Written and performed by

Anthony Curry and Carrie Gibson
Directed by Kathleen Edwards

Not Just Ramps is a theatrical documentary about physical, emotional and societal access issues for a diverse group of people with disabilities. The actor/playwrights portray people as they tell vivid stories about themselves and their experiences in the workplace and their communities. The stories have been interspersed with comic scenarios on how to deal with people who are “abled.”  These humorous reversals allow us to laugh at some of our fears and the stereotyping that has long been associated with people who are different.  The audience will meet people throughout the play who elicit a wide variety of emotional responses and thoughts designed to create awareness, empathy, and new ways to respond to people who are different from them. The disabilities of those interviewed include blindness, spinal cord injury, deafness and hearing loss, A.L.S. (Lou Gerhig’s Disease), cerebral palsy, breathing and vocal impairment, dyslexia, mental illness, and developmental disabilities. Seeing “Not Just Ramps” and participating in the workshop can be the most effective way for all of us to explore inclusion, and fight bias and bigotry in the workplace and in our lives.

 

The Workshop:

Following the play, Ms. Gibson and Mr. Curry will facilitate an interactive discussion with the participants using their emotional reactions to the play as a springboard to explore issues of access in the workplace and community. The participants will also be encouraged to connect their reactions and questions related to disabilities to the many other dimensions of diversity.

 

The Objectives:

• To explore access on a multitude of levels
• To understand the fear of disabilities and those disabled as a metaphor for all bigotry
• To challenge the objectification of people with disabilities
• To eliminate the barriers in the workplace and the community that permit exclusion
• To demystify the labels applied to people with disabilities
• To examine personal fears of “becoming” disabled
• To explore and affirm the concept of human dignity

 

The following people were interviewed for the play:

Marlaina Lieberg, blindness

Gary Lieberg, spinal cord injury

Jane and Larry Kimble, parents of two children with disabilities

Ryan Kimble, Down’s syndrome

Shirley Vick, cancer survivor with a trach

Carl Moore, A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s disease)

Emily Davis, cerebral palsy

William (Anonymous), dyslexia

Juan Fernandez, hearing loss

Tom (Anonymous), mental illness

Paul Hoffman, deafness and Kim Waldrop, Paul’s co-worker