Player Protection: 
The Burgtheater and Casinos Austria began their sponsoring partnership in the 2005/2006 season. At that time, the ‘13th row’ was introduced. This special feature, in which theatre guests receive a free programme booklet and a voucher for a soft drink at the interval buffet, has become a popular classic. A vibrant partnership, however, involves not just preserving existing traditions, but also introducing new topics. Keeping an eye on society and its changes is a core competence of the theatre. Casinos Austria for its part has also always endeavoured to meet social challenges with an open mind: challenges such as the inclusion of people with disabilities, which should be a matter of course, but that is hardly the case in many places.
Last December, the Burgtheater and Casinos Austria embarked on a new path together to offer blind and visually impaired people the most comprehensive theatre experience possible: for the production of ‘The Magic Flute’, a programme booklet in Braille was developed in cooperation with the Braille Centre of the Federal Institute for the Blind in Vienna and distributed free of charge at the performances.
Due to the impressive response from guests, this pilot project will be significantly expanded for the 2024/25 season. In future, programmes in braille will be available for five productions coming up. In addition, Casinos Austria is expanding its range of live audio descriptions that convey what is happening on stage beyond just the spoken dialogue for selected performances. The programme is rounded off by ‘touch tours’ before the performance to give blind and visually impaired people a haptic impression of the stage set.
The inclusion project is part of the Burgtheater’s overall efforts to enable people with physical and/or mental disabilities to enjoy cultural events. 2024/25 is the 20th season of the Burgtheater’s sponsorship partnership with Casinos Austria, and 2025 also marks the 200th anniversary of braille itself.
Casinos Austria’s understanding of social responsibility is comprehensive and includes support for culture and the arts in Austria as well as social commitment in all its diversity. In 2023, the “Our Commitment to Austria” project was launched, in which all twelve casinos each support three locally active social organisations with funding and personnel. Last year also saw the launch of the ‘Happy Moments’ initiative, which provides cancer patients with tickets for cultural events, including performances at the Burgtheater. The removal of barriers of all kinds and the opportunity to participate in culture are essential components of inclusion. The joint commitment of Casinos Austria and the Burgtheater to the new season is a perfect example of how this can be achieved.