Braille Schedule
October
October 18
Independence Starts Here Opens at the Kimmel Center!
Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia
7:00 pm
This exciting Opening Celebration for the Festival features an introduction by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, Founder of VSA arts, and will be hosted by Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin. Performances by Seattle’s critically-acclaimed integrated dance company Light Motion with Charlene Curtiss and Joanne Petroff; jazz singer/songwriter Melody Gardot, Winner of this year’s VSA arts International Young Soloists Competition and singer/songwriter/guitarist Raul Midon.
Tickets $60, $100 (with VIP reception)
Info: VSA arts of PA – 215-564-2431
Tickets available through the Kimmel Center Box Office: 215-893-1999 TTY: 215-875-7633 or online at www.kimmelcenter.org
More information on the opening night of the festival.
October 23
James A. Michener Art Museum Presents The "Creative Spirit: A Symposium for Artists with Visual Disabilities"
The Anne and Herman Silverman Pavilion, James A. Michener
Art Museum
138 S. Pine Street, Doylestown
Directions
1:00 to 3:00 pm
The James A. Michener Art Museum presents "The Creative Spirit: a Symposium for Artists with Visual Disabilities", an exciting program featuring collage artist Robert Jackson who will give a presentation on “Collages and Assemblages: Having Fun.” Jackson will share some of his extraordinary work and discuss his creative process.
The symposium will be facilitated by Dr. Richard Goldberg and will include a panel of artists who will discuss their work and the challenges and accomplishments they have experienced as artists working with various visual impairments. Members will include Ashby Saunders, Vince Ceglia, Will Ursprung, John Sears, Robert Fluhr and Barry Snyder. A mini-exhibition of the artists’ work and light refreshments will follow the program.
Free Admission (Museum admission not included)
Advance Registration Required – 215-340-9800
Other accessibility available
The Michener is an accessible destination for visitors of all abilities: reserved parking is provided, electronic doors, accessible restrooms and wheelchairs free of charge. Arrangements may be made for sign-language-interpreted tours. Materials and special tour programs are available for visitors who are visually impaired.
October 23 through November 20
Philadelphia Theatre Company Opens New, Accessible Suzanne Roberts Theatre with New Musical Revue Being Alive by Stephen Sondheim
Philadelphia Theatre Company’s Suzanne Roberts
Theatre
480 South Broad (Broad and Lombard Sts.), Philadelphia
running through December 2
Times: Tues, Thurs, Fri at 8:00 pm; Sunday at 3:00 pm,
Wednesday at 1:00 and 7:00 pm; Sat at 2:00 and 8:00 pm except Sat, October
27 (8:00 p.m. only)
Conceived and directed by award-winning musical theater performer Billy Porter, Being Alive blends the songs of Stephen Sondheim with the poetry of William Shakespeare to tell the universal story of man’s seven ages in African-American musical idioms including soul, jazz, blues, R&B, hip-hop, and gospel. Showcasing many of Sondheim’s most popular songs in a new and thrilling way, this musical revue is certain to have a big future beyond Philadelphia.
Tickets: $51 to $63; Festival discount $5 off single tickets (cannot be combined with any other offer) Not valid on Saturday evenings.
Single Tickets Available after October 1 at www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org or 215-985-0420
Box Office will be located at the NW corner of Broad & Lombard Streets
Box office hours: 10am to 5pm
Venue is fully wheelchair accessible. (Ticket windows at wheelchair
height, bathrooms are fully accessible. Elevator to all floors. Wheelchair
seating in both Orchestra and Mezzanine levels).
Assistive listening devices will be available at every
performance.
An Audio Described performance will be held on Saturday,
November 24th at the 2pm matinee. An Open Captioned performance will be
held on Saturday, November 17th at the 2pm matinee. Large Print and Braille
Programs will be available at every performance.
October 30
Lynn Manning’s Award-Winning One-Man Show Weights at
La Salle University
Dan Rodden Theater, Student Union Building, La Salle
University
20th and Olney Avenues, Philadelphia
12:30 PM
La Salle University presents playwright/actor Lynn Manning in his award-winning production, Weights, the critically-acclaimed autobiographical story of a profound metamorphosis: “From black man to blind man...from rape-driven misogynist to poor motherless child...from white man’s burden to every man’s burden” and the happy, successful man at the center.
Free Admission
This one-man show does not need audio description
November
November 1 - 18
Amaryllis Theatre presents Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney Featuring Blind Actress
The Playground at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia
Opening Night, Thursday, November 1 at 7:00 pm
Wednesday-Fri at 8:00 pm; Sat-Sun at 2:00 pm
Post-performance discussions: Does Disability Need a Cure?
Friday, November 2 after ASL shadow
interpreted performance and Thursdays, November 8 and November 15
Amaryllis will produce Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney, featuring a blind actress, Pamela Sabaugh, in the title role of blind Molly Sweeney for the first time since the play premiered in 1994. Sabaugh appears with critically-acclaimed Irish-American actors Stephen Patrick Smith and Michael Toner.
Read the Philadelphia Inquirer Review
All tickets $10
Tickets available at www.amaryllistheatre.org
Open captioned Sun. Nov. 4 - 2:00 pm, shadow interpreted in ASL Fri. Nov. 2 - 8:00 pm, large print and Braille programs available every performance. This production, written in a series of monologues, does not need audio description.
November 2-3
Rebecca Davis Dance Company Presents World Premiere Ballet “Helen Keller”
Prince Music Theater
1412 Chestnut Street (just off the SE corner of Broad
and Chestnut), Philadelphia
November 2 – 8:00 pm, November 3 – 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm
The Rebecca Davis Dance Company presents an original ballet depicting the life of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. This world premiere is performed by a cast of 20 dancers with classical music played by The Tononi Quartet & Friends.
Tickets: $25 - $35
Tickets available at UpStages – 215-569-1610
November 3
Mendelssohn Club Presents Music by John Adams, Karol Szymanowski and James Primosch with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
Girard College Chapel
Girard & Corinthian Avenues, Philadelphia
8:00 pm
For more than 20 years, the Mendelssohn Club has included exceptional singers who are blind simply because they were professional artists of the same caliber as their other singers and has provided Braille programs for its audiences, setting an example of transparent inclusion and accessibility for other professional arts producers in the City.
This Fall they continue to produce the finest choral performances with a concert that includes the Philadelphia premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2002 composition by John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls, with the second performance of Fire-Memory by James Primosch (commissioned by Mendelssohn Club in 1998) and the glorious Stabat Mater (1926) by Karol Szymanowski.
Tickets: $25 in advance; $29 at the door; $15 students
Tickets available at www.mcchorus.org or 215-893-1999
November 4
American Playwrights Series: In The Absence of Light by Lynn Manning
The Playground at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia
7:00 pm
Amaryllis Theatre Company and Straw Flower Productions partner on this series of readings by three of the country’s top disabled playwrights. In this first reading, Amaryllis will produce a reading of Los Angeles playwright Lynn Manning's newest script, In The Absence of Light, about two blind people with very different pasts who fall in love and the challenges their love and their future together face when one is given the possibility of sight.
Free Admission
November 11
American Playwrights Series: The Making of Free Verse by Paul Kahn
The Playground at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia
7:00 pm
Amaryllis Theatre Company and Straw Flower Productions partner on this series of readings by three of the country’s top disabled playwrights. In this third reading, Amaryllis will produce a reading of Boston playwright Paul Kahn’s The Making of Free Verse.
The Making of Free Verse is a social and romantic comedy that shows what happens when a reclusive writer with a disability trusts his life story and his heart to a beautiful, young documentary filmmaker.
Tickets: $5
Tickets available online at www.amaryllistheatre.org or at the door
Art-Reach presents JazzArtSigns at the New Suzanne Roberts Theatre
Philadelphia Theatre Company’s Suzanne Roberts
Theatre
Broad and Lombard Streets, Philadelphia
7:00 PM
Art Reach, Inc. presents JazzArtSigns, acclaimed vocalist Lisa Thorson’s groundbreaking multimedia, multi sensory and interactive improvised jazz performance piece for all audiences. JazzArtSigns features a group of world-class jazz musicians, an improvisational painter, American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, a live audio describer and text captioner, as well as program information in Braille, large print and on tape. What makes this event groundbreaking is that everyone involved – the band, ASL interpreters and painter – trade fours and improvise.
Tickets: $25 in advance; $35 at the door
Tickets available by calling 215-568-2115 or online at www.art-reach.org