Disability and Accessibility

The potential for photosensitive reactions—like seizures or migraines—keeps some audiences out of theatres. Nicole Hughes discusses the work of EpiArts and the FlashCue Project to make theatre more accessible to these audience members by educating theatremakers about photosensitivity and providing clear standards for communicating about flashing light cues.

Theatrical movement classes often neglect access for people of all ability levels. Theatre educator Katie Butler shares about breaking ableist frameworks in her movement pedagogy and a new framework she is developing to do so: assessing principles rather than skills.

Through non-narrative rock numbers, Dan Fishback is Alive, Unwell, and Living in His Apartment targets contemporary societal betrayals, from COVID denialism to the genocide in Palestine. Taylor Leigh Lamb writes about the show’s genesis and its multi-pronged commitment to safety and access for audience and artists alike.

Evan Silver aka Tiresias details their inspirations and intentions for cryptochrome, a sonic odyssey and ritual meditation that invites audiences to imagine themselves in the sensory worlds of other living things.

COVID protections are essential for many artists to work safely. However, they are not the norm within the theatre industry. Performer Ezra Tozian offers a practical guide for theatre workers to negotiate COVID protections for productions.

Dave Osmundsen counters the idea that working with Autistic artists presents a “challenge” by offering practical recommendations for casting, rehearsing, and performing with Autistic artists.

Georgia Evans is the writer and director of Walls: Chloe’s Story, a Forum Theatre play about people with chronic vulvovaginal pain—something she doesn’t deal with. She discusses how to create a show about other’s intimate stories in a collaborative, trustworthy way.

Sandbox-style immersive theatre productions like Sleep No More and Life and Trust present unique challenges to providing accessibility measures for audience members, but it is possible and necessary to prioritize access in these spaces. Allie Marotta assesses current access practices in these productions and recommends targeted improvements.

Performing artist and teacher Emily Kitchens highlights the discrimination against fat people within theatre and discusses the need to advocate for fat acceptance by literally expanding our spaces.  

Access for disabled theatre artists within the theatre industry is lacking, and pathways for those in production disciplines to enter the industry are particularly neglected. Alexis Wilner highlights the inaccessibility of common pathways and offers ideas to increase access. 

UP UNTIL NOW: midair for some time used film, sensory storytelling, American Sign Language dance theatre, and music performance to create an inclusive new world. Carmen! shares what it was like to be enveloped into this theatrical experience.

Abbie Anderson provides a list of eight actions that theatres can take to make their work environments more accessible and equitable for physically disabled actors.

Sophie Sagan-Gutherz shares about Kat Mustatea’s ielele, a show that uses a unique instrument called the BodyMouth to sound out histories of the ielele, a genderless creature in Balkan folklore. Sophie highlights how this show’s use of technology illuminates connections between disability and transgression of binary gender.

Rob Silverman Ascher chronicles the collaboration between Aaron Pang, a non-fiction storyteller with no formal theatrical training, and Johanna Kasimow, a director with a background in devising and physical theatre, on Herein Lies the Truth: Pang’s story that centers around sex and disability and confronts able-bodied expectations of what a disabled performer ought to share.

Taylor Leigh Lamb argues that building the equitable theatre industry requires robust COVID precautions with steps like masking, air filtration, and advocacy within our theatrical spaces.