Saturday: Big Umbrella Day at Lincoln Center Will Welcome ‘Neurodivergent Audiences’

By Carol Tannenhauser

Launched in 2018, the Big Umbrella Festival at Lincoln Center started with a question: “If theater is for everyone, how do we make it accessible to kids on the autism spectrum and with other developmental disabilities?”

The answer was a FREE, full-campus festival, featuring “relaxed spaces with multi-sensory experiences, performances, installations, and workshops specifically welcoming neurodivergent audiences and their families…meant to meet audiences exactly as they are,” according to a Lincoln Center spokesperson.

This year, the Big Umbrella Festival returns to Lincoln Center as a FREE 1-day campus takeover billed as, Big Umbrella Day. Here are the details:

• • Saturday, July 1 from 11:00 am–7:00 p.m.
  • Full-campus experience: This campus-wide event takes place on The Dance Floor at Josie Robertson Plaza, David Geffen Hall, The Garden at Damrosch Park, and Hearst Plaza.
  • Lincoln Center’s campus is on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, between West 62nd and 65th Streets and Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Campus Map and Accessible Entrances Download Here.

“Be awed by the high-flying aerial stunts of SWAY’s Bloom!,” reads the press release. “Tap into your imagination by transforming into a buzzing bee moving through the space in Polyglot Theatre‘s BEES, take part in a musical jam session in the new David Geffen Hall, dance with professional American Ballet Theatre dancers, catch a live performance by the celebrated FREE Players Drum & Bugle Corps, and end the night dancing under the stars at an accessible Silent Disco for teens and young adults! By registering here (not mandatory) for the day, you and your family will have access to the full roster of programming with the ability to drop-in throughout the day, experiencing as much or as little as you’d like.”

For a schedule of all events, click here.