9 minute read
Innovations with Kristin Hanggi + Maxx Reed
WITH KRISTIN HANGGI + MAXX REED
The new musical, It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price!, premiered at the Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles in November 2024. The show focuses on the family of a student with epilepsy, a brain disorder that causes recurring seizures. About three percent of people with epilepsy suffer from a condition known as photosensitive epilepsy, in which exposure to flashing lights, strobe effects, and other intense visual stimuli can trigger seizure, migraines, or dizziness. SDC Journal contributor Ellie Handel spoke with director Kristin Hanggi and choreographer Maxx Reed about their journey to understand how some theatrical lighting design affects individuals with photosensitive epilepsy and how the creative team worked to make Tyler Price safe for all audience members to enjoy.
Kristin, how did It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price! come to be, and how did you get involved?
KRISTIN HANGGI | Back in 2007, a producer gave me a CD and said, “See if you think this could be a musical.” It was an album written for children that Ben [Decter, It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price! composer, lyricist, and co-book writer] was one of the co-composers on. We met for dinner, and he told me the story of his family and how his daughter was diagnosed at 17 months old with catastrophic childhood epilepsy. Because Ben is a composer, he dealt with it by writing songs. He started playing me songs he wrote to try to find his way through. From 2007 to 2019, Ben and I just tried to figure out how to tell this story. We started working with the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the Epilepsy Foundation of America in Los Angeles, and the Children’s Ranch.
During this time, as we started getting our resources in line, I participated in Broadway Dreams [a nonprofit theatre performance program for young people that creates inclusive spaces where students of all backgrounds can explore their artistic potential]. One of the choreographers I worked with was Maxx Reed. I watched Maxx start doing this choreography with these young people and I just said, “Well, who’s this genius? Where has he been my whole life? Whoa.” We got into a taxicab, and he started to talk a bit about himself. I learned that his niece has epilepsy and that he started a foundation with her called EpiArts Alliance.
What is EpiArts Alliance, and how was it established?
MAXX REED | My niece, Anzli McNew, her goal is to be a Broadway performer. When she was diagnosed with epilepsy, she got knocked back a little bit. I started bringing her to Broadway Dreams with me as a student. I discovered a lot about how to be sensitive to her as a performer and what was needed to protect her from having seizures on stage. I was trying to communicate that to other teachers, choreographers, and directors that I work with in the Broadway Dreams ecosystem.
Anzli and her mother, Heather McNew, became the creators of EpiArts Alliance. [Founded in 2023, EpiArts Alliance supports performers with epilepsy and photosensitivity through education and awareness campaigns.]
KRISTIN | Maxx and EpiArts brought a very important component to Tyler Price because I had not been educated, up to that point, about how to create a theatrical environment that was sensitive to the needs of audience members with epilepsy.
I learned Maxx’s niece gets triggered by certain lighting cues. When Maxx was performing in Beetlejuice, he would have to tell her when certain cues were coming. Then she knew that if she put a palm over an eyeball, she could watch it without it triggering a seizure. Here I come, Kristin— who directed Rock of Ages, which is all flashing lights all the time—and I didn’t know. I thought only strobe lights could trigger seizures. That’s not true. It’s not just flashing lights, it has to do with color spectrum as well. If someone has epilepsy, light sensitive epilepsy, it really is an intense health matter for them.
Before Tyler Price premiered, Kristin and Ben Decter participated in a lighting safety research roundtable organized by EpiArts and inspired by some of the work Maxx was doing with Anzli for Broadway Dreams. The discussion was attended by photosensitivity researchers Dr. Arnold Wilkins and Dr. Laura South, lighting designers Donald Holder and Barbara Samuels, and ConsultAbility founder Paul Behrhorst. How did that conversation affect your team’s work on Tyler Price’s design?
MAXX | We were lucky enough to get wonderful directors, lighting designers, and doctors—literally the man who wrote the book on photosensitive epilepsy—into one giant Zoom call. Now, there’s a strong relationship between doctors who really understand the science of epilepsy and lighting designers who understand the science of their craft.
We started coming up with protocols for photosensitive design. Strobes and flashes are often unavoidable in theatrical storytelling; however, there are ways to design so that the risk is minimized. For example, designers can point the strobes toward set pieces rather than towards the audience and can change the frequency and color contrast to minimize risk for photosensitive audiences.
Tyler Price was very much a case study. Because we had heard from researchers early on, we approached this production with empathetic design from the start.
KRISTIN | Jamie Roderick [Tyler Price’s lighting designer] talked to EpiArts to get all that information and research. Jamie created the show to be light sensitive and it still had gorgeous lighting cues.
MAXX | Jamie’s work was insane. It was gorgeous and it was safe for all audience members. Jamie and the team made sure to include detailed signs in the theatres of the exact flashing light cues and scenes. They went beyond the “Flashing Light Warning” sign that is standard practice in theatre. That’s a core mission of EpiArts, to provide audiences access to understand the potential risk ahead of attending a show.
This process of empathetic design and implementing safer lighting practices with Tyler Price proved that it can be done, and you still have all of the storytelling pieces there. My niece came and watched the show three times. One of those times she sat in what could be potentially the most triggering seat in line with a particular light. To watch my sister sit next to my niece and never have to shield Anzli from any cues...they could both watch the show. It just shows that it’s possible.
KRISTIN | We also had a sensory sensitive performance where we also looked at the other elements—sound, conversations with the audience—those kind of things. While photosensitivity is often focused specifically on light and visual triggers, we took a holistic approach that considered the full sensory landscape of the production. For that performance, we lowered the overall volume, softened sudden sound cues, and worked with the cast to ensure there were no unexpected vocal spikes that might be jarring. We also communicated clearly with the audience about what to expect and made space for movement and vocalization during the performance. Our goal was to preserve the emotional integrity of the show while adjusting the delivery to be more accessible.
Has your work with EpiArts and Tyler Price shifted how you approach your craft?
KRISTIN | An undercurrent that developed in the show was being willing to talk about things that are challenging, even if we don’t have language for them yet. The creative team learned how to do that together, asking each other, “What do I need in order to feel safe in this space? Can we make an inclusive space for each other?” When it was okay to ask for our needs to be met, we discovered that we could create a process that felt good to us, but we have to learn how to talk about our needs first, even if we don’t know how to name them.
The process has become so important to me. I want to make sure that it’s nurturing for myself and my collaborators, the entire team, to create something sustainable. It has to feel good in my body. That has profoundly shifted for me. The work is integrated with a deep internal listening.
MAXX | It has changed the way I choose projects. I decided to go and be a part of this show so that I could make something my niece would be proud of. It’s made my filter for the things I want to do with my time much finer. I now know that it’s possible to keep creating while making sure that the work aligns with things I would like to teach, experience, or grow in, and I get to be beside people that I can learn from, love, and respect.
It has changed the way I interact with people in the room. It has changed—from a technical standpoint—what I think is necessary in order to make something interesting. Some of the most effective things in this show were the simplest. I’m going to trust that more for the rest of my career.
Kristin Hanggi is best known for directing the smash hit Rock of Ages, for which she received a Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Musical. Other directing credits include the original productions of bare: a pop opera (Hudson Theatre, American Theatre of Actors); Accidentally Brave (Off-Broadway); Clueless (The New Group); and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (Seattle 5th Avenue).
Maxx Reed is a multi-genre movement artist and educator, choreographer, director, and multi-medium filmmaker. With the art of movement, theatre, and filmmaking, Maxx aims to show compassion through choreography and creative collaboration––emphasizing his role as a dance educator and multi-platform storyteller.
