ImPArt | The Little Prince

ImPArt was a two-year (2018-2020) collaboration between Un-Label (Germany), Small Theatre – NCA (Armenia), Synergy of Music Theatre (Greece), and Oriente Occidente (Italy), co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The project included the creation of three new productions, each exploring the aesthetics of access, which are set for international touring. 

The core aim of ImPArt is to explore the aesthetics of access – how accessibility elements can feed into the artistic outcomes of work in an integrated fashion. ImPArt has included workshops, creative residencies, masterclasses, international symposia, international summits, and international labs across Europe to cascade learning from the extensive research carried out in this area. But a key driving force of ImPArt has been the creation of new work, Re: construction, Gravity (and other attractions), and The Little Prince – three flexible small-scale productions, which have accessibility creatively integrated from the beginning of the devising process.

In fact, the idea of making performing arts more accessible using accessibility tools as an artistic approach is an extremely interesting way of creation and a good reason and opportunity for artists to look for modern artistic solutions. Your imagination is widely charged with new ideas and perspectives when you create artistic content in this direction.

– Vahan Badalyan, Artistic Director of Armenian partners, NCA.Small Theatre

The Little Prince

The Little Prince is based on the novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, using a mixture of spoken word, dance, and visuals and performed by an integrated cast of disabled and non-disabled performers. It premiered at the Greek National Opera on 8 September 2019. Vahan Badalyan, Artistic Director of NCA.Small Theatre directed the show, and is particularly proud of the multi-layered access that it offers:

The live performance was enriched by multiple artistic tools to make it fully accessible. Vibrating benches for the audience were provided to experience the music in an alternative way, subtitles in different languages were fully integrated into the visuals and set design, and various scents and smells created an associative relationship between the scenes and emotions and memories. A touch tour in a dark room was provided for everyone to experience and feel all the fabrics and materials the props and costumes were made of.

The experience of being involved in the creation of The Little Prince as well as engaging with the wider project has been transformative for Badalyan and his company, as he reflects:

It was a great opportunity for our company to gain new international experience and it has opened up interesting new artistic perspectives in our work. Most importantly, ImPArt has given us the knowledge and experience to make our own artistic production more accessible and available to a wider Armenian audience. 

For more information visit: https://un-label.eu/project/impart/