Projects
Talleri has worked on a variety of projects as a teaching artist and access consultant. Here are a few highlights of Talleri’s most recent work: Theatre with / for Young People, Access Consulting and Resources.
Additional examples of Talleri’s teaching artistry and professional development facilitation can be found by looking at Talleri’s Offerings.
Theatre with / for Young People
Freak the Mighty with Junkyard Dog Productions
[Image Description: A hand-drawn image of a book cover shows red text that reveals two people with light skin against a background of clouds. One person is standing wearing blue jeans and a red flannel tank top, their head is not visible. The other person has blond hair and is on the first person’s shoulders. They are holding their arms up in victory.]
January 2024- Present
Part of a two-person access team, Talleri is currently consulting with the producers and creatives that are developing a full-length musical adaptation of the 1994 Young Adult novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. Book and lyrics by Anthony Drewe, music by Ryan Fielding Garrett, directed by Christopher Ashley.
The access team supports casting, access needs for contributing artists, script/score feedback, community learning around difference, disability, and dwarfism, and access-centered production planning.
Playwright Discovery Program The Office of VSA / Accessibility at the Kennedy Center
[Image Description: An image of a young person with light skin tones and short red hair sits at a table with arms crossed. Audio Described Version available on YouTube.]
2014- Present (Program Co-Facilitator)
Part of a two-person facilitator team, Talleri co-structures a muli-day professional development for high school playwrights with disabilities. Students revise their own work, see theatre together, and learn from professional artists with disabilities.
Access Consulting
NDT Learns: The National Disability Theatre Handbook
[Image Description: A hand-drawn image filtered in a gentle deep pink shows six people with light and medium skin tones and various disabilities.]
Published July 2023
In the summer of 2023, National Disability Theatre (NDT) released a digital resource, The NDT Handbook, intended for theatres wanting to work with, or continue their work with, disabled artists. The NDT Handbook offers a timeline of NDT as an organization from 2018-2023, practice strategies and resources for how to hire, partner with, and support disabled theatre artists, and tell disabled stories responsibly.
Is It Thursday Yet? at La Jolla Playhouse
Image Description: A large projection of a person with light skin tones with long straight blond hair in red dance clothes overlaps with the person facing a wardrobe, full of clothes and backlit, with a smaller image of the person in red on a small television screen in the corner.
Caption: Jenn Freeman in IS IT THURSDAY YET, July 2023. Photo courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse
July-August 2023
A Dance of Discovery. A Brain in Motion. A Life on the Spectrum.
Dancer and choreographer Jenn Freeman was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2021 at age 33, and since then she has navigated an endless sea of epiphanies. Inspired by a deep curiosity to examine her childhood memories through this new lens, Jenn found a way to illuminate her story using the language she knows best: Dance. Description Courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse.
Talleri worked with the Artistic Team to support Sensory Friendly elements present at all performances. Furthermore, Talleri coordinated and facilitated a community feedback session, made up of autistic young people and family members in the San Diego area.
Ohio by The Bengsons at Actors Theatre of Louisville
Image Description (ID): Two people in front of mics stand amongst living room furniture and musical instruments. Music stands and equipment are in front of them, a screen with yellow words as captions is behind them. From L to R: A person with light skin and long, wavy black and gray hair. Another person with glasses and short, light curly hair and a beard.
Caption: Abigail and Shaun Bengson in “Ohio” by The Bengsons. Actors Theatre of Louisville, January 2023. Photo Credit: Two Hearts Media–Yero
January 2023
Indie-folk duo Abigail and Shaun Bengson (The Keep Going Song, Where the Mountain Meets the Sea) return to Actors Theatre to develop this story about losing and finding faith, movingly told through song. Ohio traces Shaun’s journey growing up in the church, discovering his voice through music, and experiencing the hearing loss passed down through generations in his family. Description courtesy of Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Talleri worked with the Artistic Team to support captioning throughout all stages of the workshop: design generation, rehearsals, and perforamnces. Talleri also coordinated and facilitated multiple community feedback sessions made up of people who are D/deaf and/or hard of hearing in the Louisville area.
Resources
Emily Driver’s Great Race Through Time and Space La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour
[Image Description: Three actors in front of a map of the U.S., and a door with “H.E.W.” on top. An actor with brown skin and hair sits in a wheelchair, and holds a sign saying: “Not May, Now.” Two actors with white skin sit side-by-side wheelchairs with a red fender in front of them, and hold their fists in the air. Children sit on the floor in front of the stage area.]
February-March 2020 (Co-Director). Source: La Jolla Playhouse
As a history-obsessed 12-year-old, Emily Driver uses her YouTube channel to celebrate landmark moments of activism and change. So when her request for a needed wheelchair is denied, she takes matters into her own hands – and launches into a time-travelling trip across the country where she meets trailblazing leaders from the past who have fought for equal rights.
Co-written by A.A. Brenner and Gregg Mozgala and originally commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse and National Disability Theatre, EMILY DRIVER'S GREAT RACE THROUGH TIME AND SPACE follows a young woman's journey as she learns the power of speaking up, and how one voice can inspire others to fight the forces of ableism and create a more equitable world. Description courtesy of the New Play Exchange.
Talleri was part of an all-disabled artistic team that created this touring production for elementary-aged audiences as part of the Performance Outreach Program, or POP Tour, at La Jolla Playhouse.
