Invisible Voices

Meeting the Challenge, Inc. Receives Award of Merit for “Invisible Voices”

by admin on October.18, 2010, under Live Performance

Compelling documentary about disability is honored by the Accolade Competition

(Colorado Springs, Colo., Oct. 19, 2010) – Meeting the Challenge, Inc. has received a prestigious Award of Merit from The Accolade Competition for its compelling documentary on disability, “Invisible Voices.” The documentary captures the original stage production and provides a window into the complex worlds of six individuals who have adapted to and thrived with their disabilities. “Invisible Voices” was written and directed by the internationally acclaimed playwright Ping Chong and features the life stories of Billy Allen, Sandy Lahmann, Rick Modderman, Kevin Pettit, Rebecca Shields and Kelly Tobin.

“We are extremely honored to receive this award,” said Randy Dipner, producer of “Invisible Voices” and founding partner of Meeting the Challenge. “We hope that many people with and without disabilities will see ‘Invisible Voices’ and be touched by the poignant stories told by the cast. We hope viewers will come away with a better understanding that people with disabilities are people first and who just live their lives with a few extra hurdles to overcome.”

The Accolade recognizes film, television, videography, and new media professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change. Entries are judged by highly qualified professionals in the film and television industry. Information about the Accolade and a list of recent winners can be found at www.theaccolade.net.

In winning an Accolade award, Meeting the Challenge joins the ranks of other high-profile winners of this internationally respected competition. Thomas Baker, Ph.D., who chairs The Accolade, had this to say about the latest winners, “The goal of the Accolade is to help winners achieve the recognition they deserve. The judges were pleased with the exceptionally high quality of entries that came in from around the world.”

“Invisible Voices” is now available along with the documentary “Reflections on a Promise” which examines not only the history of the groundbreaking Americans with Disabilities Act legislation, but also considers what the ADA has accomplished, and how all Americans can help build on its successes. For more information and to purchase the DVDs, visit www.InvisibleVoices.org.

About Meeting the Challenge
Meeting the Challenge, Inc., headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., is an information services consulting firm that serves individuals with rights and organizations with responsibilities for compliance under federal disability laws. Meeting the Challenge provides technical assistance through training and information services, consulting services, research and development, and communication and outreach services. For more information, visit www.mtc-inc.com.

Accolade Competition Winner

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Live Performance | No Comments »

Co-Producer Note

by admin on June.10, 2010, under Discussions on the ADA, Live Performance

More than 54 million Americans are directly affected by disability and at least that many more are indirectly impacted because they are the mother, father, son, daughter, or friend of a person with a disability. Disability is the largest minority group in the country. It is also the only minority group that everyone has a chance to join at some time in their life.

You’ve heard or seen these facts over and over again in the material about the Invisible Voices: New Perspectives on Disability production. But they are just that, impersonal facts. That’s the primary reason we felt it was so important to take on a key role in bringing this production to Colorado Springs. We hope that the highly personal life stories you will hear on stage, told by real people with disabilities, will help you better understand the human condition that is disability.

Co-Producer

People with disabilities are not super human nor are they a group to be pitied. They are just people like you and me going about their daily lives. All they or any of us really want is to be understood for ourselves and to have a relatively level playing field on which to play the game of life.

For years I have bugged Murray Ross about presenting a production on our stage that focuses attention on disability in the same way that we have explored Islam in Dar al Harb and 9 Parts of Desire or African-American culture in The Minstrel Show, Raisin in the Sun, or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Finally, about a year ago he challenged me to find a piece that accomplished what I wanted and also fit the character of THEATREWORKS.

In June 2008 I saw what I was sure would fit both requirements – a performance of Ping Chong & Company’s Inside/Out at the Kennedy Center. On stage I saw the lives of six people with disabilities told in a wonderfully touching and dramatic way. I knew this was right for my objective and was exactly the kind of project that fit THEATREWORKS. Discussions led to an agreement and the Invisible Voices project was born.

Why, you might ask, was I in such a lather about doing a disability-oriented show? As it turns out, my company specializes in providing information about the Americans with Disabilities Act through the DBTAC: Rocky Mountain ADA Center (more about that later). And, I am on the THEATREWORKS Advisory Board and serve as the volunteer development director. From this unique position I could bring all the necessary moving parts together. And so the process began.

Meeting the Challenge, Inc. sent out inquiries to people with disabilities throughout the region. From hundreds of candidates, 34 filled out the extensive application form. Ping and his co-writer Sara Zatz selected 20 from this group for extended interviews which were conducted at the end of June. From these a cast of six was chosen. Ping and Sara then crafted a script from the words of these individuals that tells their life stories in an engaging and dramatic way. As I write this we are about to begin rehearsal for what I am certain will be a truly wonderful, unique, and typically special THEATREWORKS production.

In addition to the live performances here at THEATREWORKS, Meeting the Challenge is working with Windstar Studios, Inc. here in Colorado Springs to film the performance so it can be made available on DVD. One thousand copies of the finished DVD, which will also have special features on the making of the production and a historical documentary of the disability rights movement and the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, will be distributed nationwide through the network of 10 ADA Centers and will be available for private purchase as well.

I promised a bit more about the ADA Center and here it is. The DBTAC: Rocky Mountain ADA Center, operated by Meeting the Challenge, Inc., is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The Center is one of 10 established in 1991 to provide information and training to all those impacted by the Americans with Disabilities Act. I hope all of you reading this will take advantage of this great free resource and call us for more information about the ADA at 800-949-4232 or visit our website at www.ADAinformation.org.

I hope all of you find yourself moved by our production and that you will share your experience and feelings with us and your friends and family. Social change cannot be legislated. It only occurs when the public demands it and expects it. Thus it is for equality under the ADA.
- Randy Dipner, Project Director for Invisible Voices: New Perspectives on Disability

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Discussions on the ADA, Live Performance | No Comments »

Note from Ping Chong

by admin on June.9, 2010, under Live Performance

Welcome to Invisible Voices: New Perspectives on Disability. This performance is part of my ongoing series of oral history theater works known as Undesirable Elements. Please allow me to share with you a little history on this project.

In 1992, I was invited to create a visual arts installation at Artists Space in New York City . That installation became “A Facility for the Channeling and Containment of Undesirable Elements.” A few weeks before the opening, the curator asked me if I would consider making a performance work to go with it. Thus the first Undesirable Elements was born. I had no idea at the time that that production would lead to over 40 original works over the next 17 years, in communities around the country and the world

The process is deceptively simple: I, along with my collaborators, interview people within a community who come from different cultures—broadly defined. I ask them about where they are from, their personal history, their experiences living in the community where we are making the piece; what does it mean to be an insider and what does it mean to be an outsider…thus, the original –intentionally ironic- title, Undesirable Elements. From these interviews I weave a text that the individuals perform as an ensemble. Typically, they are people who have never performed on stage before. Often, they are sharing personal stories that they have never spoken about in public.

Originally, the only shared trait between the performers was their experience of living outside the mainstream culture in some way, and residence in their current community, but the project has since expanded to include such themes as the Native American identity, the Asian-American experience, the refugee experience, and other variations.

In 2006, I created Undesirable Elements/Albuquerque, in partnership with NorthFourth Arts Center/VSAarts New Mexico, which featured several performers with disabilities. Through that project, I recognized disability as an area of experience that is rarely acknowledged or discussed in conversations about civil society and social justice, and even more rarely explored in theatrical settings.

In 2008, Ping Chong & Company created Inside Out with VSAarts, which was entirely dedicated to the voices and experiences of people from the disability community. Randy Dipner of Meeting the Challenge saw Inside Out at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and invited us to Colorado Springs to make a new piece focusing on the disability experience in the Mountain Region. The result is the piece you are about to see tonight.
The Undesirable Elements series has taken me to places – geographic, psychic, and spiritual – that I never imagined, and it continues to inspire me. I have interviewed over 500 people so far, and I look forward to future encounters with “undesirables” around the world.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Live Performance | No Comments »

Back to Top