bridging disability and the performing arts

Movement Workshop participants, "Heavenly Bodies", 2004

About Us

Picasso PRO is a two-year project designed to provide a vital bridge between ‘beginnings’ and real integration for artists with disability and Deaf artists in the performing arts. 

At present there are virtually no fully accessible programs which offer stage-related training or development of the artist’s voice in Toronto or Ontario. Picasso PRO’s program of workshops, presentations, and professional development opportunities takes place in accessible venues and is managed by Rose Jacobson under the active trusteeship of Equity Showcase Theatre, one of Toronto’s major theatre training hubs. 

Picasso PRO is committed to the local community of artists with disability and Deaf artists. It is our goal to help enhance and expand the choices currently available to performers, playwrights, directors, choreographers, designers and other aspiring and experienced arts practitioners. 

Producers, directors and trainers in the broad performing arts community also require further orientation, a vocabulary for change and more direct experience working in integrated groups in order to bring disabled artists and audiences fully into their programs. 

Upcoming Picasso PRO workshops and events will be promoted and highlighted in the ‘What’s New’ section of our website home page as they happen.

Background

Picasso PRO is the direct offspring of the Picasso Project, a collaborative two-year research and training program (2002-2004) led by Alex Bulmer of SNIFF Inc. and Rose Jacobson, then Cross Cultural Director of the Toronto Theatre Alliance (now TAPA). 

The Picasso Project was designed to take flight from ”able-centric” notions of the performing arts and sprang from a passionate conviction that artists with disability belong in our consciousness, on our stages and among our professional staffs and audiences. Over two years the core collaborators reached out, met and shared with many disabled artists who were often found working in isolation or apart from the mainstream arts community. 

The results from research in the United Kingdom, Vancouver and Toronto and contact with activists in the USA, Australia, Europe yielded excellent models for training, creation and inclusion that transfer well into the Toronto and the Canadian theatre and dance communities. They led us to embrace the ‘social’ rather than ‘medical’ model of disability; a model which views lack of access rather than an individual’s disability as the key barrier to full engagement with life and arts practice.

The Picasso Project conducted a first-time scan of the cultural ecology as it relates to disability. First-time opportunities for training were created and a significant period of outreach, advocacy and education gave time for insights and recommendations. 

Partners

Rose Jacobson, Project Manager 
In addition to co-directing the Picasso Project, Rose Jacobson was founder of disability-arts programs and services at the Toronto Theatre Alliance, 1993-2002. After more than a decade she has developed strong working relationships within the Deaf and disability-arts communities in Toronto and beyond. Rose attended and presented at the KickstART Celebration of Disability Arts & Culture 2001 and 2004 in Vancouver and is the coordinator of a touring production of CP Salon, scheduled for May 2006.

Rose is a programmer, producer, researcher, facilitator and communications specialist with sixteen years professional experience in the performing arts. She was Cross Cultural Director and Political Liaison for the TTA (now TAPA) between 1991- 2003, Interim Executive Director for two stints during that time, Communications Head for ArtsVote and a board member of Toronto Artscape. She created multiple services, programs and tools for artists of diverse cultural backgrounds and artists with disability in addition to political action, media relations, publicity, cultural and equity policy and government relations. 

Equity Showcase Theatre
Equity Showcase Theatre (EST) is one of Toronto’s major theatre training centres and is committed to including artists with disability in its programs. Although the EST venue is not currently accessible the team has found creative ways to move forward with the training now. “This project is an opportunity for EST to support the development of a properly expanded instructor and student base, and to achieve its goal of providing a truly integrated and long overdue approach to the art form. We fully expect with Picasso PRO, the development will proceed exactly as the community of artists with disability wish it to – whether that is integration, culturally specific expression or both.” says Executive Director Sharon Poitras. 

Equity Showcase Theatre (EST) was founded in 1960 by Charmion King, Amelia Hall, Christopher Newton and others and sees training as a life-long pursuit involving both technique and individual expression. It exists to provide a range of training and professional development opportunities to professional actors, directors and stage managers. In 1978, EST began providing professional training and development opportunities, marrying these with its season of showcases in order to create opportunities in both the classroom and onstage. Throughout its 44-year history, Equity Showcase Theatre has built a solid reputation as the location most trusted by working Canadian theatre artists seeking professional training, and development through performance.

Workshop Specialists
Workshop leaders and specialists will be chosen for their artistic merits, teaching skills, distinctive approaches and in many cases – proven or philosophical interest in working with Deaf artists and/or artists with disability. Picasso PRO workshop leaders are all cutting-edge innovators and trainers in the broad performing arts community. Integrated teaching is a core value of the project and we will offer it whenever we can. Specialists with disability will lead particular sessions, tag-team and present on panels and at events. 

Venues

Picasso PRO enjoys generous support from Richard Mortimer and his staff at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre (EWGC) which will provide a welcoming environment for many of Picasso PRO’s workshops within its beautiful, barrier-free Rehearsal Studios. Other activities will find a home at Tallulah’s Cabaret, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, with the commitment to inclusion shown by Buddies’ leadership and generous staff. Picasso PRO will continue to seek out and work in other accessible venues as the project progresses.

Funding Support

Picasso PRO is made possible through the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) without which this and our previous Picasso Project would not have been possible. OTF is an agency of the Ministry of Culture and receives annually $100 million of government funding generated through Ontario’s charity casino initiative.

Picasso PRO and Equity Showcase Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation