ICONIC+
Lighting Designer; Set Designer
Nation accessArts Center; Nation Arts Center: National Creation Fund
Choreography and Performance: Kathy M. Austin, Alicia Morrison, Dommix Round, Meg Ohsada, and James Silcock
Creative Process & Performance Architect: Ashley Brodeur
Performance Execution Artistic Lead: Re Parsons
Lead Audio Describer and Creative Producer: Kathy M. Austin
Costume Design: Sky Cubacub (Rebirth Garments)
Projection Design (Final): Maezy Reign
Sound Design: SJ Obatusin and Maezy Reign
Deaf Interpretation (ASL): Sadie Lennox and Janice Manchul, FLIC Inc.
Photography: Fifth Wall Media
What’s Next for ICONIC+?
Accessible Media Inc.
The incredible creatives behind an upcoming docuseries will feature our work in the first episode!
Nation accessArts Center
NaAC will be spearheading a feature length documentary of the show. Capturing this moment, these stories and this process. Showcasing what is truly possible when you use an accessibility mindset from the beginning!
ICONIC+ Speech
At the ICONIC+ opening reception, I gave a speech entitled “Radical Change and Empathy”. It speaks to the shows impact on our community and how we can reframe our practices with an accessibility mindset.
Click the button below to see the full speech.
A Note From Production
Welcome to ICONIC+, a world beyond reality where every icon starts with a dream. The iconic world came together in a non-traditional creation process focused on individual artists and accessibility.
The National Art Centers’ National Creation Fund allowed us to truly use a process of trial and error. Their support and funding meant that we could lean on leading global artists in the world of accessibility. The creative process behind the show had two workshop intensives, two trial performances and constant feedback from the disabled community. In this process we explored movement styles, integrated accessibility, character development, and technology. Our key to success was a devised process in which we were unafraid to throw away ideas. We are not sure if anything works until we try, and this is our biggest try yet!
The real story of this show depicts a process that was tailored to the needs of the artists themselves. Every level of this production has been scrutinized. We questioned all traditional practices and instead found our own way in. You see this in the props that trigger memory of what happens next, or stickers on the floor that help denote space, or prop books that have dialogue written inside. The entire design of the show is tailored to work with the artists not against them. Every lighting cue, projection and costume piece was consulted by the artists, if not created by them.
Accessibility is a scary word in the traditional world of performing arts. We have routines and processes that have been practiced for a long time. Our team sought to ask a different question: what if we cracked it wide open and, instead, just did whatever worked? ICONIC+ is symbol of a movement, a movement to take up space and is unabashedly who we are. We want to take the performing arts world by storm and together show accessibility as a state of mind, not an afterthought.
- Cassie Holmes
Technical Director of ICONIC+
