Theater Breaking Through Barriers
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Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), formerly Theater By the Blind, is an inclusive theater company in New York City that strives develop the talents of individuals with disabilities for work onstage, backstage, in the office and in the audience.[1] It was founded in 1979 by Ike Schambelan(who died of cancer in 2015), with sighted actors recording plays for the blind. The theater then moved to performances for the blind and then blind performances for the sighted.[2] They recently began doing a short play festival each year.
Crystal Clear by Phil Young opened in 1986 at the Long Wharf Theater's Stage II. The show starred (George Ashiotis) who played a young actor who is gradually going blind from diabetes and his girlfriend who has been blind from birth (Lucia Puccia) . Crystal Clear began as an improvisation on a London pub stage in 1982.
The production had mixed reviews from critics. Mel Gusso said for The New York Times, "It is diagnostic rather than psychologically probing."[3] Another critic said the play was "a wildly unfocused work that tries to cover too vast a terrain" and that it contained "a cornucopia of cliches".[4]
