Austin's St. Martin's Episcopal Church Arts Coordinator in Show

Theresa Pacione has used the arts as a means of building community across diverse groups throughout her professional life to spark more inclusion and diversity. In 2002 she developed a disability awareness training for the Girl Scouts that involved Tellin’ Tales Theatre. She partnered again with them to develop and present a workshop and performance that featured a cast of all people with disabilities at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in the Austin community where she coordinates arts programming. Now, she is one of six performers in Divercity 2020.

Tellin’ Tales Theatre goes virtual this year to present Divercity, running for one weekend only – July 31 at 8pm, August 1 at 8pm & August 2 at 3pm — on Vimeo, hosted by 16th Street Theater. Tickets are available at https://16thstreettheater.org. Prices are $10/regular; $8/people with disabilities plus $2 service fee. An "I love Tellin' Tales" ticket/donation is $20 plus $2 service fee. Each ticket is for one person, on their honor.

The show is directed by Tekki Lomnicki, Artistic Director of Tellin’ Tales Theatre. All of the performers are writers, actors and advocates with disabilities, including five from Chicago and one from New York. They are Sarah Bowden, Elizabeth Doll, Melissa Fuller, Susan McKean, Theresa Pacione, and Nate Woogen. Stories range from hilarious to touching and everything in between.

Stories were developed and directed in a six-week Zoom Master Class taught by Tekki Lomnicki. The disabilities of the performers include spinal injury, mental illness, deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, and muscular atrophy.

“Though Tellin’ Tales has had to pivot in response to the pandemic, the virtual platform actually works well for performers with disabilities due to transportation and accessibility issues. This show proves that though we aren’t able to be together in person, we can stay connected through our stories. I am confident that whether or not viewers have a disability, that they will connect to these stories,” says Tekki Lomnicki, Artistic Director of Tellin’ Tales Theatre.

Ticket holders will be emailed a link to watch the video one-hour before the show, and a separate link for a Zoom talk back after each performance. Closed captioning will be available.

The mission of Tellin' Tales Theatre is to shatter barriers between the disabled and non-disabled worlds through the transformative power of personal story. We bring together children and adults from both communities to share their stories in theatrically innovative productions and programs to promote awareness, understanding and acceptance.

The website for Tellin' Tales Theatre is www.tellintales.org

Divercity is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Chicago Community Trust.