Classic Stage Company And Fiasco Theater Partner With TDF To Present Sensory Friendly Performance Of PERICLES

Classic Stage Company has announced a sensory friendly performance of Pericles, in partnership with TDF. This special performance will be held on Sunday March 10 at 2pm.

“TDF is thrilled to have been engaged as a consultant for Fiasco Theater's first sensory-friendly performance offered in partnership with CSC,” said Lisa Carling, TDF's Director of Accessibility Programs. “Through our Autism Friendly Performances program, we've built meaningful relationships with families and individuals impacted by autism who are eager for more opportunities to attend live theatre. Kudos to Fiasco and CSC for taking the initiative to make their productions more accessible.”

“Fiasco and CSC are overjoyed to add these access initiatives to our production of Fiasco Theater's Pericles,” said CSC's Producing Artistic Director Jill Rafson and Fiasco Theater's Managing Producer B.J. Evans. “We are delighted to partner with TDF on the sensory-friendly performance and grateful for their expertise and guidance based on their years of experience providing autism and sensory-friendly performances to their constituents. Both Fiasco and CSC are committed to creating more accessible theater now and in future seasons and hope that other theaters, seeing the enthusiasm and demand for this performance, will join us in that commitment.”

This performance will offer a welcoming and supportive environment for neurodiverse individuals and their friends and family through modifications to sound, lighting and staging to make the performance sensory-friendly and will provide sensory support tools for those who want them. As this production is a Shakespeare play with adult themes, the play is recommended for audiences pre-teen and older.

The sensory-friendly performance of Pericles is currently sold out. For additional information and to join the wait list please visit: forms.gle/juFh4uZHUqHH1Hfg7

Performances began on Thursday February 8, 2024 and Pericles opens tonight, Monday February 26. The run will conclude on Sunday March 24, 2024.  Tickets for all performances are on sale now at www.classicstage.org.

This sensory-friendly performance joins the new accessibility initiatives for the run of Fiasco Theater's Pericles.

CHILDCARE MATINEE

Sunday March 3

In Partnership with Broadway Babysitters and PAAL

In order to support caregivers who may wish to attend, audience members for Pericles can sign up for free childcare during select performances. Advance sign-up is required, as space is limited. People interested in requesting care should go to this link:  https://app.cleverwaiver.com/render/templateByRefId/65aedbc5803bd4ac8efc174d

Once their childcare spot is confirmed, they will be sent a link to buy tickets and will receive a special discount code in Fiasco and CSC's ongoing efforts to help make theater more affordable for caregivers.

OPEN & CLOSED CAPTIONING

Closed Captioning available at all performances.

Open Captioning performances on March 18 & 19

All performances of Fiasco Theater's Pericles will have closed captioning available on any personal smart device, made possible by GlobeTitles. Patrons will be given a URL and access to free WiFi in order to follow along on their own devices. Additionally, the production will have two open captioned performances on Monday March 18 at 7pm and Tuesday March 19 at 7pm Closed captions can be turned on or off by the viewer, at their discretion, and will be available at all performances of Pericles with the use of a personal smart device. Open captions are always visible and cannot be turned on or off. The two performances with open captions will have video screens near the stage that will display the text alongside the performance.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION

Saturday March 9 at 2pm

An American Sign Language-interpreted performance will be held on Saturday March 9 at 2pm. Interpretation will be provided by Hands On, an organization dedicated to providing access to the performing arts to Deaf and hard of hearing communities. Hands On is a nonprofit arts service organization whose mission is to provide the services, information, and resources necessary to ensure the Deaf community's active participation in New York's cultural mainstream through the provision of high-quality artistic interpreted theater, dance, performance art and literature.  For more information, please visit Handson.org.

Hands On has been around since 1982 and has been working with CSC since the 2021 production of Assassins. Other theaters that Hands On has worked with throughout the years include The Public Theater, Roundabout Theater, New Victory, Disney's Aladdin, Parade, and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, to name a few.

The access initiatives for Fiasco Theater's Pericles are generously sponsored by Thomas M Neff. Fiasco thanks all those who helped make the access initiatives possible, including TDF/TAP, and a grant in honor of Jacqueline Hess, from her daughter, who made closed captioning possible.

Pericles takes the Prince of Tyre on a Mediterranean adventure full of riddles, betrayals…and pirates! From confident leader to yearning lover to seeker of meaning, our hero in this Shakespearean tragicomedy will be brought to life on the CSC stage by the inventive Fiasco Theater, who have previously delighted New York audiences with inspired interpretations of Cymbeline and Into the Woods. The Fiasco Theater ensemble brings music, poetry, and a completely new way of seeing one of the Bard's most complex characters.

Pericles was written by William Shakespeare and will be directed by Fiasco's Co-Artistic Director and co-founder, Ben Steinfeld. The cast of Fiasco Theater's Pericles includes Jessie Austrian (Fiasco's Cymbeline & Into the Woods), Noah Brody (Fiasco's Merrily We Roll Along, CSC's As You Like It), Paul L. Coffey (“Blue Bloods,” Fiasco's Cymbeline), Tony Award nominee Andy Grotelueschen (Tootsie, CSC's Assassins), Devin E. Haqq (Fiasco's Measure for Measure & Knight of the Burning Pestle), Ben Steinfeld (Fiasco's Into the Woods, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Paco Tolson (Vietgone, Fiasco and CSC's Twelfth Night), Tatiana Weschler (Mr. Saturday Night, Penelope), and Emily Young (Fiasco's Cymbeline, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson).

The performance schedule for Fiasco Theater's Pericles is Tuesdays through Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 7pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Exceptions: there will be no performance on Sunday, March 17. There will be an added matinee on Wednesday March 13 at 2pm.

Masks are now optional, but encouraged for all audience members. CSC will offer a mask-mandated performance on Saturday, March 2 at 2pm.

ABOUT Classic Stage Company

Classic Stage Company (CSC) challenges the traditional perception of classic work by exploring and reimagining great stories across the world's repertoire that illuminate our common humanity. As a home for the classics, CSC collaborates with artists to produce work that is inclusive, relevant, and accessible. CSC believes that theater can both reflect and improve society by reaching across cultural divides in order to foster shared empathy and understanding. 

In 1967, director Christopher Martin founded CSC Repertory in a 100-seat theater at Rutgers Presbyterian Church on West 73rd Street. Following short stints in small spaces, CSC grew to the point where it needed a permanent home. In 1973, the theater moved to its present premises on 13th Street, an intimate space that was formerly an East Village carriage house.

In the 55 years since, CSC has become a leading Off-Broadway theater that is a home for new and established artists, as well as audiences seeking epic stories intimately told. Productions have been cited by all major Off-Broadway theater awards including the Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

ABOUT FIASCO THEATER

Fiasco Theater is an ensemble theater company based in NYC. The co-artistic directors of Fiasco met in graduate school during the first years of the Brown/Trinity MFA acting program. They connected through discussing how actor training and collaboration work best; together, they sought to define what makes for the most effective, exciting rehearsal. At Brown, they wore many hats in their collaborations, as actors, directors and writers. After school, they wanted to keep working this way: as an ensemble of artists with a shared vocabulary and love of making great theater through dynamic rehearsal. Fiasco was born out of that desire. They have a non-hierarchical leadership structure with 3 ADs sharing power; their classes and productions often have co-teachers and co-directors, modeling collaboration and multiple perspectives, inviting ensemble members to bring their holistic selves to the conversation.

Fiasco produces annual programming in four categories: They are presented by partner theaters. They produce stripped-down, actor-driven productions through their new series Without a Net. They develop new work through year-round readings and workshops (free and open to the public). They conduct education programs, including Master Classes, their Free Training Initiative and their Conservatory program. 

Presenting partner theaters in NYC have included Classic Stage Co, TFANA,  New Victory and Roundabout Theatre, where Fiasco serves as the first-ever Company in Residence. The Fiasco Conservatory training program offers emerging artists the chance to train full-time in Fiasco's joy-based, actor-centered approach to theater-making. Fiasco's Free Training Initiative offers students a primer in Fiasco's rehearsal approach completely free of charge to all. Fiasco's production of Merrily We Roll Along at Roundabout (2019) was nominated for two Drama Desk awards (Best Revival/Best Director) as well as an Off-Broadway Alliance award (Best Revival). Cymbeline was presented Off-Broadway twice, for nearly 200 performances, and was honored with the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for best revival. Into the Woods garnered the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival and the 2016-17 national tour won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Visiting Production and LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Direction and Best Ensemble. Cymbeline, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure and Into the Woods have all been NYT Critic's Picks. To date, their award-winning work has been seen by over 200,000 audience members in NYC, including over 12,000 school children, and The New York Times has called Fiasco “a force to reckon with in the American theater.” They are currently also in residence with NYU-Gallatin, have been commissioned by The Old Globe and just completed a podcast of Aditi Brennan Kapil's Measure for Measure in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts. Their most recent production was the critically acclaimed The Knight of the Burning Pestle at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, co-produced with Red Bull Theater. Fiasco has been in residence with TFANA, New Vic Labworks, Duke University, Marquette University and LSU. 

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