How Community Theaters Can Be More Inclusive And Accessible

(Photo: BeautyAbility)

Bekah Harbison, Guest Editorial

The author is a St. Louis–based director, consultant and teaching artist.

Over the past 2 years, I’ve been working with an increasing number of performers who are Deaf and who live with disabilities. It wasn’t a conscious mission I had for our company. It developed gradually through making small but important changes to our process.

I’ve learned that many able-bodied, neurotypical people in the community have the perception that inclusion and accessibility are incredibly insurmountable feats. They aren’t at all. If you’re running a community theatre, you have a responsibility to find room at the figurative table for performers that reflect your community. I guarantee that your community is diverse in terms of how their bodies and brains work.

As a community theatre director, here are my suggestions on how to become more inclusive and accessible.

First, consider why you want to become more accessible and inclusive and keep that at the core of your mission. Deaf actors or actors with disabilities shouldn’t be included to be “inspiring” to your audience or to “teach” the other cast members something. They’re performers. Working with a more diverse set of performers makes our onstage communities more reflective of our offstage ones. It’s vital to work towards equity in casting from a moral perspective and allow stories to be told more complexly.

Allow yourself to imagine what a more complex story looks like. When you’re preparing for a show, ask yourself:

“Would it work if Scrooge is Deaf?”

“Which of the Conrad Birdie Fan Club members would work with a blind actress?”

“Could Aldonza use a wheelchair?”

When posting auditions, express that you’re looking for a “diverse” group of performers and ensure that you offer an avenue for performers to ask for accommodations.

I highly encourage you to connect with leaders in the disability and Deaf communities in your area. Reach out to individuals or organizations who you know have a passion for advocacy and ask them for help. They can help you not just find people (although they can help with that too) but also learn how to accommodate performers with needs different from those with whom you’ve worked previously.

The first time I was asked for accommodations for a Deaf actor who needed an interpreter, I was a little bit terrified! I had a budget of $0 for the show and had no idea how I would make it work. I learned later that three colleges within driving distance offered ASL Interpreter training programs in which the students would need practicum hours to graduate.

I worked with two well-qualified student interpreters on that show, one of whom is now our ASL Production Manager for our next project, four shows later. All I had to do was ask. I reached out to others and asked for advice. I did some Google searches and sent a few emails. That’s a pretty low cost to offer accessibility to those in our community.

Include people with disabilities on your production teams and casting committees. I’d also encourage you to consider non-traditional casting routes if your show calls for actors with specific disabilities or if you’re hoping to include folks who didn’t show up in your audition pool. Reach out to schools, people in the community, a disability-specific Facebook group, and your friends who have disabilities or are Deaf.

It’s unethical and offensive to cast actors who are hearing in Deaf roles or to cast able-bodied/neurotypical actors as characters who live with disabilities.

Times are different than they used to be, and we know better now: if you can’t find someone with a disability to play Laura in The Glass Menagerie, you shouldn’t do The Glass Menagerie.

Once you’ve cast your show, ensure that you’re prepared to make good on the accommodations you’ve committed to making.

Then, try to make more.

Actors with disabilities are just actors. If you're directing, you're already working with a variety of different people with a variety of different needs. Sometimes, those needs include ASL interpreters, sighted guides, 30-second rest breaks, or using visual cues instead of auditory ones (or vice versa).

People are usually pretty good about telling you what they need, especially if you ask and clarify that you’re safe to tell. Your standards don’t have to change; a performer needing a different method to help them learn doesn’t excuse them from having to learn something. Your expectation of commitment should be the same for every actor, and actors should be placed in roles that fit their skill sets.

But allow yourself to be creative in imagining what those roles look like.

Be flexible. Be ready to repeat yourself if there’s an ASL interpreting error. Know that if working with a blind performer, you must be more creative than physically demonstrating what you want them to do.

Recognize that some performers may need to walk the set or talk through blocking more than you’re accustomed to. This is part of what diversity looks like: recognizing that everyone’s needs are different.

Another part of being a “safe” company is creating accessible performance spaces. Sensory-friendly, ASL-interpreted, and/or audio-described performances are good places to start. There are almost certainly people who have done this in your community. Reach out and ask them where to start.

If you’re in a building that isn’t physically accessible to all types of people, consider what changes can be made or if there is another space where your company could perform in the future.

Finally, recognize that you won’t get it right every time. Mistakes will be made; no one is expecting perfection. I certainly don’t consider myself to be a final authority on accessibility.

But by surrounding myself with knowledgeable people, thinking creatively, not giving up, and owning up to my mistakes, I’ve had the opportunity to continue to do better every time.