TDF's Accessibility Program makes theatre a hands-on experience for students
who are blind or have low vision. Photo courtesy of TDF.

January 6, 2009 - On a recent Wednesday in December, with all its programs in high gear, the not-for-profit arts service organization Theatre Development Fund sent nearly 10,000 theatregoers to over 100 productions - all with either discounted or free admissions. This busy Wednesday (December 10) played out accordingly:

10:00 - 11 am: The three TKTS Discount Booths (Times Square, Downtown Brooklyn, South Street Seaport) open. By day's end, TKTS will sell 5,397 tickets.

2 pm: TDF's Education and Access programs in action:

Stage Doors, which introduces NYC high schoolers to theatre, has 199 students in the audience for Danny Hoch's Taking Over, which is followed by a lively post-show talkback. At the same time, Stage Doors has 60 students at the hit musical Billy Elliot.

Also at the matinees, Open Doors, a unique mentoring program for high schoolers founded with Wendy Wasserstein, has three groups attending performances. Composer/lyricist William Finn escorts students from Talent Unlimited High School to David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow; actress Kathleen Chalfant accompanies her group from the High School of Telecommunications to see In the Heights; and lyricist David Zippel takes his group from Young Women's Leadership School to White Christmas.

TDF's Accessibility Programs (TAP) hosts 70 students who are blind or have low vision to an audio described performance of The Lion King after an in-class workshop to prepare for the outing.

7-9ish pm: The curtain goes up, on hundreds of music and dance performances and plays, whose audiences are partly filled by TDF Members who purchased 3,321 tickets to 91 performances.

The next morning, 160 NYC high school students in TDF's Residency Arts Project (RAP), an intensive playwriting program, attend a special matinee and post-performance discussion of Home at the Signature Theatre.

All told, that's nearly 10,000 seats filled by TDF programs by people who could not go to the theatre if not for TDF. As these thousands of theatregoers either discovered or were reminded of, live performance is a gift that keeps on giving.

To learn more about TDF, visit www.tdf.org.