NJTA Receives Healthcare Foundation Grant

by Magaly Roig March, 2004 - Morristown, NJ

The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the consortium of the states’ professional theatres, is honored to announce that they have received a $25,000 grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey to create or enhance existing access services for people with disabilities at its member theatres. Funds from this grant will be distributed to thirteen theatres across the state that will use the funds mainly for open-captioning, audio-description or sign language interpretation of performances, with some notable and unique exceptions.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey is an independent, permanently-endowed grantmaking organization whose goal is to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable and under-served members of the community.

“The Healthcare Foundation is thrilled to be able to make this gift to the theatres of our state,” stated Ellen Kramer-Lambert, Executive Director of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. “We know that the arts enhance quality of life and contribute to the health and well-being of an individual. These programs will help open doors that have been closed for too long to the disabled population.”

Many theatres will be offering access services for the first time. Though most theatres have assisted listening equipment, the addition of audio-description, open-captioning or sign language interpretation and marketing those performances to the appropriate community has been challenging.

“This grant enables our theatres to make great strides in providing more comprehensive services to the people of our state, “says John McEwen, Executive Director of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. “We are thrilled and grateful that the Healthcare Foundation is partnering with us on this exciting initiative.”

Theatres offering open-captioning services include:
  • Surflight Theatre (Beach Haven), State Fair, starring John Davidson, performance on June 18 at 2:00PM.
  • 12 Miles West Theatre Company (Montclair), One Way Ticket To Hell (World Premiere Musical), performance on June 13.
  • East Lynne Theater Company (Cape May), Jealousy, performance on July 9.
  • Bickford Theatre (Morristown), You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running, performance on June 4.
  • The Growing Stage Theatre Company (Netcong), A Boy Called Cinder, performance to be determined.
  • Two River Theatre Company (Manasquan), A Life in the Theatre, performances on May 19 at 1:00PM and May 22 at 4:00PM.
  • George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick), tick..tick…BOOM!, performances on April 1 and 10. [George Street Playhouse will also offer audio-description in conjunction with the open captioning],
Theatres offering sign-interpretation include:
  • Cape May Stage (Cape May), Stones in His Pockets, performance on July 10.
  • Forum Theatre Company (Metuchen), Alice in Wonderland, May 8th at 10:00AM and James and the Giant Peach, July 7th at 1:00PM.
  • McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton), Candida, April 10 (Sign Language Interpretation) and April 11(Audio-Description), My Fair Lady, June 12(Sign Language Interpretation and Audio-Description).
  • The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Madison) Hay Fever, July 18th at 2:00PM and a performance by the Shakespeare Live! educational touring company of Twelfth Night on April 19th at 10:00AM.
  • TheatreFest (Montclair) presents Pushcart Players’ Not Quite Hamlet during Arts Voyage, a summer program for under-privileged children.

Member theatres have expressed unreserved enthusiasm for the projects these funds will enable them to achieve. 12 Miles West Development Director Gloria Falzer said, “The grant monies will be used to fund an open-captioned performance of our June production One Way Ticket to Hell and we want to present this world premiere musical to as wide a range of audience as possible. We also want to expand our audience base to include people with hearing loss with a goal to offering more open captioned performances in the future.”

There are two exciting and innovative projects that go beyond the boundaries of traditional access services. Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey (Madison) will be engaging in residencies at the Bruce Street School for the Deaf, Newark, and the St. Joseph’s School for the Blind, Newark.

These residencies, a program of the New Jersey Writers Project, a cosponsored program of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, will engage the students in playwriting, movement and music. The funding will allow PTNJ to extend the residencies, deepening and broadening the impact for the students. They will also be adding a performance element to the program at the Bruce School.

An exciting pilot project between one of our member theatres and EIES of New Jersey will bring a live, audio-described broadcast into the homes of 5,000 blind and visually-impaired people, many of whom are homebound. An audio-tape of a performance will be recorded and then an audio-description track detailing the staging and movement will be added to the performance tape, allowing listeners to visualize the performance. This unique project will bring theatre to people who have extremely limited access to arts events. The broadcast will be in dedication to George Grunbach, former board member of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Additional funding is provided by the Wallerstein Foundation for Geriatric Improvement and the Fund for the New Jersey Blind.
For further information on these programs or the participating theatres call the New Jersey Theatre Alliance at (973) 540-0515 x15 or .

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