Press Page
- Marty Moss-Coane talks with poets and musicians Dan Simpson and Dave Simpson
- Curtain up, barriers down
- The Art of Living
- 'Independence' festival 'Starts' in Philadelphia
- Coping beautifully
- Independence Starts Here
- Rebecca Davis Company Dances For Inspiration In 'Helen Keller'
- 'Sweeney' challenges common wisdom
- New theater inspired fest
- 'JazzArtsSigns' a feast for the senses
Marty Moss-Coane talks with poets and musicians Dan Simpson and Dave Simpson
Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane
WHYY radio
October 18, 2007
Hour Two
Marty talks with poets and musicians DAN SIMPSON and DAVE SIMPSON. Twin brothers who are both blind, they are involved with “Independence Starts Here: A Festival of Disability Arts and Culture” which begins today in Philadelphia and goes through mid-November.
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Curtain up, barriers down
Festival increases cultural access to disabled artists.
October 19, 2007
By Venuri Siriwardane
For The Inquirer
ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Inquirer Staff
Director Mimi Smith (left), visual artist Kathryn Pannepacker at Adrienne Theater. Smith was instrumental in creating the disability- arts festival.
When performing on stage, local actor Robert DeMayo makes quick, fluttery hand gestures. He furrows his brow and grits his teeth, exaggerating his facial expressions. But he never utters a word.
DeMayo is totally deaf. With more than 20 years of stage experience under his belt, he has worked with organizations such as the National Theatre of the Deaf and New York Deaf Theatre. His act, a one-man comedy show called Me Hear NONE, is a series of silent skits.
"Deaf people are still in Pandora's box," DeMayo said, using American Sign Language translated during a recent interview. "We want to get out. There's still a long way to go for hearing people to catch up with our culture."
Exposing audiences to the work of disabled artists like DeMayo has been Mimi Smith's goal since she started an arts-access initiative in 2003. As the executive artistic director of VSA arts of Pennsylvania, Smith collaborated with both cultural and disability organizations in the city to create Independence Starts Here: A Festival of Disability Arts and Culture - a monthlong celebration.
Read more of the Curtain up, barriers down article.
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The Art of Living
Artist and poet with disability knows the key to life well-lived
October 23, 2007
Philadelphia Daily News
By Christine Olley
olleyc@phillynews.com 215-854-5184
With her left hand, Dana Hirsch controls a Kensington trackball mouse to operate the computer and Microsoft Paint softwareto make the image above. Dana's art will be part of the Inglis Foundation Art Gallery.
DANA HIRSCH is a modern-day Picasso with a twist. Instead of a canvas and a paintbrush, she uses a computer and a mouse.
Dealing with cerebral palsy since birth, Hirsch's delicate features get lost in her clunky black wheelchair as she sits in front of a computer, guiding her fingers over the mouse to create abstract pieces in bright hues. The shapes appear on the screen and her eyes instantly light up.
Her artwork was recently displayed for two month-long exhibitions, one at the Bryn Mawr Trust Co. in Bryn Mawr, and the other at the Ardmore Trust Co. in Ardmore.
"It was really neat being able to show everyone what I had done," Hirsch said. "People just kept coming up and staring at my work. I couldn't get over that.
"Starting to really do my art in the first place was significant, but having that exhibition made it even more real for me."
Read more of the The Art of Living article.
View the The Art of Living photo gallery.
'Independence' festival 'Starts' in Philadelphia
October 19, 2007
By SALLY FRIEDMAN
The Intelligencer
Its name is a bold statement about its mission and philosophy.
“Independence Starts Here: A Festival of Disability Arts and Culture” suggests that a disability need not stand in the way of creating art and that creating art is always a celebration.
“This festival is a little different from many other festivals,” says Mimi Smith, whose company, VSA (Very Special Arts) of Pennsylvania, is part of an international organization that promotes equality in the arts for adults and children with disabilities.
“It began as a grass roots, Philadelphia-based effort between the cultural and disability communities to learn from each other,” says Smith, “and now we're really working to create an atmosphere where full inclusion in the arts is permanent.”
More than 40 organizations throughout the city will participate in the festival. The kick-off event at the Kimmel Center was introduced by Jean Kennedy Smith, the founder of VSA Arts.
Events will continue throughout the region through Nov. 20.
Read more of the 'Independence' festival 'Starts' in Philadelphia article.
Coping beautifully
Philly fest shares creative strengths of performers/artists with disabilities
October 14, 2007
By: geoff.gehman@mcall.com
The Morning Call
To the world, David Bower is best known as the deaf character in the film ''Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' the sensible brother who helps put Hugh Grant's shaky character on more solid ground. To the world of the hearing impaired, he is best known as the artistic director of Signdance Collective, an English company that uses pretty much everything -- sign language, movement, giant puppets -- to tell the stories of a death-row prisoner, a Shakespearean noble savage and others with emotional handicaps.
Signdance's current production is ''But Beautiful,'' a prismatic portrait of Art Pepper, the late alto saxophonist who created brilliant music while addicted to alcohol, heroin and women. Bower, who was born deaf in Wales, plays Pepper by dancing, miming and yelling. With a hand-held camera he shoots his alter ego, saxophonist Luke Barlow, who performs Pepper's compositions in an improvisational trio. Isolte Avila, Signdance's dance director, plays Pepper's wife, Dianne, onstage and in video footage shot on the streets of Philadelphia, where Signdance has worked with disabled people who live on their own.
''But Beautiful'' is a keystone of ''Independence Starts Here,'' a new, month-long Philadelphia arts/culture festival that, like Signdance, features disabled and non-disabled telling tales tailored for all (dis)abilities. It opens Thursday night at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts with a concert hosted by Marlee Matlin, who in 1987 empowered fellow deaf performers by winning the best-actress Academy Award for ''Children of a Lesser God,'' her first film.
Matlin will be joined by Raul Midon, a blind jazz/Latin guitarist; Light Motion, a Seattle company with dancers in and out of wheelchairs, and Philadelphia singer-songwriter Melody Gardot, who performs with a black box tied to her waist to reduce pain from a pelvis fractured when her bicycle was hit by a car. Gardot, who became a musician to strengthen a traumatized brain, won this year's international young soloist competition sponsored by VSA Arts. The disability-education organization was founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, who is scheduled to introduce Thursday's program.
Read more of the Coping Beautifully article.
Independence Starts Here
10/11/2007
By: Andrea K. Hammer
The Bulletin
Philadelphia - From Oct. 18 to Nov. 20, Independence Starts Here: A Festival of Disability Arts and Culture will celebrate contemporary and classic art by professional and community artists - as well as cultural leaders - with disabilities or work inspired by experience. In addition, area organizations offering accessibility regularly and those working to create access for the first time will showcase performances of theater, music, dance, comedy and magic; readings of poetry, plays and other literary genres; historical, cultural and visual art exhibits; lectures and discussions; workshops; series and the unveiling of a major new mural.
The opening ceremony at the Perelman Theatre in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will feature Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin as emcee. Honorary Co-Chair Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, founder of VSA arts, will give introductory remarks. Events include an exciting lineup of nationally- and internationally-known performers with disabilities. Co-chairs Mimi Kenney Smith, executive artistic director of VSA arts of PA and co-founder of Amaryllis Theatre Company, and Michael Norris, executive director of Art-Reach, Inc., have organized the festival with assistance from many volunteers. Amaryllis is an inclusive professional theater company that unites artists and audiences from Greater Philadelphia's diverse communities, including the deaf and disabled. Art-Reach helps underserved audiences to experience arts and cultural programming by increasing accessibility to cultural venues and events.
Smith says that approximately a dozen larger organizations in the area are accessible to the disabled and nearly 100 smaller ones are still searching for solutions. For many arts organizations, already struggling to meet limited budgets, the prospect often appears to involve an unaffordable expense.
To tackle the easiest three obstacles, VSA arts of Pennsylvania offered a training during mid-September for staff, board members and other cultural organization volunteers - increasing the use of captioning, audio description and alternative programs for Braille users. Approximately 24 attended this session to increase basic access for the blindness, deaf and hard-of-hearing communities; ongoing training will be offered as a long-term extension of the festival.
"The blind can receive Word documents on computers, and people can download and print on their own Braille printers. Audio can be downloaded to CD players. Audio description takes a weekend to learn; people will go out into the community," says Smith, noting that the blind community will give feedback to the new audio describers after performances.
"It's a start and something that can be implemented even in the smallest organizations overnight - and almost permanently," Smith adds. "So it's just a matter of people taking the training and borrowing the equipment." VSA arts of Pennsylvania is currently partnering with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to roll out this plan to the rest of the state.
As a result of Independence Starts Here, which started in 2003, a strong relationship has developed between the cultural and disability communities. Sitting across the table from each other during planning sessions, questions - such as how to make box offices accessible to the blind or wheelchair users - could be asked directly.
Read more of the Independence Starts Here article.
Rebecca Davis Company Dances For Inspiration In 'Helen Keller'
November 2, 2007
By: Andrea K. Hammer
The Bulletin
Rebecca Davis duo
Philadelphia - On Friday and Saturday, the Rebecca Davis Dance Company will present the world premiere of "Helen Keller," an original ballet in two acts, at the Prince Music Theater. Originally planned for next year, the production was completed early for the Independence Starts Here: Festival of Disability Arts & Culture, which runs through Nov. 20.
Ms. Davis, 25, is a summa cum laude graduate of The Fox School of Business at Temple University who launched her own dance company two years ago. In 2006, she staged "Antigone" at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The company also has performed at The Academy of Music, The Union League of Philadelphia, The International Children's Festival at The Annenberg Center and the Angel Orensanz Foundation in New York City.
"The decision to do a ballet about Helen Keller was motivated not so much by the disability aspect, but in my search for finding an outstanding role model for youth today as well as older people," Ms. Davis said at her South Philadelphia studio. "She was faced with all of these physical difficulties, and yet she went on to achieve more than most ordinary people do ... Those of us who are considered 'ordinary' in a stereotypical way should be inspired and motivated to achieve as much as we possibly can."
The ballet, which explores the integral relationship with Ms. Keller's teacher Anne Sullivan, strikes a chord for Ms. Davis in her role as a teacher in the company's pre-professional training program.
"In terms of uncovering the movement code and the aesthetic, that, by far, was the most interesting and challenging. Helen Keller's movement - especially as we find her as the little 7-year-old - are very uncontrolled. Some people will say it's more contemporary, but it's really even outside of contemporary. Particularly, the juxtaposition of the music is quite strong, indicating her deafness. That progresses throughout the ballet, and her movement vocabulary becomes more traditional, more definable - where you see a [recognizable] movement," Ms. Davis said. "That's how we show the audience that Helen Keller has grown up and become an outstanding civilian rather than just a wild creature."
Through Ms. Davis' outreach program, six local schools are learning about Ms. Keller through a condensed version of the production. An actress plays the adult Helen in only this adaptation.
Ms. Davis' vision for her company is to take ideas from literature and history - and communicate them to a wide audience.
Read more of the Rebecca Davis Company Dances For Inspiration In 'Helen Keller'.
'Sweeney' challenges common wisdom
November 3, 2007
By Howard Shapiro
Inquirer Staff Writer
Molly Sweeney is played by Pamela Sabaugh , said to be the first blind actress to do so.
Suddenly, Molly Sweeney can see. Or half-see. The last time that was true, she was 10 months old. Now, 40 years later, a doctor has removed her bandages after surgery, and Sweeney can make out a hand, a piece of fruit, a floral bouquet.
And it is not always good.
Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and gifted medical writer, wrote a case study on a woman much like Sweeney, which has served as the inspiration for Ireland's preeminent playwright, Brian Friel.
Friel's Molly Sweeney debuted in 1995 and is being richly performed at the Adrienne by the Amaryllis Theatre Company, a professional ensemble devoted to attracting artists and audiences with disabilities.
The company says its production, solidly staged by director Tom Reing, is the first in which a blind actress plays the title role.
She's Pamela Sabaugh, who lost all but her peripheral vision as a teenager, and her considered performance hasn't a trace of exploitation. Her Sweeney is feet-on-the-ground, even when the character is at her most pathetic. Sabaugh's portrayal is never pitiable, despite the audience's uneasy feeling that her character is always a step away from some sort of descent. This Molly Sweeney comes equipped, somehow, to fail.
She does fail - at least in the minds of the sighted people around her: her husband (a sterling portrayal by Stephen Patrick Smith of a man who's half-bore, half-bumbler, yet always well-meaning) and her has-been ophthalmologist (Michael Toner, whose urgency in the role is all the more powerful for its subtlety).
The central question Friel poses deals with quality of life: Was Sweeney better off in the darkness she understood or the darkness into which she plunged when she constantly struggled to make sense of what she saw?
"Suddenly . . . ," Sweeney explains in a halting way that mirrors the way she processes the visual world, "every color . . . dazzled. . . . Every light . . . blazed."
Her situation resonates today, particularly in the deaf community, where some promote a culture that communicates in American Sign Language and others advocate for cochlear implants, the electronic devices that can restore partial hearing after a lifetime of deafness.
Friel wrote Molly Sweeney as revolving monologues. The three characters speak directly to the audience about each other, even quote each other, but they never acknowledge that the other two are always sharing the stage. Long before he wrote Molly Sweeney, Friel wrote the spellbinding Faith Healer, whose three characters also tell their story in monologues, to much greater effect. Sweeney, by contrast, seems talky and too long.
When the second act begins, Molly Sweeney's first of two operations is over. She begins to see and the play shifts from exposition to insight. From there on, it challenges our notion of a disability - and, more to the point, whether disability has much to do with being disabled.
Read more of the 'Sweeney' challenges common wisdom article.
New theater inspired fest
November 12, 2007
Shaun Brady
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Theatre Company's new home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, isn't just an ideal spot for presenting JazzArtSigns and other events in the Independence Starts Here festival. The theater, which incorporates state-of-the-art accessibility into its design, was one of the inspirations for the festival.
Independence Starts Here was initiated by Michael Norris, executive director of Art-Reach, a nonprofit organization that provides cultural opportunities for underserved audiences, and Mimi Kenney Smith, executive artistic director of Amaryllis Theatre Company.
As Norris explained, "The festival was born when we realized that there was going to be this constellation alignment this fall, in which Philadelphia Theatre Company was going to be opening its new venue, the Mural Arts Program was going to be finishing a mural around the theme of disability, and Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital was doing a big art show by artists with disabilities."
Norris and Smith wanted to connect those events and involve many of the region's other cultural organizations in one festival. "One of the primary goals was to celebrate artists with disabilities and the value of accessibility to the arts for people with disabilities," Norris said. "We thought that the festival format, being very visible and public, would help do that."
Read more of the New theater inspired fest article.
'All-access jazz
JazzArtsSigns' a feast for the senses
November 12, 2007
By SHAUN BRADY
Philadelphia Daily News
JazzArtsSigns performing on stage.
ADMITTEDLY, IT CAN be overwhelming: A singer in a wheelchair scats while her quintet jams behind her; a sign-language interpreter translates music and lyrics into body language while an LED screen scrolls the lyrics and dialogue; an artist paints the music onto a huge canvas; and an audio describer attempts to explain it all.
But that's one of the messages behind JazzArtSigns, the singer, Lisa Thorson, said of her multimedia show. It's designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, but that can make it disorienting for audience members who have all their senses intact.
"There's a couple of places where the hearing audience are left out," Thorson said. "And I've heard people say they felt really uncomfortable in that moment. I say, 'Yeah, that's how a deaf person feels when there's no interpreter.' "
That shared experience is one of Thorson's primary goals in mounting JazzArtSigns, which comes to Philly next Monday as part of the inaugural Independence Starts Here festival of disability in the arts.
The idea for the show came when Thorson, who has used a wheelchair since a 1979 fall, struggled to figure out a way to continue performing.
"I was doing a lot of musical theater at the time of my injury," Thorson explained. "So I started experimenting with incorporating different kinds of music into an act, and I got completely flipped on jazz - hooked on the music, on the people, on the spirit of improvisation, on the challenge of trying to do anything that you can with your voice."
Over the years, Thorson was approached often to perform at disability-focused events, with a sign-language interpreter to translate lyrics. Eventually, though, she began to feel restricted.
She decided to create her own piece using the concept of universal design, which addresses accessibility issues in a way that incorporates all audiences. Then Thorson discovered Nancy Ostrovsky, an artist who had been painting live with improvising musicians since the early 1970s. In Ostrovsky's work, Thorson saw a way to bring improvised music to a hearing-impaired audience.
Read more of the 'JazzArtsSigns' a feast for the senses article.