Directors Jeff Calhoun (Newsies, Big River and numerous productions with Deaf West) and Ike Schambelan (Artistic Director of Theatre Breaking Through Barriers) will discuss their experiences directing critically-acclaimed, uncompromising theatre incorporating actors with disabilities. They will speak about how they create an ensemble with actors with and without physical disabilities, how their artistic process is changed or unchanged, and about the unique relationship they create with their audiences.
Wednesday, June 18, 6:00 – 7:15pm
SDC/SDCF 1501 Broadway Suite 1701
RSVP: Conversations@SDCweb.org
The discussion is free and open to all. To reserve a spot, RSVP to Conversations@SDCweb.org.
JEFF CALHOUN (Director/Choreographer) Broadway: Disney’s Newsies (8 Tony nominations including Best Director), Jekyll & Hyde (2013 Revival), Bonnie & Clyde (Tony Nomination, Best Score), Grey Gardens (Tony Nomination, Best Musical), Deaf West’s Big River (Tony Honor, Excellence in Theatre), Brooklyn, Annie Get Your Gun (Tony Award, Best Revival), Grease (Tony nomination, Best Choreography), Tommy Tune Tonite!, The Will Rogers Follies (Tony Award, Best Musical). US National Tour/West End/International: Maurice Hines’ Tappin’ Thru Life, Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5: The Musical, Disney’s High School Musical. Regional: Jane Austen’s Emma (Craig Noel Award, Outstanding Resident Musical), The Old Globe; Deaf West’s Pippin, Mark Taper Forum; Disney’s High School Musical: On Tour!, Disney Theatrical; The Civil War, Shenandoah, and Violet, Ford’s Theatre. Jeff is an associate artist at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. Jeff loves to hear your thoughts on Twitter at @thejeffcalhoun.
IKE SCHAMBELAN (TBTB Founding Artistic Director) has been a theatrical director for 49 years. He has a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and a Doctor of Fine Arts from Yale Drama School. He has directed at the Long Wharf Theatre, the Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The New Dramatists, Equity Library Theatre, the Pittsburgh Public Theater and the George Street Playhouse, as well as many productions for Theater Breaking Through Barriers. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and of Actors’ Equity. As founder and Artistic Director of TBTB, he has built it for 35 years into an Off-Broadway company recognized for doing first-class art. Previous productions include revivals of works by Shakespeare and Shaw, and new plays including New York premieres of The Rules of Charity and A Nervous Smile by disabled playwright John Belluso, and world premieres of Bass for Picasso, by Kate Moira Ryan, and short plays by A.R. Gurney (The Interview) and Neil LaBute (Cripples and The Wager). He is thrilled to be directing a new short play by John Guare called Between which will run in TBTB’s short play festival, Power Plays, this June on Theatre Row.