When she was academy director at First Stage, Katie Cummings noticed there were few creative opportunities available for disabled actors once they turned 18. She started Pink Umbrella Theater Company in 2018 to amplify and give space to artists with a range of disabilities.
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Since then, the nonprofit has worked with over 300 students, and with 50 working actors, it currently produces three sensory-friendly shows a year. Every show is written by or with someone with a disability, and each role is designed to accommodate individual actors.
“One of our actors has a pretty significant speech impediment,” Cummings says. “When we cast her, we modify the text.”
This built-in flexibility is part of Pink Umbrella’s larger goal of creating a disabled theater canon. In April, the company won a $200,000 grant from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts. Long-term plans for the funds include commissioning 20 plays a year and staging half of them.
Cummings hopes within the year to hire an artistic director and establish a permanent home for Pink Umbrella. “I think that we will become known as a place where you can explore your creativity,” she says, “certainly in the Midwest, if not beyond.”
Pink Umbrella’s next production, PORTRAITS, a madcap comedy about a photo studio, runs from Aug. 2-11.
