CATA celebrates 20 years with gala this weekend

LENOX – Community Access to the Arts, based in Great Barrington, has spent the last 20 years celebrating the creativity of people with disabilities.

Those 20 years culminate this weekend with a gala event held at the Tina Packer Playhouse on Lenox’s Shakespeare and Company campus.

Sandra Newman, founder and executive director, and Dawn Lane, artistic director, both said the accessibility of the playhouse has been integral to its use for the CATA performances over the last 12 years.

“The accessibility of Shakespeare and Company has made a difference with our performers,” Ms. Newman told The Beacon.

“This is a really accessible space,” Ms. Lane added, saying it was rare to find a space with adequate accessibility for performers with disabilities.

As in years past, the centerpiece of this year’s CATA gala is a celebration performance by six CATA groups, featuring 50 performers.

“Catapillar” features a collaboration between hip hop artist Jackson Whalan, singer-songwriter JoAnne Spies and CATA Art Cart participants from six Berkshire healthcare settings.

The second part of the performance, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” highlighting the many current expressions, words and phrases attributed to William Shakespeare, performed by the CATA group Shakespeare’s Players.

The third group, The Tap Murmurs, will perform “Testing the Boundaries: A CATA Chorus Girl Audition,” which recalls the emerging artistic possibilities and social liberations that came about for women in the 1920s.

The Juggling Connection will then hit the stage with “Swing,” where performers juggle set to the music of the one and only Duke Ellington.

The fifth set, “86 Serious” – directed by Ms. Lane, will be performed by The Moving Company and is simply described by this William James quote: “Common sense and sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”

The final group of the night, The Serenaders, will perform “Catacoustic: Echoing Through Time,” as a musical representation of 20 years of CATA experiences.

The gala will be held at 5 p.m. on Saturday (May 11) at the playhouse. Before the performance, there will be cocktails and a photography exhibit by Christina Rahr Lane, who has taken photos of CATA’s various events throughout the last years, in the lobby.

“It’s an added visual component that I think will be nice,” Ms. Newman said of the exhibit.

Some of Ms. Lane’s photos and CATA’s posters from previous galas have also been blown up to serve as a set background for the performance.

Following Saturday’s performance, there will also be a buffet dinner and dancing in a tent outside of the theater. Tickets to Saturday evening’s festivities are $150.

For those unable to attend the Saturday night event who still want to see CATA’s performers at work, a matinee of the show will take place Sunday (May 12) at 1 p.m. at the playhouse. Tickets for the Sunday matinee are $20.

Another highlight for CATA’s 20th year is the annual art show and poetry reading, “I Am a Part of Art,” which will take place at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield on July 25.

There will also be a CATA screening of the documentary CinemAbility as part of the Berkshire International Film Festival, which runs May 30-June 2.

About CATA

The annual gala serves as CATA’s main fundraiser for the year.

CATA works with people with mental and physical disabilities ages 14 and up to help them express themselves through the visual and performing arts.

“CATA seeks to lessen the stigma of disability, using the arts as a vehicle to build relationships and honor people for their abilities,” said Ms. Newman, who founded the non-profit organization in 1993.

CATA serves more than 500 people throughout Berkshire County with eight staff members and 22 faculty artists, in collaboration with 30 educational, therapeutic and residential settings.

The organization started when Ms. Newman coordinated one weaving workshop for 12 women with disabilities from The Riverbrook Residence.

In addition to the annual art shows and performances, CATA participants are exposed to workshops, classes and other initiatives such as the Cultural Access Passport, which provides free admission, transport and companionship for people with disabilities to access cultural venues in the community.

For more information on the gala and CATA in general, call (413) 528-5485 or visit communityaccesstothearts.org.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on May 9, 2013. Filed under Community Events,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry