Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen is a theatre-maker, researcher and artistic leader who has spent years exploring what happens when very different people enter the same creative space.

Her work has taken her from traditional theatre settings to prisons and inclusive theatre groups, where people with different ages, abilities, backgrounds and life experiences create side by side. A central part of her approach is that people are not invited in simply to be included, they take part as artists and help shape the work itself.

Through Gatelangs Inclusive Theatre Company, Marianne has seen how theatre can challenge the roles and labels we are given in everyday life. On stage, people can meet differently, listen differently and make room for perspectives they might otherwise never encounter.

For Marianne, that makes theatre more than an art form. It can also become a place to test how we live together, and what happens when difference is treated as something valuable rather than something that needs to be fixed.

At TEDxArendal, Marianne challenges how we think about inclusion: instead of asking people to fit the room, what happens when we change the room itself?