Inside/Out…voices from the disability community

January 26, 2009

From the Kennedy Center to TheTimesCenter: NY Debut of New Work from Ping Chong
VSA arts Commissions Acclaimed Director to Explore Disability

WASHINGTON, January 26, 2009 - From acclaimed director Ping Chong (Humboldt's Current, Brightness) and Sara Michelle Zatz, Inside/Out…voices from the disability community comes to TheTimesCenter March 20-21, from its premiere production at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. VSA arts commissioned Ping Chong & Company to explore first-hand experiences from the disability community as part of the company’s ongoing series of oral-history theater works that explore issues of culture and identity in America.

Described as both “funny” and “riveting,” the cast’s “performance was consistently powerful and eye-opening,” the Washington Post said. Personal histories are interwoven into a script that is performed by the participants themselves, giving voice to stories that frequently go unheard.

“As the baby boomer generation ages, more and more members of our society are acquiring disability,” said Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts. “The disability community is both the largest and the fastest-growing minority in America. We wanted to shed light on the disability experience in America in an honest, forthright, and engaging way.”

The cast includes seven individuals with seven remarkable stories. Participants ranging in age from 24-65 were selected for their personal experience with disability:

Josh Hecht (Christine Jorgensen Reveals, Lizards, BFF, Girl) is a rising New York director whose mother had multiple sclerosis.
Monique Holt, performing artist, is an adjunct theater professor at Gallaudet University and director of Mo2 Productions. She was adopted by a Deaf family in the U.S.
Christopher Imbrosciano is a young actor with cerebral palsy who apprenticed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Regional credits include Romeo and Juliet, Making Waves, and Caryl Churchill’s Seagulls at WTF.
Zazel-Chavah O’Garra, a brain tumor survivor, is a dancer, cover model, and disability advocate. She has performed with the Mark Dendy Dance Company and Alvin Ailey II, and appeared on the cover of Essence magazine twice.
Vivian Cary Jenkins is a former healthcare administrator who became legally blind later in life.
Matthew S. Joffe, who was born with Moebius Syndrome, is an actor as well as director of the Office for Students with Disabilities at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY. He has more than 30 years experience as an educational therapist and psychotherapist.
Blair Wing is producer and director of Supernova Theatre Company. An actress, she has appeared as Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Bernarda Alba in Another Part of the House, and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She was paralyzed in a car accident at the age of 18.

Ping Chong is recognized as one of the country’s most significant theater artists, having created more than 70 multidisciplinary works for the stage, including Humboldt's Current (Obie Award, 1977), A.M./A.M. - The Articulated Man (Villager Award, 1982), Nosferatu (Maharam Design Award, 1985), Kind Ness (USA Playwrights' Award, 1988), and Brightness (two 1990 Bessie Awards). He is a 2008 recipient of the Urban Artist Initiative/NYC Fellowship for artists of color. In 2006, he was awarded a USA Artist Fellowship in recognition of his contribution to American arts and culture, and in 2000 he received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement.

Sara Michelle Zatz has worked with Ping Chong & Company since 1997 and became the manager of the Undesirable Elements project in 2002. She has managed the production of more than a dozen original works in the series and served as co-author with Ping Chong on seven productions, including Undesirable Elements (Asian America), which was recently published in the 2008 New York Theater Review.

Commissioned, funded, and produced by VSA arts, Inside/Out is the latest in a series of inclusive, accessible, and high-profile performing arts commissions by VSA arts. Recent commissions include Nobody’s Perfect, a joint world premiere with the Kennedy Center (October-November 2007), and The Farthest Earth from Thee by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (June 2007).

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 20, and Saturday, March 21, at TheTimesCenter Stage, 242 West 41st Street. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at www.ticketweb.com. For more information about the performance and to hear audio clips from the performers, please visit at www.vsarts.org

About VSA arts
VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts provides educators, parents, and artists with resources and the tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. VSA arts showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities and promotes increased access to the arts for people with disabilities. Each year millions of people participate in VSA arts programs through a nationwide network of affiliates and in 55 countries around the world. VSA arts is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, please visit www.vsarts.org

About Ping Chong & Company
Ping Chong & Company was founded in 1975 to create and tour innovative works of theater and art that explore the intersection of race, history, culture, and technology in the modern world. The New York-based not-for-profit company has produced more than 70 works by Ping Chong and his collaborators, toured widely in the United States and throughout the world, and received numerous honors and awards. Inside/Out is part of an ongoing series of community-specific, interview-based theater works known as the Undesirable Elements series, created by theatrical innovator Ping Chong. Undesirable Elements examines issues of race, class, culture, and identity in the lives of individuals. Since 1992, Ping Chong & Company has made more than 40 productions in the series, in communities around the United States and abroad. For more information, please visit www.undesirableelements.org. Please visit www.pingchong.org for additional information about Ping Chong & Company activities.

Media Contact:

Stephanie Taylor/VSA arts
(202) 628-2800 ext. 3883
SKTaylor@vsarts.org