WFT - Pioneers in Access and Inclusion

Since 1981, WFT has interpreted every production in American Sign Language.

Access has not been limited to our audiences—actors who are blind, deaf, and physically disabled have consistently been given performance opportunities on our stage. WFT was one of the few theatres in America to offer a theatre education program for deaf teen-agers, receiving the Coming Up Taller Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.  From 1992 to1998, PAH! Deaf Youth Theatre provided creative and social learning opportunities for deaf teens. 


In 2001 WFT produced “My Hands Remember”, an award-winning production about a Deaf holocaust survivor. 

In 2003, WFT worked with The Learning Center for Deaf Children and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing on The Island Project, a multi-disciplinary program involving students, teachers, artists and theater professionals and developed the play, “A Nice Place to Live”, by Adrian Blue and Catherine Rush, about the history of Martha’s Vineyard and the manual language used by the population that was instrumental in the development of ASL. 

In 2004 WFT produced “Hey Sista, Welcome Home” by Aisha Knight Shaw, a local theatre artist.  In 2006 WFT produced Lisa Thorson’s “JazzArtSigns”, a production promoting universal access through music and painting and ASL and audio-description. In 2015, Wheelock Family Theatre produced The Ware Trilogy with Emerson Stage and Central Square Theater, presenting part two of Suzan Zeder's trilogy, A Taste of Sunrise.