Episode Transcript
DENS3E25 Christina Trivigno
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: [00:00:00] Welcome to Disability Empowerment now, season three. I'm your host, Keith Kinni. Today I'm talking to Christina Trevina, who is the Director of Digital Strategy for TDF. Christina, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Uh, we've been talking for a while and I am a big user of TDF, uh, I love it.
Football. Those who are not native to New York are, know what TDF stands for. Pleases. Start there and tell us what [00:01:00] TDF. original name was.
Christina Trivigno: Sure, absolutely. So TDF stands for Theatre Development Fund, although we tend to go just by TDF these days. Um, and TDF is a non profit working in New York City that um, Endeavors to break down barriers to attendance at the theater and also in music and dance venues.
Um, and we do that in a variety of ways. Um, some of those barriers are things like economic access. So we want to make theaters more affordable for people. Um, but we also have a wide range of accessibility, uh, offerings at TDF. We do open caption performances. We do audio described performances. We do.
Autism friendly performances. Um, we also have programs that take students to the theater and veterans. Um, we really want theater to feel like a place that everyone can go to. [00:02:00] That everyone
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: belongs at the theater.
Everyone certainly belongs at the theater. In this day and age, we all need to be theater. Much
theater, do you see true T. D. F. and is it part of your job or just one of the fantastic perks you get? It is. It
Christina Trivigno: is a perk of my job that, um, It helps me to, um, especially on social media to, um, assist people in deciding what show is right for them that I know what's playing and then I get to see things.
So, [00:03:00] um, sometimes I go because we're having a performance and I just get to attend as well. Um, so I can show up at an autism friendly performance and just watch from the back of the theater. But sometimes I'll purchase tickets if I feel like it's a show that I need to see that, um, you know, I'm, I don't have another way to see it through one of our programs.
Um, but yes, it is a lovely perk of the job. One of my favorite perks of the job, I would say, is that I get to see a lot of theater.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: So, I joined TD last year because my father,
I'm at pain
to TD, but I wanted to help the organization out financially anyway, and so I was in [00:04:00] New York in January, cause I'm cold, spoiler alert, that's it.
Christina Trivigno: As I recall, you saw many things that day. Yes,
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: yes. True, I should say. Yeah, no, I started and finished, actually, my New York theater and opera run with the marvelous and amazing How to Dance in
Christina Trivigno: Ottawa.
I saw that show. I
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: loved it. I actually saw it three times, and the amazing shipping time was the most special because what TDF does when you buy a ticket of cards, you know. But for those who don't know, when you buy a ticket [00:05:00] from TDF, you don't get assigned a seat until the day of or even the hour before the performance you have.
Christina Trivigno: In a regular TDF membership like you have, that is true, we don't assign the seats, the theater does.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Wait, uh, okay. You said something I'm not aware of. So, so I have a regular TDF membership. I'm paid and then I found out about your accessibility program that would allow me a pre TDF membership as long as I had a documented disability, which I do, and getting the paperwork is not a [00:06:00] problem for that at all.
Now, with a accessibility membership, what happens in terms of tickets? Seating plates, compared to I
Christina Trivigno: mean, it depends on what kind of accessibility you declare with us, what would happen. So if you tell us that you have a mobility disability, then we work with the theater to get you the appropriate seat, or your mobility needs, if you need a transfer seat, or if you need a seat to be taken out, then we make that happen.
If you're saying that, um you're coming for an open captioning event, then we have a certain section of the theater that we reserve that are near the caption board so that we see you in that area. So it really does depend on the disability and what kind of accessibility service we are assisting you with.
Um, when we do autism friendly [00:07:00] performances, we very often, uh, or I should say exclusively, we buy the whole And then we ask people when they sign up. Um, if they would have a problem with sitting in the mezzanine, if they need to be downstairs because of a wheelchair or a mobility device or difficulty walking, or even, you know, uh, a height concern, uh, you know, depth perception concern other.
Issues that might make it uncomfortable for them to sit in the mezzanine, but we assign people their seats in those cases. Based on what you tell us about what you need to experience the
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: theater. So I'm actually going to be back in New York
and more mobility to then I do, and that's not at all [00:08:00] problem, that
it's something
I would like. to when I buy tickets, because it's, it may not be the ticket holder who has the mobility issue or the sensory issue or whatever the issue may be, it may be the person or persons they're taking with them, but it may be the person or persons they're taking with them. To the theater. But before we get into the rest of the interview, let me go back to the second out of three [00:09:00] times I was able to see How to Dance in Idaho, all through TDM.
And one of the second performances was special because you had me The I old seat? Uh, yeah, the I old seat of Row G and one of the co composers of the sound trim, he had twins in the row behind me. Oh, wonderful. And so, and. I overheard their conversation and so after he was done, uh, his name is Jacob. I can't [00:10:00] pronounce Sid's lad's name.
I can't even pronounce my lad's name, if it wasn't attached to me, and I told him about the pod dad and my love. For Theta, and the only, only region that I will be able to interview any CABS member at, from How to Dance in Idaho. Ohio. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Sorry. How to Dance in Ohio. Ohio. On the. In the season finale of season three of Bids Hard Cats [00:11:00] is because TDF randomly placed me at, in the right seat, at the right time, at the right performance.
Christina Trivigno: That sounds like fate!
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: So, again, I owe a big debt of gratitude, but in order to elaborate, uh, I not only saw How to Dance in Ohio three times, I also saw Back to the Future. Fall Times could,
Christina Trivigno: oh, that is a visually stunning show. Musical
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: The Magic. I love Language . I saw a Beautiful Nos, the Neo [00:12:00] Diamond musical, and then I went to the Met Opera three times.
Oh wow. Until, uh, LA Bom. Naboku and Madam Butterfly. Every seat I got through TDF, which are randomly chosen at that performance, I have never gotten a bad seat through. My membership with TDF. So thank you. I'd love to hear that. So how did you become involved with TDF? And how many years have you worked for TDF?
Well, let's see.
Christina Trivigno: I've been at TDF a little over 10 years now. [00:13:00] Um, so I used to work at a digital marketing firm that, uh, worked in theater. I was a part time employee there. And when I was working there, they had a transition of their team and new management came in and there was a lot of upheaval. And, um, so I started looking for a new job and.
Sometimes the theater industry can be sort of a, a small industry, even though we do so much stuff, everybody knows everybody. So I'd had an internship where I was working at Manhattan theater club. So the people at the, at TDF used to work at Manhattan theater club. So they had people who they could talk to that.
They trusted that. They knew that that was a good internship program. They talked to the people that I. used to work for, uh, the marketing firm, and I was hired at, then at the time, as the social media [00:14:00] manager. So I have, uh, had quite a number of title changes over the years at my time at TDF. Um, certainly when I started working at TDF, um, doing social media, I was trying to make our social media accessible.
Now my job, Being more broadly digital, I focus on making our websites accessible. I want them to work for people who use, you know, keyboard access to get around a website or using voice controls. Uh, we have a consultant that we use named Len, who's wonderful. To help us test the websites, because, of course, accessibility and digital kind of are never done.
Anytime someone releases, say, a new browser or a new or OS or something, there's, there's always a new thing to check or keep up on. So, but it's a great place to work. It's a lot of fun. I'm so happy that I landed here. And, uh, I, I [00:15:00] didn't say, and you probably can't tell because you can only see me from, you know, my neck line up, but I am also a wheelchair user.
So I am disabled myself. And I bring that to my job too, to help them, um, see things from a different perspective sometimes, even if it's not, uh, necessarily my purview, uh, or, or my responsibility, I should say. Um, you know. I, I try and breathe accessibility into all of the areas that, uh, we do.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: You ever tired going theater, musical, or Broadway in general? I would,
I
Christina Trivigno: would say that I had a little bit of, uh, an existential crisis coming out of the pandemic. Um, or, you know, I'm Pandemic's not necessarily over. I shouldn't say coming out of it, but coming out of the restrictions, um, a fear of going back to the [00:16:00] theater and it's kind of like a habit or a muscle, right?
You have to like cater to it and nurture it. So I got out of the habit of going to the theater and I had a fear of going back. Now, I'm very happy that I'm comfortable going again, but it was definitely, uh, something I had to nurture back to its pre pandemic levels. And I think we're finding that in, in audiences that, um, there are definitely people who either.
They found new habits that they like, uh, other things that they found that bring them joy during the pandemic and they're doing more of that and they're going less to the theater or, and then there are people who are back at it, you know, there's a spectrum there and, and there's a spectrum of comfortableness with going to the theater.
Some of the nonprofit theater companies had masking days longer than some of the for profit [00:17:00] companies, not. All of the theaters had the same thing. So some of the subscription houses, like roundabout would have days of the week where everyone had to wear a mask. If you wanted to be at that performance, even when restrictions didn't say that that was necessary, they kept it going for a while.
But. You know, some people are still uncomfortable with coming to the theater and some people are gung ho about it. It's a, it's a wide spectrum of experiences that people have and concerns that they have, you know, if you're immunocompromised then it is totally valid that you are scared to go outside and encounter other people who are maybe not taking it as seriously as you are.
So,
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: TDF's offerings changes gets updated, added every day, which brings to mind that Lloyd's Gump [00:18:00] like it's, like, a box of cherries, you never know what you're going to get. Uh, how much control? Or, not control. What side of foreknowledge does TD have? Or is it a surprise? Or, maybe not surprise, but It can be
Christina Trivigno: a very fast process.
It can be that, uh, the theater writes to us in the morning and the show is on sale a couple of hours later, we don't, I mean, it, it, it isn't always the same for all of the shows, but sometimes, I mean, we also operate the TKTS booth, which. Is for day of performances, so that is a very fast moving list of shows and [00:19:00] even in the middle of the day, we can run out of tickets and then the theater gives us another allotment or calls us, you know, a few hours after they open the box office and and decides to put their show on sale later in the day than in the morning.
It can be fast moving and it can be a surprise to us as
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: well. Yeah, there, there are big Broadway show modes, uh,
Hades on there. There are also shows not on there. Mulan, The Lion King, although I think I've seen that go off and on. TDF as well. The Great Gatsby when it[00:20:00]
It's a double
Christina Trivigno: edged sword, right? I mean, we, we love it when a theater is selling well and doesn't need, uh, to offer our services to fill their house because, of course, we want the industry to be well. You know, financially stable, but also, we want to make it accessible, so there are shows that don't need us yet.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Did you judge, see? That T. D. M. likes not being of use
Christina Trivigno: to Joe. No, I don't mean that we don't want to be of use. Of course we want to be of use. But it says nice things for the health of a show if they're able to sell out without discounting, of course. But we want the theaters to say that offering discounts is also good [00:21:00] for the
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: industry.
Yeah, I mean, you also have opera, you also have music by Candlelight, in church, you also have Shakespeare on there, you have drunken Shakespeare, you literally have a You literally have a church. Daily Changing Smorgasbord of every type of theater offering both Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, and They're not always judging Manhattan, some are in New
Christina Trivigno: York.
Yes, we have, we have things outside of the city and sometimes you can find the, the thing that's going to be the next big hit before it's gone to [00:22:00] Broadway. If you go see a smaller show, see an off Broadway show, maybe a year from now, it'll be the big hit that it's hard to get a ticket to.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: You never know.
I want to go back to something just because a show, a big show, like Hadestown, utilizes TDF, or that any show would utilize TDF. Doesn't necessarily mean the show is struggling. Oh no, absolutely not. About the accessibility that the show is trying to pull in and pull in people.
Christina Trivigno: No, theater needs to have a diverse audience to survive.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: And so, are you [00:23:00] native to New York? Yeah,
Christina Trivigno: I am. I'm born and raised. I was born in Queens. I live in Manhattan now, but I've been in New York my whole life.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Yeah, I was born in Manhattan, and I can't really escape it, even though. The
Christina Trivigno: greatest city in the
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: world, right? Yeah, I've tried in vain, and I keep getting shot out of there.
Uh, which isn't a bad thing at all. I know you can't talk about much. Um, features or shows that aren't on the release docket yet. Uh, and that's totally understandable. But as a [00:24:00] employee of TDF, if you could project what you, as a disabled feeder girl, would like to see TDF. do in, let's say, the next five to ten years, that old adage, question, to become even more accessible, to broaden their reach to every demographic, even more than they already do, which is substantial.
But we can always improve accessibility, particularly in the entertainment industry, and particularly On [00:25:00] a mammoth stage that is Broadway, and even the Met Opera, I mean, just to pause there, I've gotten fantastic seats. For a third of the points through TDM. So you literally never know what you're going to get through TDM.
But back to the question, how do you or how do we enhance accessibility through TDM?
Christina Trivigno: That's a great question. Um, so one of the things that I run is a website called Theater Access NYC, which lists not only the accessibility performances that TDF is arranging, but also if another vendor is offering [00:26:00] ASL captions or sensory friendly performances or Any kind of accessibility service, uh, we listed on theater access dot NYC and I encourage feedback on that website because it's entire point is to make theater more accessible and make the theater buying process more accessible.
Um, and some of the feedback we've gotten there is that people want more sort of, um, clear understanding of the layout of the theater. Uh, so what do you expect when you go in? Like, are, where are the bathrooms? Where are the exits? Uh, so people can make a better decision about their ticket buying, uh, choices.
Do they want to be near an exit row? Do they want to be, uh, Somewhere where they can have their service animal? Do they want to be near the bathroom because they know they're going to need to get up frequently? Um, so I think making it, um, easier to know the layouts of the interior spaces that we're [00:27:00] inhabiting.
Um, Is going to be something I'm really interested in exploring and how we can make that happen. And, um, also people want to know more about the content of the shows. Uh, if there's gunshots, if there's smoke, if there's, um, a topic that might be upsetting to people, uh, and that is an area of access as well.
And you may not want to go to a show if it's going to remind you of something traumatic in your life, or if you can't handle the, uh. Smoky atmosphere that they're creating or whatever. Um, sensory issues you might be dealing with. Um, I, I think we can do a lot more, um, of what we already do. And I don't want that to sound like a cop out, but, you know, we do something like, uh, 4 or 5, uh, autism friendly performances.
a year generally as a season. And we have great partners that come back to us every year and want to do it like [00:28:00] Lion King, Aladdin, the Disney shows are great. Um, and we definitely have a youthful audience in that program. So, uh, kid friendly shows are great to go with, but we have done adult content in that program as well.
I'd like to CS do more of that and I, I'd like us to expand the accessibility program to have more options than it has now. I mean, we do have lots of accessibility, uh, services that we offer, but we can do more to reach more people. And get more people signed up for those programs so that they are being used.
And the more that they're used, the more contracts we can do, the more performances. It's kind of a circle, right? You need the people to sell the shows and you need the shows to sell the people. Um, but yeah, I think I, I would love to see us, um, do, um, relaxed performances in addition to autism friendly [00:29:00] performances because.
There is a range there of support needs. Uh, our autism friendly performances have a wide variety of volunteers. We have, uh, quiet areas. We have activity areas. We have specialists at the theater. And there are probably people who don't need. Quite so much support, but still want a different experience than a regular performance, or maybe they just want a more sympathetic audience around them, who isn't going to, uh, look at them strangely, because I've certainly been looked at strangely at the theater myself.
And I know what that's like. I, I, I, this, I'm excited to, we actually have a new executive director. So we are having conversations about things that we want to do differently. Under new leadership. So who knows, who knows where that's going
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: to go?[00:30:00]
Christina Trivigno: I threw a lot at you . Yeah.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Yeah. And now I'm like trying to navigate like the TDF website. If I could spend all my money to keep you guys afloat in New York, I would, uh, because you all offered such a fantastic range of programming. I mean, there are shows that you would not expect to be on their net sincerely that are on there.
And it says a lot about a organization that their extensibility [00:31:00] offerings and. The shows are as diverse as the membership, both paying and also free. I mean, signing up, why I went the regular paid route is because even though I knew I had a permanent disability, the The page about accessibility, I found after I'd sign up and I would, like, all budget.
Well we do have
Christina Trivigno: a membership type, we call it internally dual membership, where you can have both. Uh, listed with us and accessibility need and we will offer you those [00:32:00] performances that fit your accessibility need. But then within the system, you can toggle over to the performances that do not have a special service offered by us that are just in the membership listings for everyone.
So, you know. There are people who like captions, but sometimes the handheld Gallop Pro is fine. And we don't want to tell them not to go to those performances. If they want to go to both our open captioned performances, and have the handheld device at other performances, you are free to do that.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Yeah, like, I, I'd never mind sitting and imagining the balcony.
But I must say it's very, very nice to sit in the orchestra, even the real orchestra, particularly at the Metropolitan [00:33:00] Opera, every time I would there it, it would like, I'd saw LA on a Monday, I'd saw Naba. On Wednesday of that week, and then I saw Madame Butterfly on Thursday on my edge while I had layered at the Metropolitan Opera.
for that week, and it was spectacular because those were all shows I wanted to see, but the price point of the opera would have
quite necessarily pushed [00:34:00] me out of doing that, but um, yeah, And, like, the lottery envisions where I like, uh, the regular membership of never knowing what seat I'm going to get.
Christina Trivigno: And as a wheelchair user, I'm super excited to know when there's a theater now that has an elevator and I can sit in the mezzanine.
Because that's an experience I didn't have until I was I don't know, a
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: teenager. Yeah, and I mean, one of the things that other regular ticket selling platforms do, and even feeders, which I hope that TDF [00:35:00] finds a way to implement sometime, is that you get a
A viewing of where the seat truly is, and this would be more for the accessibility side than the regular side. But, I, I remember going home From the opera every time logging on and seeing the price point of the ticket, which boggled my mind, , and also seeing where exactly it words in relation to the [00:36:00] stage, and particularly when you'd seen the opera, but.
Every musical, in general, that's very important regardless of your accessibility needs. Uh, because most of the accessible seats For people in wheelchairs, or people in crutches, or people who use canes, or other mobility aids, are in the back of the theater. I think that those seats wouldn't always be good for viewing appearances, but more often than not, in visions where the Lion King [00:37:00] really shines, those seats are actually very breathtaking, to be honest.
And I'm just illustrating that point by just looking at the theater website on their web page and seeing the viewpoint from the seats there and then looking up And imagining and seeing the view from there. And so that would be certainly one accessibility, but really a regular feature that I would like.
And [00:38:00] hope that TDF finds a way to implement, certainly for musicals, I mean, with candlelight music, it's hard, if not impossible, to do that because they're often in churches or cathedrals or synagogues, which are all great. Uh. Performance spaces to heal. Sure. That kind of music. But for musicals in opera, that is in a Cary feature that should be standard, uh, in the ticketing option of hopefully every year.
[00:39:00] Website that would,
Christina Trivigno: yeah, like I said, that that sort of understanding of what the interior of the theater is, one of the biggest feedback pieces we get is that people want to know what, what does it look like inside? Uh, you know, how big is that ramp even? Yeah. You know, is there a bathroom I can use? Is the bathroom I, there, there are unfortunate things about.
Uh, these buildings being very old and being landmark that sometimes renovations can be problematic, um, for them to get approval to renovate if they are, um, landmark status, they're not allowed to change. I think their facade and I'm, I'm not a real estate expert there, but I know that there are challenges if spaces want to become more accessible if they don't have, say, a wheelchair accessible bathroom in their theater.
Already, um, so there is definitely a mystery for some people around what the insides of these spaces look like. [00:40:00] And I, I totally agree that that'd be. That is 1 of the things I am certainly excited about seeing in the future is more. Uh, transparency about what these spaces look like inside.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: So, if there are any advocates, uh, theatergoers, non theatergoers, and I know there are people who exist, like Otto, understand musicals.
Ed's hard. Ed's that is.
Christina Trivigno: I met that is a challenge for TDF is that you know, we posit that, you know, the theater is for everyone, but an important part of that is making their first theater going experience. Good. Because they go to the theater, we get them to go [00:41:00] to or someone else gets them together their friend takes them to the theater.
And. They can't get to their seat or the ushers read to them or parking was a million dollars or whatever, uh, or the play just wasn't for them. It was like the wrong topic or, you know, they were tired. If that first theater experience isn't good, it's so much harder to get them to go the second time. You have to catch them when their mind is open and they're eager to go the first time.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Sorry, there'll always be audio, video, not always, but sometimes.
Christina Trivigno: Did you catch what I said, though, when you turned the camera off?
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: [00:42:00] Absolutely, yeah, uh, it would stretch on my end, certainly not on your end. That's a very important point because making the first or second performance of a theater goer is As insensible as you can,
will motivate them, hopefully, to keep coming back. I'm, I like to say that my parents bathed Uh, me in Broadway. I like that. Yeah, yeah. They took me [00:43:00] to see The Phantom of the Opera first. That
Christina Trivigno: is the first show I remember seeing. That is not the first show I saw, but that is the first show I have a memory of seeing.
So
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: my parents would tell this story of
Christina Trivigno: taking me to a renaissance fair and taking me to see some Shakespearean shortened recreation at the renaissance fair. And that my jaw was just on the floor the whole time in awe of what was happening. But I do remember my mother taking me to Phantom of the Opera when I was slightly older.
And, uh, I was still a kid. I was eight, I think, seven or eight. Um, and I remember that show. I remember the chandelier. I remember, you know, it being opulent and, and, uh, overwhelming. Um, but my parents loved to tell the [00:44:00] Renaissance Faire story as the day they knew I was going to love
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: theater. Yeah, I mean, the phantom, lame age.
In Cats, probably not in that order, although Phantom was definitely first, or it was the first musical soundtrack that I got. the highlights of the original soundtrack and that started a collection habit. I still have to this day and probably always will have into this planet but it's like
Christina Trivigno: I just had to get rid of a lot of playbills because I've been collecting them for years. Oh yeah! But uh, I gave them [00:45:00] to a plaz shop and some of the benefits from those sales will go towards TDF so hopefully they find nice new homes.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: So, one question to ask. First question
to ask. We'll get to that one in a second. If there are any advocates who are just starting out, hopefully they're theatergoers like us. They may not be, but want to pursue advocacy in a professional capacity, or maybe even a semi capacity, as someone who works in the industry of making a cornerstone of [00:46:00] what makes New York City New York City more accessible, what would be some action steps that you would recommend to the aspiring advocate?
Yeah,
Christina Trivigno: I mean, I think there are lots of non profits that could Definitely use some volunteers and some more staff that are always hiring. And I think there are lots of good things that the mayor's office for people with disabilities is doing in New York city, both to get people hired and to get people involved.
Um, I mean, my, my journey into this, I, I started very young doing what I would consider advocacy work in my high school. Um, I was, uh, In a support group for people with disabilities in my high school, and we turned [00:47:00] the, uh, actually junior high, um, junior high school and, uh. We turned that into a theater troupe and, uh, through that theater troupe, we performed at Lincoln center and we made plays based on our disability and perform them and we did, uh, radio shows and we did, uh, I performed at Lincoln center.
That was like the highlight of my acting career at like 14 or something, maybe, maybe even younger. There's a newspaper article about it somewhere in the world. Um, But, you know, the sooner that you start, uh, speaking your truth and advocating for yourself, the, the more those opportunities come your way, I think.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: You know, when I was twenty five,[00:48:00]
I got to perform with a choir at the Santa Fe Opera. We sang November, sorry, Beethoven's Ninth. And, yeah, so that's my highlight so far. Um, but, I I like to think that this podcast, and now a full fledged video cat, reaches both people with disabilities and those who have yet to discover and embrace their own disability.
But I'm not naive to think that each group takes away the same things [00:49:00] from the episodes. So as my guess, what do you hope that people with disabilities take away from this episode? And what do you hope that people who have yet to discover and engage their own disabilities take away from this episode?
Well, I certainly
Christina Trivigno: hope that people with disabilities take away that there is a service that can help them go to the theater and that theater is a place for them, whether that is on stage or backstage or in the audience. There are a wide variety of ways that we want you to participate in theater and TDF doesn't directly help people.
On to the stage in terms of becoming a performer. That's not a program that we offer, but there is a lot more representation of disability on [00:50:00] theater stages these days. And there were certainly when I was a kid, uh, you know, so that's a wonderful improvement. I'm so happy to be here for in my lifetime.
And, um, for someone who, uh, doesn't have a disability, I, I think it is an often rallying cry of the disability community that is not about whether or not you have a disability, but about when you will have a disability, uh, just as one ages, you may find yourself. Losing your sight, losing your hearing, losing your ability to climb stairs, I'm certainly not hoping that for anybody, but it is a common occurrence as people age that there is something that you will struggle with.
And I hope that, uh, you have empathy for people who are going through it now and that you know that there are resources that can help you. In the future, should you need
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: them. Yes, it's important to point out that the [00:51:00] disability community is the only minority that anyone can join at any time for any length.
Of being that short term, long term. Unlike, I don't know what it is like to live without disabilities. I will never know that. But, Me as well.
Christina Trivigno: I have been a wheelchair user for
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: life. Yeah, and, so wrapping up, is there anything else you want people to know about all the great work that TDF is doing to promote accessibility and accessibility?
Thank you. [00:52:00] On broadway and off broadway that's as important as on broadway. And just getting people To seen live theater and live music, again,
Christina Trivigno: I, I would encourage everyone to come to our websites, come to tdf.org, come to theater Access n yc. If you go to theater access NYC and you hit that contact button, you are going to get me, and I very much want to help you go to the theater.
So please. Tell me what you need. Tell, tell your friends that there's this program that can help you go to the theater. Please invite your friends to the theater and, you know, if there's something I can do to make the experience better for you, you have an advocate at TDF that wants to make it more [00:53:00] accessible for all people with disabilities.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: And a regular membership is 40 bucks a year annually, but if you have paperwork regarding a disability or other qualifications, you can join the Accessibility Program. Yes,
Christina Trivigno: the Accessibility Program does not have a membership fee at this time, so you don't have to pay to sign up for it. You just have to give us some proof of your accessibility needs, and then we will help you see theatre in conditions that are appropriate.
Accessible to you, whether that's an orchestra sheet or a captioned performance. We have a wide variety of accessibility [00:54:00] services. Like I said, audio description, uh, autism friendly performances. Um, I'm probably forgetting some because I'm rambling a little bit, but we, we offer a wide variety of accessibility services, uh, at.
Performances, and you can join that program. And if you are also comfortable going to a standard performance without assistance from us in any kind of added service, we have the ability for you to join both programs. And then you can pay a membership fee and access a large, larger number of shows with.
Um, you know, some of them offer things like Gallopro devices where you can have those captions in hand if you need them. Um, There's a lot to learn on TDF. We do a lot of things. We serve a lot of people, students, again, I mentioned earlier, veterans. Uh, we have community programs. Um, so come check us out and [00:55:00] see what we offer.
I, I mean, there's a whole swap of things we do. I didn't even mention. I mean, we do things for arts makers. We have the costume collection. For example, you can come rent costumes from us, uh, at affordable prices that are Bye. Based on whether or not you're a non profit or a for profit, how long your run is, all kinds, how many costumes you need.
There's a whole metric on the cost there. Um, but yeah, we also train people to do things. So if you are a theater company that needs to know how to do captions, we can help you make that happen too.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Christina, it's been a pleasure to talk and I hope you will come back and tell us more of all the exciting things that TDF continues to do for our great [00:56:00] city, but really our great state of New York because you do branch out into other You'll, uh, build, uh, that city, and that's important as well.
Oh, absolutely.
Christina Trivigno: If you live in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and you want to see something that is nearby, you can find that too. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. This has been great.
Keith Murfee-DeConcini: Thank you, and if I may be of any other assistance, please let me know. You and TDF will always have a flat to me. Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
