporary art festival ArtBatFest, held their own exhibitions as part of the Efes Art Space project, created a joint performance with visitors of the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, and presented performances at annual city events.
Photo: personal archive of Katya DzvonikThe laboratory was founded in 2017 under the curatorship of theater producer and art manager Olga Sultanova, joined by actress and director Katya Dzvonik and actress and teacher Elena Vovnova. The international curator of the first educational program and the first performance was Russian director and inclusive theater specialist Boris Pavlovich.
The economics of “Deystvie Bukvalno”
The theater has a stable troupe of about twenty people. Some come and go, but the core group has remained unchanged for almost ten years. In the early days, “Deystvie Bukvalno” was supported by the Soros Foundation Kazakhstan, which allowed them to always pay salaries to participants. After the foundation closed in 2020 following nearly five years of support, “Deystvie Bukvalno” continued to actively collaborate with international organizations. Among them are the Goethe-Institut, the British Council, and Alliance Française. Kazakh companies also support the laboratory, which cannot be said about the state.
Thanks to international support, the theater has the opportunity to implement large projects. One of the latest such projects is the Allvalidation festival, which took place from May 29 to June 4, 2026, with the support of the British Council in the Republic of Kazakhstan, for the second time. This year, the festival focused on expanding audiences’ understanding of what inclusion is. Performances by British artists told stories about people with OCD, ADHD, and depression. In addition, Almaty audiences participated in a series of performances, lectures, and educational walks over the week. The Kazakh showcase featured our performance and a performance by the Adamdart theater.
Katya Dzvonik, project curator
Photo: personal archive of Katya DzvonikCurrently, the theater has two ready performances: “The Tower of Babel” directed by Boris Pavlovich and “Toy” by the laboratory’s curator and director Katya Dzvonik. “The Tower of Babel” is the first professional inclusive performance in Kazakhstan, now in its third season at the “Deystvie Bukvalno” theater laboratory. It is inspired by the famous painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and addresses the theme of finding a common language in a world where people increasingly face misunderstanding. “Toy” is also an exploration of communities, this time in the realm of traditions and customs. The performance emphasizes this by using different languages, including invented ones.
Excluding fees, one show costs about 500-600 thousand tenge (~$1000-1200). Ticket sales alone rarely cover these expenses in full. Therefore, without additional funding, staging performances simply makes no sense: it only leads to losses.
In addition to theater as such, “Deystvie Bukvalno” at the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture conducts educational programs and open classes that anyone can attend. This is true total inclusion in every sense. Despite the collective not having its own permanent venue, the participants regularly appear in the schedules of various city spaces.
Photo: personal archive of Katya DzvonikAdamdart
Adamdart’s situation is rather the opposite. At the beginning of the year, the collective finally found its own venue. But a permanent sponsor withdrew funding for a number of reasons, and the theater space came under threat. Although this is not just a theater, but a full-fledged social platform.
The project’s founder, Andrey Pashchenko, has extensive experience in inclusive and theater projects. However, upon arriving in Kazakhstan in the fall of 2022, he realized there was no point in even trying to get a job in a theater — the competition was too high. And even if he succeeded, it would be impossible to earn enough for housing and food.
Andrey tried to start working through foundations. Soon, the head of a public foundation in Almaty reached out to him. She wanted an inclusive theater to appear in the city. So Andrey opened an inclusive theater troupe under the foundation.
Photo: Andrey Pashchenko's personal archiveThe first thing they did was gather an inclusive group. To this day, it remains the core of the theater. A collective that has never stopped working for four years, despite holidays, vacations, and crises. Even when there was no space, they rehearsed in parks and other places.
Before, when I worked on social inclusive projects, I disliked the segregation by diagnosis. That is, either actors with ASD, or with Down syndrome, and so on. For other people who wanted to join such creative projects, entry was very difficult. I decided to create a story open to absolutely everyone — an inclusive theater accessible to all, regardless of diagnosis, gender, experience, or any other factors.
Andrey Pashchenko
People with mental disabilities, physical disabilities, ordinary city residents, and professional actors came to the theater. There were also "troublemaker guys" — kids from foster families. That's when the performance "Hello, I'm in the City" appeared — a participatory project that is still alive. It's a play-game where there are no spectators: from the moment you enter the space, everyone becomes participants and enters into a dialogue. In just over an hour, you can create a sketch of a democratic space with all its verticals and horizontals.
The word "inclusion" today is perceived as a synonym for disability, but in the theater's understanding, inclusion means involvement. Financial accessibility is also very important for Adamdart, so all programs were, are, and will be free — despite the fact that this often puts the collective in a difficult financial position.
Photo: Andrey Pashchenko's personal archiveAdamdart's initiatives
By the second theater season, a 60+ group was added, which is now also called 50+. There are longevity centers, mountain hikes, chess, embroidery, dancing, and other activities. But the opportunity to go somewhere, especially to a theater, remains quite limited for older people. Moreover, it's impossible to enroll in a theater school to learn a new profession at an older age, let alone gain a relevant foundation in contemporary theater. At Adamdart, a premiere came out this year: the 50+ studio, together with director Mark Kuklin, released the dystopian play "Leak."
However, younger participants can also join the adult group. The theater wants there to be no division into so-called "naive zoomers" and "wise elders." Everyone is equal, equally involved in the process, jokes, and gains experience. The curators chuckle: recently, one of the older group's participants performed a play with a bruise on her face — she had such a great time out with her friends!
Photo: Andrey Pashchenko's personal archiveHow are people recruited for these programs? Through open calls, casting, but in the case of the inclusive group, there is a specific feature.
I directly reach out to foundations, parent chats, and collaborate with inclusive schools to get word of mouth working. This group is quite closed and isolated, so you can't recruit people just through Instagram posts or other social media. You need to go directly to the families of people with developmental disabilities and spread information through existing communities.
Andrey Pashchenko
Another format of the platform's work is the "Theater Emergency Room." These are mobile performances that can be shown almost anywhere: children's hospices, schools, boarding schools, remote villages, and so on. This is also a story about theater accessibility, but this time territorial. If a person cannot come to the theater themselves for some reason, they can write to Adamdart, and the performance will be brought to them. Even to an apartment, if the person is bedridden and cannot leave home. First, there was the play "The Little Soldier" by director Dmitry Kurochkin, and then the program expanded to include lectures, master classes, and other events.
Unfortunately, the "Theater Emergency Room" is currently on pause: the theater simply lacks the hands and resources. Previously, the play was performed as part of the repertoire, and all the money earned was invested in the "Emergency Room" budget. Because transport, gas, and other travel-related expenses were always needed, since the performances were brought for free. There is an idea to expand the project even further so that not only Adamdart's productions but also plays from other theaters could travel within the project.
In addition, Adamdart runs a Documentary Theater Lab, started together with director Dmitry Sobolev. At first, it was a short course, after which they showed a mini-festival of documentary plays. The program turned out to be quite fruitful, and the participants suggested meeting regularly. As a result, another community formed within the theater. Now, based on the lab, a theater is being born that relies on real documents: interviews, transcripts, archival recordings, and other sources.
Photo: Andrey Pashchenko's personal archiveTo sum up, the situation with inclusive theaters in Almaty is both good and not. There is demand for this format, and it's a lot of work not only on the level of art but also with society as a whole. At the same time, theaters are often forced to work solely on their own resources, because in our society, the topic of inclusion is just beginning to emerge on the agenda. And this is exactly the case where inclusion should work both ways.
