This Themed edition of RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance examines the creative and political achievements of the dialogue between disabled people and drama practitioners, disabled and non disabled.

At various points during the last thirty years these different strands have worked together or moved apart in response to political and financial circumstances. For example, in the UK, many celebrated disability arts groups and companies of disabled people have grown from skills and ideas that were developed in workshops and drama projects in special schools and day centres. The journey from segregation to participation, the gaps between politics, art and therapy, and the relationship between disabled and non-disabled collaborators are all sources of tension. How do practitioners make these tensions creative?