Samuel Yates, Ph.D.

Samuel Yates, Ph.D., is a deaf artist and researcher who is currently Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies in the School of Theatre and Dance at Millikin University. His current book project, Cripping Broadway: Producing Disability in the American Musical investigates disability aesthetics and accessibility practices in Broadway musicals by asking how our notions of disability and the able body inform and transform the work of the laboring actor in commercial theatre. As a dramaturg and theatremaker, he has collaborated with companies such as the Abbey Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Kennedy Center, the Samuel Beckett Centre, Gala Hispanic Theatre, and New Harmony Theater. Beyond the theatre, Samuel has worked as arts and accessibility consultant with Gensler Architecture, the National Endowment for the Arts, and 3Arts Chicago. His work on disability, performance, and popular culture is published or forthcoming in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Music Theatre Today, Studies in Musical Theatre, and Medicine and Literature, as well as edited volumes such as The Matter of Disability (U Michigan), A Cultural History of Disability in the Modern Age (Bloomsbury), and Monsters in Performance: Essays on the Aesthetics of Social Disqualification (Routledge).

Sam Mauceri

Sam Mauceri (they/them) is a theatre educator, artist, and administrator with a passion for creating accessible spaces for students and young audiences, and the Director of Education & Access Programs at Chicago Children’s Theatre. At CCT, Sam heads the Red Kite Project, a series of dynamic camps, classes, and residencies designed for young people on the autism spectrum. Prior to joining the Education team at Chicago Children’s Theatre, they served as the School Matinee Series Coordinator at Goodman Theatre, where they also co-directed PlayBuild, and Strike! The Youth Political Theatre Project. Originally from the DC area, Sam was the Master Instructor of Early Childhood Education and teaching artist at Imagination Stage, as well as a teaching artist with Young Playwrights’ Theater. Alongside teaching drama to young people, they also provide professional development for educators in arts integration, creating accessible and inclusive drama classrooms, and facilitating trans-positive learning spaces. As a director and playwright, their work has been produced in Chicago and DC. 

Chicago Children’s Theatre focuses on the production of first-rate children’s theatre in Chicago, with top writing, performing, and directorial talent and high-quality design and production expertise. Chicago Children’s Theatre also produces The Red Kite Project, a multi-sensory interactive theatre program tailored specifically to the needs of children on the autism spectrum. In 2017, Chicago Children’s Theatre became the first theater for young audiences in the nation to win a National Theatre Award from the American Theatre Wing, creators of the Tony Awards.

Lydia X. Z. Brown

Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. They are Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focused on algorithmic discrimination and disability, as well as Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. Lydia is also adjunct lecturer and core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program, and adjunct professorial lecturer in American University’s Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies. They serve as a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, chairperson of the ABA Civil Rights & Social Justice Section’s Disability Rights Committee, co-president of the Disability Rights Bar Association, and board representative for the Disability Justice Committee to the National Lawyers Guild. Lydia founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color's Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment, and they are creating Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot. Lydia is past chairperson of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, and former Justice Catalyst Legal Fellow at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.

The mission of Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN) is to provide community, support, and resources for Autistic women, girls, transfeminine and transmasculine nonbinary people, trans people of all genders, Two Spirit people, and all others of marginalized genders.

Caroline Umeda

Caroline Umeda (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Dominican University of California. As an occupational therapist (OT), Caroline has provided clinical services to children with disabilities and their families since 1999. Through consultative private practice and her faculty position at Dominican, Caroline partners with cultural arts organizations to develop inclusive programs. She has collaborated with Seattle Children's Theatre to create and implement their Sensory Friendly Performance Program and provided sensory processing training to actors at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA. Through her current faculty position, Caroline partners with community theatres and arts venues in the Bay Area to develop sensory friendly performances and inclusive arts classes. She mentors current OT graduate students in the development of community-based access programs and engages in research examining the impact of organization-level occupational therapy consultation on community participation among people with diverse abilities.

Crom Saunders

Crom Saunders is currently Director of Deaf Studies at the American Sign Language Department of Columbia College, Chicago. Crom has interpreted dozens of plays, from children’s theatre to musicals, including at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has taught dozens of ASL linguistics and theatrical workshops across the nation, in addition to working as a Director of ASL for several theatre companies across the nation. Crom also performs his one person show, “Cromania!” internationally.  And yes, the eyebrows are real. organization description is below:

Columbia College Chicago is a private college specializing in arts and media disciplines and located in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928 students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

Ilana Abusch

Ilana Abusch is the Artistic Director for Seesaw Theatre, previously the Winter Event Director and Spring Mainstage Producer. She is also the current Summer Teen Conservatory Director at The Play Group Theatre, a non-profit children’s theatre in New York. Ilana is a Senior Theatre Major at Northwestern University with a concentration in Playwriting and minors in Film and Media Studies, Greek, and Psychology. As an actor and director, Ilana has experience creating sensory-based theatre for autistic and otherwise disabled children. As a playwright, she is committed to Theatre for Young Audiences. Her play Without Wings was recently workshopped as part of Purple Crayon Players’ PLAYground Festival and is now being produced at her hometown high school in White Plains, NY. She was recently commissioned to co-write a musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, titled In Wonderland, which will debut next month at the Play Group Theatre as part of their fall season.

Faith Douglas

Faith Douglas (they/them) is a neurodiverse actor, writer, activist, and current Northwestern theatre student. They serve as the Research Chair for Seesaw Theatre and look forward to continuing to work in advancing neurodiverse and inclusive theatre on the Northwestern campus and in the greater theatrical community.

Ben Raanan

Ben Raanan is a disabled theatre maker and activist who is currently the Artistic Director of Phamaly Theatre Company. Bens mission is to create artistically rigorous theatre with, for, and about the disability community. As a child, Ben recognized the transformative power that theatre held, but was disheartened that individuals with disabilities were ostracized from our artistic community. Ben began to focus his directing work on creating inclusive equity within the art form to further the disability canon. Ben received his BFA in Directing and Special Education from Drake University and his MFA in Directing from DePaul University. Favorite directorial credits include: Antigone: born against, Crumble: Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake, The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Suicide (Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati), Mockingbird (Falcon Theatre), Falling, Oedipus the King (The Theatre School at DePaul). Ben has worked as an accessibility consultant at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Northlight Theatre, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Ben is a proud member of the Flute Theatre in London and a proud practice of the Hunter Heartbeat Method. Ben’s activism has been featured in such publications as American Theatre and HowlRound.

Phamaly Theatre Company is the longest running disability theatre in the United States. At every performance, you will see actors with all nature of disabilities: physical, cognitive, intellectual, and emotional. PTC gives actors a supportive space to explore and develop their craft, empowers artists within their disability identity, educates the community about access and inclusion, and entertains audiences with high-quality, award winning theatre.

Julia Hogan Laurenson 

Julia Hogan Laurenson is an arts administrator and educator, dramaturg, director, and deviser. She is the Executive Director for Seesaw Theatre as well as the former Production Manager and Conference and Engagement Director, most notably producing Seesaw’s Fourth Annual Inclusive Theatre Festival, a weekend-long conference dedicated to accessibility and inclusion in theatre in 2019. She is one of Imagine U’s two Education and Engagement Directors for the 2021-22 season. Julia has extensive experience devising and performing multi-sensory, immersive theatre for babies (4-18 months) and autistic and otherwise disabled children (K-8). Her recent dramaturgy credits include The Battlefields of Clara Barton and Without Wings (an Imagine U and PLAYground Festival of Fresh Works collaboration). She also recently directed the premiere production of When She Went to Mantua. Julia has had the honor of working with both Childsplay and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Julia is a Senior Theatre and History Double Major with Modules in Theatre for Young Audiences and Children & Communication at Northwestern University. 

Juliet Huneke

Juliet Huneke is the Education Director of Seesaw Theatre. She is a senior Theatre major and Sociology minor in the Playwriting Module at Northwestern University. Juliet is an actor, playwright, teaching artist, and improviser. She is especially passionate about accessible theatre, plays for teenage audiences, and being the person who gets to use the hot glue gun when Seesaw makes glitter jars.