Join the Talbot Chamber for breakfast on Tuesday, July 28, 8-9:30am, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Hugh Gregory Gallagher Theatre (HGGT) will perform the monologue, My Black Bird has Flown Away. The breakfast performance will be held at Bayleigh Chase Auditorium (Formerly William Hill Manor), located at 501 Dutchman’s Lane in Easton.
A talk back session will conclude the performance. The audience is invited to share their comments, stories, and ask questions about HGGT, the monologues and plays, HGGT performers and the actor.
“My Black Bird has Flown Away” by Carlton Spitzer features the life of author, historian and disability advocate Hugh Gregory Gallagher, an Oxford scholar and 1995 recipient of the Henry Betts Prize for lifetime contributions improving the lives of persons with disabilities. Gallagher lost use of his legs to polio at age 19 (in 1952) and used a wheelchair the rest of his life. He suffered depression in his 40s. His life personifies the inextricable link between physical and mental wellness. He authored the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, which was a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and was instrumental in placing a statue of Franklin Roosevelt in a wheelchair at the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C. Perhaps best known among his award-winning books is FDR’s Splendid Deception, an analysis of polio’s effects on FDR’s personality and presidency. Gallagher died of cancer in 2004.
Hugh Gallagher will be portrayed by Bob Chauncey. When not performing for HGG Theatre or other theatre groups, Bob is teaching sociology courses to university students, consulting with communities throughout the country on improving accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists or most likely spoiling his grandchildren. On stage he has played major roles in productions such as “Bus Stop”, “Dial M for Murder”, “The Odd Couple” and “Our Town.” He says portraying Hugh Gallagher in “My Blackbird Has Flown Away” has been one of the most challenging, humbling and rewarding experiences of his professional life.
The Hugh Gregory Gallagher Theatre, a nonprofit tax exempt corporation, raises public awareness of disability issues and discrimination in our society through dramatizations of real-life and fictionalized experiences. Our powerful, entertaining and insightful plays on persons with physical, developmental and mental disabilities, and others discriminated against based on race, ethnic origin or sexual orientation, help reduce prejudice and stigma.
Enjoy a full breakfast selection served buffet style beginning at 8am. The cost is $10. Please contact the Talbot Chamber to register to attend, 410-822-4606, [email protected] breakfast performance will be held at Bayleigh Chase Auditorium (Formerly William Hill Manor), located at 501 Dutchman’s Lane in Easton.
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