In this interactive session, participants will gain practical tools for the casting, rehearsal, and performance process to include actors with disabilities in their main stage season. Utilising production examples from The Rose Theater and Children’s Theater of Madison, we will present best practices for this work across a range of TYA content and actor disability, even for roles that don’t call for a disability. Participants will enter a faux rehearsal room prepared for a neuro-diverse group of actors, complete with social story cards, an agenda, and fidgets. As we welcome the participants, we’ll encourage them to do the “5 Ss” before rehearsal (Sign in, Sensory moment, Shoes on, Stretch, Script out, & Stand on Stage). After an active warm up, we’ll run through the agenda. We’ll ask participants to work in small groups and look at a sample audition form through the lens of someone with a disability. Then, we will guide participants through a sensory audition process to illustrate how a casting team can get the information they need by tweaking their standard audition processes. Participants will take part in a mock audition and see how tweaking works in real time. We will take participants through a tech rehearsal to illustrate how a few adjustments can have a positive effect on the final product. The session will conclude with a Q&A session. In addition to theatre professionals, we would like to welcome teenage theatre makers to the workshop so that they may incorporate these tools into their student led rehearsals. This event is not available to watch live online. Please return to this page any time from 24 hours after the event has concluded to watch the video recording.

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