By the end of March, over 500 elementary and secondary school students with hearing loss will have attend three Wednesday Matinee performances of Disney's Tarzan. The performances are simultaneously sign language interpreted and open captioned by Theatre Development Fund, which is bringing the students to the theatre through their "Talking Hands" program, provided at no cost to the school or the students.
TDF is the largest non-profit service organization for the performing arts in the United States, established in 1968 to support new productions of artistic merit and to broaden the audience for all the performing arts. Since 1995, TDF's program for students with hearing loss, 'Talking Hands,' has provided theatre access for over 10,000 students with hearing loss from 25 schools in the tri-state area. TDF's combined programs have filled over 60 million theatre seats; provided subsidy support to over 800 plays, and returned over a billion dollars in revenue to theatre, dance and music organizations.
"We're thrilled to have begun our twelfth year of 'Talking Hands' with Disney's production of
Tarzan," said Lisa Carling, TDF's Director of Accessibility Programs. "For our first "Talking Hands" show in 1995, we brought 100 deaf and hard of hearing students to Disney's
Beauty and the Beast, which provided a wonderful gateway to the theatre for these children for whom Broadway had, until then, been inaccessible."
More about TDF and its programs may be found at their Web site at
www.tdf.orgTickets for
Tarzan are available at www.ticketsonbroadway.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, or by calling Ticketmaster's Disney on
Broadway hotline at (212) 307-4747. For group sales and information please call (800) 439-9000.
