Tuesday, July 13, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | Zoom & Facebook Live
The goal of our event today is to empower our creators to make their own Festival accessibility checklist, to start to brainstorm on how to increase accessibility within their own productions which they fully manage.
We’re going to start out the event with a Q&A with veteran Fringe and other theatre producers who have put accessibility practices at the forefront of their event planning. At the end, we’ll go into participant group breakout spaces to brainstorm our own “accessibility event checklist” based on the discussion we heard.
Panelists:
Kiah Amara (they/she) is an Entertainment Media Fellow with RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Summer 2021. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.
Based in NYC, Amara is a filmmaker, consultant, educator, producer, Production Accessibility Coordinator, and media industry activist. Their work focuses on identity, fluidity, commonality, misconception, and all things “deviant from normal” – stories from the Disability, LGBTQ+, and Underrepresented Gender Communities as well as Accessibility as a production need for all.
Read more here: https://www.respectability.org/2021/06/kiah-amara-entertainment-media-fellow/
Spencer Frankeberger is an actor/director/improviser and board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) as well as an enrichment instructor and teacher, primarily working with twos groups and Pre-K. He is a Hollywood Fringe vet, award-winning producer and director, as well as a Hollywood Encore judge and a member of the Access Committee. For a fun fact, he is a huge theme park enthusiast — including working at a theme park, having annual passes to multiple theme parks, teaching an amusement park science class for kids, and hosts a theme park called Theoretical Thrills. www.spencerfrankeberger.com (@spencer101f)
Diana Elizabeth Jordan is an actor*solo artist* theater & filmmaker* artist educator and disability influencer. She is one of the 2021 diversity scholarship recipients and producing her multi-media storytelling show Happily Ever After at this year’s Fringe. She is also the founder of The Rainbow Butterfly Café is an EduTainment Production Company that creates performances and expressive arts workshops to eradicate ableism, racism and othering stigmas. Disability Equity, Inclusion & Access Consulting for Individuals & Arts Organizations: Diana Elizabeth Jordan- Chief Creative Artivist/Founder, www.rainbowbutterflycafe.com
Jevon Whetter is a seasoned veteran of the stage and screen with decades of experience producing, directing, and teaching deaf and hearing actors and students alike for stage and media performances incorporating American Sign Language dialogue. Jevon received his training at American Film Institute, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts in Producing, and at San Diego State University where he earned a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Arts with a focus on acting and directing. Jevon has worked with the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) and the Deaf West Theatre, touring over 200 cities, and serves as an adjunct professor of American Sign Language in Deaf Theatre at California State University at Northridge.
Jevon’s professional stage experience includes NTD’s OPHELIA tour and appearances at the Deaf West Theatre in ALADDIN, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and Mark Medoff’s ROAD TO REVOLUTION. Jevon worked at the Fountain Theatre as an ASL Dialogue Coach on their award-winning production of ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE. Jevon’s professional credits as a director include Samuel Beckett’s KRAPP’S LAST TAPE at Deaf West Theatre, and FALLING ON DEAF EYES, which he also co-wrote with Justin Maurer, at the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival, which was recently revived for a limited run on the Stellar streaming platform in July 2021.
