A special program during this year’s China Shanghai International Arts Festival shared experiences about performing arts for young people.

Theater for Young Audiences, part of the festival’s performing arts fair,was the second of its kind organized by Shanghai Children's Art Theater and the festival organizing committee.

It included performances for children and communication between exhibitors to inspire new ideas for development.

This year, part of the forum focused on audiences with special needs.

The UK’s Bamboozle Theater presented “Storm,” an immersiveand interactive multi-sensory drama created for children with autism.

Bamboozle's Nicole Arklesssaid theaters should not only provide convenient facilities such as wheelchair access, but also a reasonably comfortable environment for such audiences.

When performing “Storm,” a maximum of six families are invited while actors observe and interact closely with children to adjust their performance to make sure they are comfortable throughout. Children are even allowed to walk or run around and express themselves loudly.

Such performances are unprofitable but Arkless believes they are meaningful and important as they could change lives.

Shanghai Children's Art Theater has already imported the drama and another two for children with other special needs.

Liang Xiaoxia, the theater's general manager, said the drama was not just a stage show. It also had a positive impact on local educators, medical staff and others in Shanghai.

Katharine Carol, artistic and executive director of the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, shared her experience of inviting a troupe to perform a drama for 20 babies accompanied by their parents at the children’s festival. They sold only two tickets for the first performance but word of mouth meant that all the tickets for following performances were sold out.

She said such performances made little money, but they had other profitable programs to support such projects to make the festival more inclusive and enjoyable.

Arkless said Bamboozle never compromised on price but usually performed for schools toraise money to pay costs.

Liang said the Shanghai theater could not run such performances with a market-oriented approach. The theater supported the special program with its profits from other programs andwith sponsorship from enterprises.

The theater has produced Chinese versions of the British dramas to reduce costs.