ADMITTEDLY, IT CAN be overwhelming: A singer in a wheelchair scats while her quintet jams behind her; a sign-language interpreter translates music and lyrics into body language while an LED screen scrolls the lyrics and dialogue; an artist paints the music onto a huge canvas; and an audio describer attempts to explain it all.
But that's one of the messages behind JazzArtSigns, the singer, Lisa Thorson, said of her multimedia show. It's designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, but that can make it disorienting for audience members who have all their senses intact.
“There's a couple of places where the hearing audience are left out," Thorson said. “And I've heard people say they felt really uncomfortable in that moment. I say, 'Yeah, that's how a deaf person feels when there's no interpreter.' “
That shared experience is one of Thorson's primary goals in mounting JazzArtSigns, which comes to Philly next Monday as part of the inaugural Independence Starts Here festival of disability in the arts.
The idea for the show came when Thorson, who has used a wheelchair since a 1979 fall, struggled to figure out a way to continue performing.
“I was doing a lot of musical theater at the time of my injury," Thorson explained. “So I started experimenting with incorporating different kinds of music into an act, and I got completely flipped on jazz - hooked on the music, on the people, on the spirit of improvisation, on the challenge of trying to do anything that you can with your voice."
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But that's one of the messages behind JazzArtSigns, the singer, Lisa Thorson, said of her multimedia show. It's designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, but that can make it disorienting for audience members who have all their senses intact.
“There's a couple of places where the hearing audience are left out," Thorson said. “And I've heard people say they felt really uncomfortable in that moment. I say, 'Yeah, that's how a deaf person feels when there's no interpreter.' “
That shared experience is one of Thorson's primary goals in mounting JazzArtSigns, which comes to Philly next Monday as part of the inaugural Independence Starts Here festival of disability in the arts.
The idea for the show came when Thorson, who has used a wheelchair since a 1979 fall, struggled to figure out a way to continue performing.
“I was doing a lot of musical theater at the time of my injury," Thorson explained. “So I started experimenting with incorporating different kinds of music into an act, and I got completely flipped on jazz - hooked on the music, on the people, on the spirit of improvisation, on the challenge of trying to do anything that you can with your voice."
Continue
For more information contact All About Jazz.
