Short Center Repertory

Developmental Disability Services Organization established Short Center Repertory in 1988 as a community outreach project to train actors and perform in mainstream theaters and theater festivals. In 1995, Short Center Rep started incorporating American Sign Language interpretation as an onstage theatrical element and as a means to reach audiences within the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

Short Center Rep expanded its community outreach in 2005 by including actors who are Deaf or blind in inclusive, cross-disability productions, including an original production of Gilgamesh. In 2015, Short Center Rep began to offer theatrical clown technique training as a way to include adults on the autism spectrum; clown technique proved successful in opening creative communication because of its predominantly physical and somatic approach, bypassing mental blocks and self-censorship.

In 2018, longtime Short Center Rep actress Regina Brink, who is blind, directed a group of blind and low vision actors in Short Center Rep’s production Inner Vision, an improvised clown performance that confronted misconceptions and misrepresentations about their community. During the pandemic, Short Center Rep shifted to online performances, presenting All Clowns Included and A Clown Odyssey on the Zoom platform. To date, Short Center Rep has presented more than 35 productions.

For its 2023-24 season, Short Center Rep collaborated with InnerVision Theater and Theater V58 on Climate Theater, a public outreach project that presented three original productions exploring the impacts of climate change on people who are neurodivergent, blind or low vision, and Deaf or hard of hearing. Short Center Rep brought the three productions together for ALL IN: The Festival of Accessible Theater, which it launched in September 2024.