Lenard Stanga as Hugh and Cadence Rush Quibell as Shiloh in Realwheels Theatre’s Disability Tour Bus podcast, which will be released July 17. (photo by Rashi Sethi)
On July 17, Realwheels Theatre releases its new production, Disability Tour Bus, as a radio play podcast available for streaming at realwheels.ca.
Written for podcast platforms by Amy Amantea and Jewish community member Rena Cohen, Disability Tour Bus follows Shiloh, a young wheelchair-user, as they navigate their first day as a guide for Funcouver Bus Tours. Working alongside longtime employee and relentless dad-joker Hugh, Shiloh struggles to stick to the Funcouver script when so much of “Canada’s most wheelchair-accessible city” is still so inaccessible. People and politics collide until a new passenger, Tess, comes aboard and offers common ground. The tour must go on! Because there’s someone special waiting for Tess at the end. At least she hopes there is.
The role of Hugh is played by Lenard Stanga, Jewish community member Cadence Rush Quibell plays Shiloh, and co-writer Amantea is Tess. The cast is rounded out by Mack Gordon, Caitlyn Bairstow, Ian Hanlin and Lauren Jackson playing multiple parts.
“As a wheelchair-user, I’ve heard that whole ‘most accessible city’ line a lot,” said Realwheels co-artistic director Adam Grant Warren. “It’s a big part of the reason I moved to Vancouver from the other side of the country. I’ve been here for 16 years now. After hundreds of busted elevators, torn-up sidewalks and too-full buses, I know Vancouver has a lot of work to do. Access-wise it means well, but it’s a mess sometimes. For me, that’s one of the most interesting tensions in this project: the attempt to create access when no one thought to ask what those of us who are looking for it actually need.”
– Courtesy Realwheels Theatre