PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A world premiere performance in Philadelphia is bringing attention to accessibility in theater.
“Rhythm Bath,” co-created by Tony-winning set designer Mimi Lien and renowned choreographer Susan Marshall, is designed for neurodiverse and neurotypical audiences to experience together. It’s part of this year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
Many shows will offer one relaxed performance or make other adaptations for accessibility, but “Rhythm Bath” was designed from the start with neurodiverse audiences in mind.
“It's not an afterthought,” Lien says. “It is built in from the beginning.”
Marshall has an adult son with autism and apraxia — the inability to execute or carry out skilled movement and gestures — which is what inspired this piece.
“She was like, ‘I've made all this work, but my son can't actually experience any of the work that I've made,’” Lien explains.
The set features multiple spaces — some quieter and darker — that the audience can move between without missing the performance. Lien says the team wanted to create an environment where it doesn’t feel like you can do anything wrong.
“In a lot of traditional theater, performance spaces, there’s often fixed seating where you feel like you have to go in and sit still,” she says. “A lot of … neurodiverse people might actually need to move around … We decided to make it a space that you could kind of enter and leave at will … so you can sort of be in control of how you experience the piece.”
Dancers will perform around the audience, enveloping them underneath a fabric ceiling reminiscent of the parachute game that many school gym classes play.
“The kids stand in a circle holding a circular parachute,” Lien describes, “and then you will lift it up at the same time, and then you put it behind you, and then you sit on it … and then all of a sudden you're inside this dome, in this mushroom space. I remember loving that feeling and feeling the space really, like, embracing me.”
Lien and Marshall partnered with Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities to include neurodiverse people in the creation process, holding interviews and sending out questionnaires. The team also held workshops with both neurodiverse and neurotypical participants in various cities before bringing the show to Philadelphia for its premiere.
“We asked people about color and texture…windows and doors and hallways, and sort of architectural elements that were either comforting or discomforting to people,” Lien says.
The performance is meant to be an immersive experience that can be enjoyed by all.
“We also were intentional about it not being only for a neurodiverse audience, because … it can end up siloing that population. So the hope was that it's inclusive for everyone.”
“Rhythm Bath” is running Sept. 17-24 at Philadelphia’s Christ Church Neighborhood House. Tickets and more information are available through the Fringe Festival website.