Preparing a typical musical theater production requires an incredible amount of preparation from the cast and crew. Producing a fully accessible theater production includes preparing for many additional details related to special performances and accommodations for cast, crew and patrons. Training the entire cast and crew on best practices has been a priority for Open Door Theater (ODT), a non-profit theater company in Acton. ODT offers this disability centered training each year. Since its founding in 1980, Open Door Theater has created learning experiences through theater for adults and children with and without disabilities.
For ODT’s upcoming performances of Wizard of Oz, the cast and crew gathered on a Sunday afternoon in early February for the training. Sam Gould, Executive Director, and Anna Weinberger, an ODT board member and cast member with Cerebral Palsy, assisted by veteran cast members and crew with Deafness and disabilities, covered topics such as why the equitable mission of ODT is valuable, preferred terminology within the field of accessible theater, understanding what accommodations are offered, open captioning, ASL interpretation, audio description, sensory friendly practices, and what to expect during the performances. The training also included time for discussion and the sharing of personal experiences, which enriched the learning experience.
Several actors, youth and adult, made suggestions about how they like people to address their disabilities or neurodiversity when they work together on and off stage. For example, one Deaf cast member, Leon Jerfita, playing the Wizard, requested that people look at him, and not his American Sign Language interpreter, during conversations, and explained that the word Deaf should always be capitalized, as a personal identity (instead of an ailment). Sam Gould and Anna Weinberger performed a skit in which Sam was selling tickets and Anna was a visitor purchasing tickets. Sam was able to demonstrate many inappropriate, insensitive and non-inclusive behaviors in a short skit! The Oz company members then offered more inclusive alternatives.
This training helps build understanding within the Oz company and beyond. Evvy Shoemaker of Acton, an ensemble cast member with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, said about the training: “We had a great discussion about holding space for cast and crew with disabilities to discuss their experiences, both the positives and the negatives, without being criticized for bringing attention to something that’s a large part of one’s life.”
Maddie Freeman, who started with Open Door at age ten in 2002, is now 31 and has returned to Acton with her husband. Maddie plays the Tin Man and says her “favorite part about the disability training is that it’s led and taught by people with lived experiences. And we learned to not emphasize being ‘inspired’ by people with disabilities, because it actually infantilizes and is not helpful.”
This year’s show features the following Acton residents: Zeke Braman, Kiki Braman, Julia Casey, Maddie Freeman, Spaghetti Jensen-Fellows, Wendy Linden, Franny Osman, Steve Petr, Suneel Prabhu, Juliana Sena, Evvy Shoemaker, Apurva Vasan, Anna Weinberger, Lindsay Wolfson, Zach Wolfson, Ross Wolfson, and Julia Yi.
Open Door Theater’s production of Wizard of Oz will present seven performances March 15-24, 2024 at the Dragonfly Theater, R.J. Grey Jr. High School in Acton. All performances are relaxed/sensory friendly and feature ASL interpretation and open captioning. There will be audio-described performances on the second weekend. Tickets are $15 and discounted tickets for EBT, WIC and ConnectorCare Cardholders are available.
Acton resident Michelle Shoemaker started volunteering with Open Door Theater in 2016. She is part of the Publicity Committee and can be found backstage creating hairstyles including funky Who braids for Seussical and the ringlet curls of Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Michelle is also Director of Education at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center, a community arts school in Portsmouth NH.