Our Mission
"This is a theater company whose time has come."
-Michael Sexton/Director of the Public Shakespeare Initiative @ The Public Theater
The Apothetae is a company dedicated to the production of works that explore and illuminate the, "Disabled Experience." To do this we focus on newly commissioned plays by both established and up and coming playwrights, and material that already exist in the theatrical canon featuring characters with disabilities or dealing with disabled themes: Oedipus, Richard III, The Elephant Man, etc. By making visible the human impact of disabled people throughout history, we believe empathy can be practiced, perceptions changed and new communities forged through the collaborative and transformative power of the artistic process.
An integrated company, the Apothetae employs both actors with disabilities and non-disabled actors from the larger New York theater scene, from regional theaters around the country and the world. Non-disabled actors and playwrights are asked to write and say the things about the Disabled Experience that they think they should not. Disabled actors must respond instead of reacting. Only through honest interaction and collaboration, can habitual perceptions be altered and new ways of being and seeing one another achieved.
We live in an age of global networks; we should be creating locally but sharing on a bigger scale. By doing so our art becomes a vehicle for social change by challenging perceived perceptions of our cultural landscape, and by more accurately reflecting our day-to-day reality on the stage; one where people with disabilities not only participate but also thrive.
-Michael Sexton/Director of the Public Shakespeare Initiative @ The Public Theater
The Apothetae is a company dedicated to the production of works that explore and illuminate the, "Disabled Experience." To do this we focus on newly commissioned plays by both established and up and coming playwrights, and material that already exist in the theatrical canon featuring characters with disabilities or dealing with disabled themes: Oedipus, Richard III, The Elephant Man, etc. By making visible the human impact of disabled people throughout history, we believe empathy can be practiced, perceptions changed and new communities forged through the collaborative and transformative power of the artistic process.
An integrated company, the Apothetae employs both actors with disabilities and non-disabled actors from the larger New York theater scene, from regional theaters around the country and the world. Non-disabled actors and playwrights are asked to write and say the things about the Disabled Experience that they think they should not. Disabled actors must respond instead of reacting. Only through honest interaction and collaboration, can habitual perceptions be altered and new ways of being and seeing one another achieved.
We live in an age of global networks; we should be creating locally but sharing on a bigger scale. By doing so our art becomes a vehicle for social change by challenging perceived perceptions of our cultural landscape, and by more accurately reflecting our day-to-day reality on the stage; one where people with disabilities not only participate but also thrive.