Just over 42 years ago, Lisa Carling was a working actor in New York City. Having graduated with a master’s from the Yale School of Drama, Carling moved to New York City and became a member of Classic Stage Company’s repertory troupe. But after Carling became divorced, she was now a single mother in need of additional income. As fate would have it, Carling bumped into her former Yale classmate Barbara Hauptman, who was then the director of operations at TDF; she told Carling that the nonprofit needed a part-time receptionist. “I took the job and then help was needed in the access department,” Carling said. Thus launched a four-decade career in accessibility programming for her that would change the face of Broadway.
In 1983, when Carling first joined TDF, its accessibility initiatives mainly consisted of assisting disabled patrons with the purchase of accessible seating — be it low-vision or low-hearing attendees, wheelchair users or those with mobility loss, wheelchair users or those with mobility loss with being seated close to the stage. As Carling recalled, TDF’s Theater Access Project (TAP) helped with “general accessible seating in the orchestra, tickets at a discount plus occasional sign language-interpreted performance and that was kind of it.” But then, Carling and TDF began listening more intently to the community of disabled ticket buyers.
Prior to Carling’s arrival at TDF, the organization had hosted Broadway’s first-ever American Sign Language-interpreted performance, partnering with the 1980 production of “The Elephant Man.” So when Carling looked to expand TAP’s services, ASL-interpreted performances were at the top of the list.
“I remember going to the Juilliard School and pitching the idea of interpreting for the theater program for interpreters all around the country, and that caught on,” Carling told Broadway News. The Interpreting for Theatre Institute launched in 1991. “It was a one-week intensive through the evening division at Juilliard. It ran for 11 years and helped define best practices.”
