Sound Theatre Company’s Making Waves presents:

ILLUMINATE 2026

[ID: graphic for Sound Theatre Company's 2026 ILLUMINATE festival. Beneath text reading "Sound Theatre Company presents" is a stylized star, with "ILLUMINATE 2026" written in a curve along the bottom right of the illustration. The subtitle further down reads "Disability Performance in the Spotlight". All colors featured are the colors found on the Disability Pride Flag. End ID.]

[ID: graphic for Sound Theatre Company’s 2026 ILLUMINATE festival. Beneath text reading “Sound Theatre Company presents” is a stylized star, with “ILLUMINATE 2026” written in a curve along the bottom right of the illustration. The subtitle further down reads “Disability Performance in the Spotlight”. All colors featured are the colors found on the Disability Pride Flag. End ID.]

ILLUMINATE 2026: Disability Performance in the Spotlight

Sound Theatre Company invites you to join us this Disability Pride Month for a festival like no other: ILLUMINATE 2026: Disability Performance in the Spotlight!

Featuring a documentary screening, play readings curated by Andrea Kovich, and a panel discussion led by Teresa Thuman (Sound Theatre Company) and Rob Urbinati (Queens Theatre), we will be gathering in the Seattle Center Theatre Black Box in July for four wonderful evenings celebrating Disabled and Deaf stories, artists, and community.

Sound Theatre welcomes everyone to these events, regardless of ability. We hope to see you there!

Tickets

Scheduled Events

[ID: graphic with the full lineup of events, featuring the star graphic and the festival title at the top. End ID.]

ILLUMINATE 2026 is sponsored by our friends at Seattle Disability Arts.


Monday, July 13, 7pm
Screening of documentary IMPERFECT by Regan Linton
with discussion to follow, led by Rob Urbinati of Queens Theatre and Teresa Thuman of Sound Theatre

——————

Monday, July 20, 7pm
Full-length play reading: WIZZIWIG by Amy Claussen
curated by Andrea Kovich

——————

Tuesday, July 21, 7pm
Short play readings: titles listed below
curated by Andrea Kovich

——————

Monday, July 27, 7pm
Panel Discussion: Producing Disabled Artists
with Rob, Teresa, and special guests

FULL-LENGTH PLAY

(July 20)

Wizziwig

by Amy Claussen

Wizziwig is a tender comedy about two mutually-loathing college actors whose disabilities threaten their futures and ability to work in an AI world. One navigates her new body while the other fears losing his visa. As real intimacy spills into rehearsal, hatred gives way to an awkward bond and shared grief as they grapple with whose bodies and minds are allowed to take up space.

About the Playwright

Amy Claussen (she/her) is a playwright and digital experience creator based in the DC area. As an artist with mental and chronic illness, she is on a journey to create more inclusive stories centered on the disability experience. Her plays have been presented or workshopped at Queens Theatre, Theatre Breaking Through Barriers, Hangar Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Profile Theatre, New York Fringe Festival, The Pitch at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Penguin Rep, and more. She co-runs the group 3D Playwrights, which stands for DC Disabled Dramatists. As a director, she is the recipient of a Drama League Fellowship and has worked at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Hangar Theatre, among others. Her work spans both the physical and digital worlds. As a game designer, she has designed and written for The Sims and SimCity franchises, as well as the high-tech children’s robot, Cozmo. For five years, she led the UX Content Design practice at The Washington Post and co-founded their disability inclusion network. She has a BFA in theatre directing from Carnegie Mellon. amyisawriter.com

[ID: graphic on a deep red background featuring a black contour line illustration of an anatomical heart below a black box with white text that reads "A Scythe and a Sandglass the Skeleton Bore by Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones." Just below this text is a line and text that reads "A New Play Reading of the Monstrous Feminine." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]

Short PLAYs

(July 21)

[ID: graphic on a deep red background featuring a black contour line illustration of a door left ajar below a black box with white text that reads "A Scythe and a Sandglass the Skeleton Bore by Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones." Just below this text is a line and text that reads "A New Play Reading of the Monstrous Feminine." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]

un/bound

by Amir-Gabriel Gad

The titan of foresight and the eagle assigned to torment him have done this macabre dance for an extremely long time. Perhaps tonight will taste different.

About the Playwright

Amir is a Philadelphia based playwright, dramaturg, and visual artist. They write “children’s plays for adults” they use figurative language, metanarrative tools, and pastiche to tell stories that defy genre. They hold a BFA from the (former) University of the Arts. They can be found @mirmulmir on most social media.

It’s About Time

by Abbie Goldberg

This is a play about time and how confusing it is. It’s also about my grandmother and how special she is.

About the Playwright

Abbie Goldberg is a trans, disabled multidisciplinary artist from the mountains of Maine. They are a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop. They developed their full-length work 504: The Musical at NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program and it will premiere Summer 2026 with Phamaly Theatre Company. Their work has been performed at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, Merkin Hall, and more. Their writing has been published by HowlRound, Autostraddle, Dame, Sinister Wisdom, AK Press, among others. They have been reviewed as “such a good storyteller” by their psychiatrist.

[ID: graphic on a deep red background featuring a black contour line illustration of an anatomical heart below a black box with white text that reads "A Scythe and a Sandglass the Skeleton Bore by Mariah Lee Squires & S.W. Jones." Just below this text is a line and text that reads "A New Play Reading of the Monstrous Feminine." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]
[ID: graphic on a teal background featuring a blue-green and black illustration of the circular "Changer" face below a black box with white text that reads "Changer: A Hand Telling Public Showings." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]

Take A Seat

by Sarah Granger

One woman vs. one chair — a perspective on what it’s like to be unable to sit in today’s culture.

About the Playwright

Sarah Granger crafts narratives that explore how pain can spur transformation. Originally from Kansas City, she studied playwriting at the University of Michigan, where she wrote and directed what may have been the first cyberpunk stage play. She sustained pelvic nerve damage while delivering her daughter and has been unable to sit without pain since. Through writing and producing plays and films, Sarah strives to amplify disabled voices and stories. Her plays have received staged productions and readings in Michigan and New York. She is the author of The Digital Mystique (Seal Press) and her work has been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, Inverse, Pipeline Artists, and Slate. She lives in Los Angeles.

A True Apology

by Richard Medugno

Being the family interpreter/referee is a thankless job. After a deadly accident involving a seeing-eye dog, a long-suffering daughter must mediate between her blind mother and Deaf brother. She tries to stay completely neutral. However, navigating this communication war zone is tricky. A True Apology is a 10-minute comedy about how families feud when members have different communication styles.

About the Playwright

Richard Medugno is an author and a playwright based in San Diego. His memoir Deaf Daughter, Hearing Father was published by Gallaudet University Press in 2005 and his biography Deaf Politician – The Gary Malkowski Story was published in 2020. His full-length play Silent Salzburg about a hearing family trying to protect their deaf son from the Nazis has been produced multiple times by small US theatres.

[ID: graphic on an mustard yellow background featuring an illustration of hands writing on a clipboard below a black box with white text that reads "Recover by Helen Mariam." Just below this text is a line and text that reads "a freshly picked, locally harvested reading." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]
[ID: graphic on an olive green background featuring an illustration of a lily and three lit candles below a black box with white text that reads "Eulogy by Brandon Healy." Just below this text is a line and text that reads "a freshly picked, locally harvested reading." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]

Frogs

by Natalie Sacks

Did you know that more than a third of all frog species are threatened with extinction? Maya does, and she’s making sure the whole school does too.

About the Playwright

Natalie Sacks is a Brooklyn-based playwright specializing in historical and sci-fi theater. Her plays have been finalists or semifinalists for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, Premiere Stages’ Premiere Play Festival, and American Shakespeare Center’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, and have had staged readings at Queens Theatre, the Neurodivergent New Play Series, Playground-NY, The Rude Mechanicals, Benchmark Theatre, and Turn to Flesh Productions.

Gravity At A Crossroads

by Nicole Zimmerer

A wheelchair user drops their phone going home one night; unfortunately, the only one around to help is a crossroads demon desperate to get one more soul before clocking out of the night shift.

About the Playwright

Nicole Zimmerer is a multi-hyphenate artist and activist with a deep-seated hatred of stairs. She has received The Kennedy Center’s VSA Playwright Discovery Award and the Betty Z. Rose and Anne J. Exline Presidential Fellowship. She was a 2023 Fellow for Disability Belongs Lab for Entertainers with Disabilities. She was a finalist for the Playwrights’ Center Core Apprenticeship program. Her work has been shown in New York City, Chicago, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, and DC. She was the host of the podcast Break a Leg! Disability in the Arts. Recently, she was an inaugural member of the Rec Room Writers. Her play, Cosmo St. Charles Is Dead and Someone in This Room Killed Him, is published by Stage Partners. She holds a BFA in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Houston and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.

[ID: graphic on an mustard yellow background featuring an illustration of hands writing on a clipboard below a black box with white text that reads "Recover by Helen Mariam." Just below this text is a line and text that reads "a freshly picked, locally harvested reading." At the bottom right corner is a white Sound Theatre logo in a black box that connects to the thin black border that surrounds the image. End ID.]