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186 Adapt the Space! Working with People of Diverse Abilities K athleen Juhl and Lindsey Smith Through descriptions of our experiences with the shows As Seen on TV and A Mystical Quest to Slay Normalcy, this essay will detail some of the accommodations and considerations that must be addressed when devising, rehearsing, and performing a show that includes people with disabilities. We will, for the most part, focus very specifically on our experiences in the context of these two projects, and so our descriptions will not be comprehensive, especially in terms of shows that might be produced outside an educational setting. We will reveal a journey and some of the lessons learned along the way. The journey began in the fall semester of 2006 when Fringe Benefits came to Southwestern University to lead a Theatre for Social Justice Institute for which we had identified our topic as racism and our target audience as high school students in the Round Rock and Austin, Texas, areas. Southwestern University alumnus Aaron Johnson, a drama teacher at McNeil High School in Round Rock, and Kathleen worked together to gather a group of fifty students, teachers, counselors, and administrators from both McNeil and Southwestern. Through the Institute, this team collaboratively developed As Seen on TV, a play featuring parodies of popular TV shows such as Law and Order, South Park, The Colbert Report, and others, along with racist commercials. Our goal was to portray racism in a way with which we thought our target high school audiences could identify. Specifically, we wanted to spark constructive dialogue about racist stereotypes and humor. Responses to post-show surveys indicate that the student audiences found the theme and tone of the play engaging and that it motivated them to challenge racist assumptions and behaviors.1 As an added benefit, many Adapt the Space! 187 of the university students involved in the Institute were inspired to form their own student-led Theatre for Social Justice (TSJ) organization so they could continue the work. The new student organization began by supporting the rehearsal process and tour of As Seen on TV. Pam and the Not-So-Level Playing Field One of the Institute participants, who was later cast in As Seen on TV, was Pam, a young woman who has cerebral palsy and who uses a motorized wheelchair.2 The Institute sessions were held in McNeil’s drama room, which was equipped with a small elevator for accessibility . Often, the elevator did not work or the teacher who kept its key was not present. The classroom space was designed with seating risers that did not accommodate Pam’s wheelchair, though she could enter the space from the back of the room above the risers. We accommodated Pam during the Institute by widening and opening up our work-group circle and positioning chairs for other participants on the risers alongside Pam. This was workable but not ideal because participants were not able to see or hear each other as well as would have been possible in a smaller circle on a level floor. During rehearsals , which were held in the same room, issues of accessibility for Pam became a more serious problem. When the elevator wouldn’t work or the key was not available, we could not fully rehearse the play because Pam could not get to the stage. Once we began touring the show, we discovered that some schools did not have accessible stages. We very quickly learned to go to the schools ahead of show dates to check whether or not stages were accessible . At times, Pam’s wheelchair could not be accommodated, and she could not perform. As each role was double-cast, with one actor from McNeil and one from Southwestern, getting another actor to replace Pam was usually possible but, of course, not ideal. Observing how difficult it was for Pam to participate in rehearsals and performances, many of the students in the newly formed student TSJ organization who were involved in the cast and production crew of As Seen on TV decided that their next project should be a show about disability issues on our university campus. During the summer of 2007, we (Lindsey and Kathleen) wrote a grant to the Associated Colleges of the South organization to create the show. We received a large grant and began planning our “disability show” to be devised, rehearsed, and performed in the fall semester of 2007. [18.117.196.184] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 18:45...

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