Photo Flash: National Disability Theatre Launches School Tour with La Jolla Playhouse to Celebrate ADA 30th Anniversary

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (or ADA) National Disability Theatre launched a school tour in partnership with La Jolla Playhouse reaching 25,000 students.

The play by A. A. Brenner and Gregg Mozgala directed by Mickey Rowe and Talleri A. McRae takes us on a road trip inspired by Bobbie Lea Bennett, a trans woman and wheelchair user who famously drove from San Diego to Washington, DC to ask Medicare to consider covering the cost of her gender affirmation surgery.

Emily Driver's Great Race Through Time and Space takes students on a road trip to the 504 sit ins in San Francisco, the Denver Adapt Bus Protests, and the Capitol Crawl in Washington DC which led to the passing of the American's with Disabilities Act.

Directed, designed, written, and acted by professional artists with disabilities, this is the first professional production in the country to be conceived and created entirely by professional artists and artisans with disabilities.

The cast features Farah Dinga, Paúl Araujo, Cass Phann, and Jaye Wilson.

Up next National Disability Theatre is in collaboration with The Goodman Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse on their main stage commission by disabled playwright Christopher Shinn.

Co-executive director Mickey Rowe says, "20% of the American population has a disability so for many of these students, this will be their first time seeing themselves represented on stage. This will be the first time they get to learn the history of their community. Or even that they have a community of adults like them to learn from! With representation not only on the stage, but of the directing team, writers, set, costume, and sound designers!" Rowe continues, "We talk about disability gain and disability aesthetic a lot at National Disability Theatre. What disability gain means is that while having a Ford Mustang on a school truck and van tour might normally be a big design ask, because of disability gain, it is an easy ask when you have actors who use wheelchairs. Our Ford Mustang is essentially just two wheelchairs with headlights brilliantly designed by Deaf designer Sean Fanning. Universal design makes the art more visceral when our sound designer includes audio descriptions for blind and low vision students directly in the soundscape of our show. Universal design helps all students."

Set designer Sean Fanning said, "This project- wow. It's hard to describe the feeling. I'm trying to imagine if, when I was 7 or 8 years old, I had been given a chance to see a story about disabled people & disability rights, in front of a class of peers, many of whom didn't accept or didn't understand that I was born different. I think it would have changed my life."

For this tour 18 professional artist contracts have been paid to date.

Of those:

94% (17/18) identify as disabled or "it's complicated".
55% (10/18) are non-male.
50% (4/8) of actors are people of color.
100% (8/8) of the creative team members (designers, directors, and writers) identify as disabled.
27% (5/18) of all individuals are queer.
100% (8/8) of actor contracts are professional AEA Union contracts.

In partnership with La Jolla Playhouse's 2020POP Tour the show will be traveling through San Diego County and will reach up to 25,000 students with the following demographics (provided by La Jolla Playhouse from the 2019 POP Tour):

Students of color: 70% , White: 30%, with the following breakdowns:

Latino: 41%
Caucasian: 30%
Filipino: 9%
Two of More Races: 8%
African American: 5%
Asian American: 4%
Pacific Islander: 1%
Native American: 1%

In 2019, 40/55 (74%) Sites Attended were Title 1 Schools, meaning that they have been designated as low-income schools, as 50% or more of the students receive free or
reduced lunch.

In addition to the above the following vendors were employed:

Options for All (disabled film crew) • Teddy's Ts (disabled owned t-shirt and button printing and designs) • Flex Space (Indo-American Art and Culture Society) • Tangguh Karya (Deaf graphic designer) • Planet Pepper NYC (disabled owned trans body shapewear)

To donate visit www.nationaldisabilitytheatre.org/donate

Photo Credit: Jamie Lytle

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