Acting Without Boundaries (AWB) was established in 2004 to provide extraordinary, one-of-a-kind acting and theatrical opportunities for children, teens and young adults with physical disabilities. At its core, AWB is a unique year-round theater program that provides an open forum for the creative and artistic expression of young people with physical disabilities, over the age of four. The primary goal of AWB is to provide young people from the disabled community with the rare opportunity to pursue their love of acting and performing while building their self-confidence and developing an enhanced belief in themselves and their abilities.

Christine Rouse, Founder and Executive Director of AWB, created Acting Without Boundaries in 2004 because of her personal experiences growing up with Cerebral Palsy. In high school, Christine tried to fuel her passion for acting by auditioning time and again for school and community plays but disappointingly, she was never cast in a lead role. It was extremely difficult for her to fit in and to feel a part of the “in-crowd” because of her physical disability. What’s more, there were very few outlets and opportunities for Christine to engage in activities with other physically challenged teenagers. Christine’s personal experience with Cerebral Palsy coupled with the lack of resources for children and teenagers with physical disabilities provided the impetus for Christine to launch a life-changing acting program for young people in similar situations. Christine has said of her decision to establish Acting Without Boundaries, “I love to act, but I always had a difficult time. I wanted to create a place where kids could get involved in theater, form friendships and gain confidence.”

AWB is much more than a theater program – it is a place where actors feel like they belong. Through their theatrical work and social outings and opportunities, AWB actors build lasting friendships. An AWB parent described the organization and its participants as being like a “family” and she is right. AWB actors and staff have developed a strong bond with each other that lasts for years. New actors are welcomed with open arms and made to quickly feel like they belong. Everyone finds a place at AWB where they are supported and encouraged.

Acting Without Boundaries is a non-profit organization that relies on support from kindhearted individuals, foundations and corporations. The organization does not receive any public support nor does it have any permanent funding streams. What AWB does is unique. There is no other organization in the Philadelphia region that provides theater arts opportunities to young people with physical disabilities.
Photo Credit: Acting Without Boundaries

Wit López is a Brooklyn-born Philly-made performer, visual artist, and independent curator of African American and Boricua heritage. Their work uses absurdity, Black Existentialism, and conjure to communicate how they engage with the world as a nonbinary trans, intersex, queer Black Latinx person with multiple disabilities and chronic illnesses, while also challenging oppression and colonization. They are the founder and director of Till Arts Project, a grassroots arts-services organization for LGBTQ artists in the Greater Philadelphia Area.
Photo Credit: Kenzi Crash

M Téllez is a heavily cyborg storyteller and sloganeer from the 215. They serve as Minister of Crossroads and founding member of METROPOLARITY, a corner store sci-fi & action collective that uses speculative thinking as a shield and wand against standing empire.
Photo Credit: M Téllez

Christine Rouse, founder and Executive Director of Acting Without Boundaries, visits and leads a Sensitivity Workshop with Shelly Ronen’s course, “Sociology of the Body: Theorizing the Body Across Dualisms”.

Rouse delivered a short presentation on Acting Without Boundaries – the history and mission of the organization – before transitioning to a more hands-on exercise. She brought button-up shirts, mittens, and blindfolds. Students were asked to volunteer, head to the front of the class, put on the blindfolds, gloves, and shirts, and then attempt to button up all the shirt buttons.

Students were asked to reflect on their experience and talk through any difficulties they experienced while working through the tasks with muted senses. This activity was designed by Acting Without Boundaries.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Bursese

Christine Rouse, founder and Executive Director of Acting Without Boundaries, visits and leads a Sensitivity Workshop with Shelly Ronen’s class, “Sociology of the Body: Theorizing the Body Across Dualisms”.

Rouse delivered a short presentation on Acting Without Boundaries – the history and mission of the organization – before transitioning to a more hands-on exercise. She brought button-up shirts, mittens, and blindfolds. Students were asked to volunteer, head to the front of the class, put on the blindfolds, gloves, and shirts, and then attempt to button up all the shirt buttons.

Students were asked to reflect on their experience and talk through any difficulties they experienced while working through the tasks with muted senses. This activity was designed by Acting Without Boundaries.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Bursese

Artist Wit Lopez, shared their work and artistic practices with the students in Shelly Ronen’s course, “Sociology of the Body: Theorizing the Body Across Dualisms”. Lopez centered their multiple identities as a nonbinary trans, intersex, queer Black Latinx person, with multiple disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Photo Credit: Kaltoum Alibrahimi

Artist Wit Lopez, shared their work and artistic practices with the students in Shelly Ronen’s course, “Sociology of the Body: Theorizing the Body Across Dualisms”. Lopez centered their multiple identities as a nonbinary trans, intersex, queer Black Latinx person, with multiple disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Photo credit: Kaltoum Alibrahimi

M Téllez, Artist, share their practices as a cyborg storyteller centering speculative thinking as a critical tool against a social order in Shelly Ronen’s course “Sociology of the Body: Theorizing the Body Across Dualisms”. They talked with students about social, cultural, and class-related issues that they have experienced within institutions and answered questions about how those experiences affect their artistic practice. M also did a reading of their recent piece and brought a collection of publications to share with the students.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Bursese

Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House
A performance of guitar and voice by Johanna Hedva (Berlin)

This event and is free, open to the public and ADA accessible.

A keening. Mystical drone. Hag blues. Intimate metal. Moon hymns. A dirge. O Death. For my mother, who was a Pisces (March 2, 1955 – April 30, 2018).

Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House is a performance of guitar and voice which is at once a mystical grief ritual and droned-out metal concert that summons the holy spirit. Informed by Korean shamanist ritual and the tradition of P’ansori singing (which demands rehearsal next to waterfalls in order to ravage the vocal cords), the performance is also influenced by the work of musicians Keiji Haino and Diamanda Galás.

This performance is specifically for the faint of heart. It will be loud AF and swimming in tears.

Earplugs will be provided. This is a wake, so there will be death doula tea and flowers. It’s 50 minutes long with no intermission.

ADA compliant, private, all-gender bathrooms and CART will be provided. VCAM is less than 0.2 miles (around 718 feet) from disabled parking on Walton Lane, 0.7 miles from Haverford Regional Rail station and 0.6 miles from Haverford Norristown High-Speed Line station.

Find out more about Johanna Hedva here.
Photo Credit: John Muse

Please join us for the opening reception of the student exhibition “Bodies Assembled”, collaborative reading of an original play with actors from non-profit organization Acting Without Boundaries, readings of work by artists Wit López and M Téllez, as well as additional performances by students in ‘Significant Others: Androids & Animals in Greek and Latin Literature’ taught by Professor Hannah Silverblank and ‘Sociology of the Body: Theorizing the Body Across Dualisms’ taught by Professor Shelly Ronen.

Readings and events begin at 5pm, this event is free and open to the public.

ADA compliant, private, all-gender bathrooms, are available. The Lutnick Library is 200 ft from disabled parking on Walton Lane, 0.7 miles from Haverford Regional Rail station and 0.6 miles from Haverford Norristown High-Speed Line station.

The body is a social and material entity that carries diverse meanings and makes social life possible. Charting flows across the boundaries between material and immaterial, this show presents the work of our courses this semester, to explore how bodies come together in their locations, historically and geographically. We ask where and how bodies signify normality or abnormality, self or other, abled or disabled. These pieces trace binaries as they animate both affinities and differences in species, kind, gender, race, class, and ontology. The works explore the intermingled origins of these binaries and their effects on the organization of our social and biological worlds. In dialogues prompted by literary and philosophical texts about animal and artificial life forms, we invite you to read the past through the present – and ponder speculative futures. We engage in theories of disability and intersectionality in an attempt to complicate differences and ask how the past illuminates our present and enables or limits our imaginings for the future.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Bursese