New partnership provides support to students with disabilities
Yale School of Drama has partnered with the Ruderman Family Foundation—international leaders in advocating for the full inclusion of people with disabilities into society—to support training for actors with disabilities. Jessy Yates ’21MFA, who began her first of three years of training at Yale this fall, is the first recipient of the annual $50,000 tuition scholarship and living stipend. Yates is an actor, performance artist, and comedian with cerebral palsy, who got her start in community theaters and the classical music scene of her hometown, Cleveland, Ohio, before training at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The partnership is the first collaboration with a drama school to enable actors with a disability to pursue their dreams.
On January 9, the Ruderman Family Foundation and Yale School of Drama hosted the Accessing Artistry Convening in New York to advance inclusion of students with disabilities in other leading theater schools. In addition, the foundation and Yale will cohost a convening in Los Angeles in May to advance disability inclusion in the entertainment sector.
“For years, I did not think there was place for people with visibly disabled bodies as performers and creators, and I discounted myself from the profession,” said Yates. “The training necessary for sustained careers in the arts is often not accessible to the disabled community. I am deeply thankful for the Ruderman Family Foundation’s support of my own training as an artist, as well as for their unwavering dedication to disability representation throughout media.”
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