Famous American playwright and performer visits Lithuania
January 9, 2012
For the first time in recent memory, PAS Vilnius brought a U.S. speaker on the integration of people with disabilities, Lesley Orr, to Lithuania from January 9 -12. This was a regional program with PAS Riga. Lesley performed “Hand in Hand” (a performance about Hellen Keller and her teacher), and held master classes in Vilnius at the New Theatre of Disabled People and at the Lithuanian Training Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. U.S. Ambassador Anne Derse gave remarks at the training center before the performance. Lithuanian National TV interviewed both Leslye and the Ambassador before the performance, and recorded much of the performance for a report on their cultural news program. On January 11-12, Lesley Orr continued her program in Panevežys at the Basic School for Deaf Students, and at Šiauliai University.
Lesley Orr is a playwright, performer and teacher with extensive background in theater. Born legally blind, she has taught workshops that uphold inclusion and the possibilities of disabilities for the past thirty years. Helen Keller, whose story “Hand in Hand” tells who she overcame deafness and blindness as a child to not only read and write, but also to become one of America’s most celebrated writers, activists and public speakers. Helen and Leslye exemplify the valuable contributions that all members of society can make, and how everyone deserve the same respect and dignity. The performance is unique, because the emotions of the audience is created not only by the usual means of sound and image, but through the touch of hands, and feelings, enabling the audience to experience what it is like to be blind and deaf.
