Theatre Operations Unleashed

S2 EP6 Public Lobbies, Box Office, and Circulation

The lobby is the first interior experience for any visitor to a performing arts venue. This episode addresses accessible routes through public spaces, accessible service counters, seating and queuing areas, accessible ticketing, and the particular challenges of historic lobby configurations.

S2 EP5 Site Arrival, Parking, and Exterior Approach

The accessible experience begins before a patron or worker enters the building. This episode addresses site planning, accessible parking, passenger loading zones, accessible routes from parking to building entrance, and exterior site elements including grades, surfaces, lighting, and weather protection.

S2 EP4 Beyond Physical Access: Designing for the Mind, the Senses, and the full Human Experience

This episode expands the working definition of accessibility beyond physical mobility to take in the full spectrum of disability experience, with particular attention to cognitive disabilities, sensory processing differences, neurodivergent conditions, and mental health. It argues that physical access, while essential, represents only one dimension of a truly accessible performing arts environment.

S2 EP3 Universal Design: Designing for Everyone, Not the Average

This episode introduces Universal Design (UD) as a design philosophy that goes beyond minimum code compliance and aims to create environments, products, and services usable by the widest possible range of people. It traces the origins of UD, introduces its seven principles, and examines how those principles apply specifically to performing arts facilities and productions. It argues that a UD approach, rather than a compliance-only approach, is the appropriate standard for the performing arts sector.

S2 EP2 The Legislative Landscape: How Accessibility Became Law

This episode provides a snapshot account of United States disability rights legislation as it applies to public spaces, places of employment, and cultural institutions, with attention to venues and programs in the performing arts sector. It traces the development of federal accessibility standards from the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 through the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, and situates those standards within the broader arc of civil rights law.

S2 EP1 Disability, Society, and the Arts: How We Got Here

This is the first in a series of episodes on disability in the arts establishing a baseline for the cultural and historical context for accessibility in the performing arts, tracing attitudes toward disability from antiquity through the mid-twentieth century and into the modern disability rights movement. It argues that the performing arts have historically been both a site of exclusion for people with disabilities and a site of representation, resistance, and radical inclusion.

S1 EP9 The "Why" in the work.

Finding and centering yourself or your organization around the "Why" we do what we do provides a north star to propelling you towards success. Once you have that, you are able to head to what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. Tune in while I speak with Elizabeth Greer on the importance of finding your Why.

S1 EP8 - Why an MFA with guest Elizabeth Greer

Join us in this episode as I am joined by professional actor and BFA/MFA coach, Elizabeth Greer as we discuss the how and why someone would want to pursue an MFA the theater. We dive into thoughts about what to expect, what you will need, and what are the benefits to pursuing higher levels of education as you continue your professional journey.