Actions Speak Louder Than
Words for Those Who Stutter

The Stuttering Foundation and
Our Time Theatre Company Kick Off
National Stuttering Awareness Week, May 10-16.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
For more information, contact:
Jane Fraser
(202) 686-4494
info@stutteringhelp.org

If actions speak louder than words, the message of help and hope for those who stutter should come across loud and clear for this year's National Stuttering Awareness Week.

The Stuttering Foundation and Our Time Theatre Company are taking to the stage in New York City to kick off the start of the campaign, Monday, May 10.

Gala host and Emmy-award winning actress Jane Alexander invites all comers to spend the day with the cast of STOMP, the Our Time Teens, special honoree and Stuttering Foundation Board member Alan Rabinowitz, and Foundation president Jane Fraser.

"This marvelous event is a kick-off to celebrate everyone's efforts to increase awareness," said Fraser, who will introduce Dr. Rabinowitz, director of the Science and Exploration program at the Wildlife Conservation Society and this year's Our Time Theatre Award winner. "Alan is an outstanding spokesperson for National Stuttering Awareness Week 2004."

The Stuttering Foundation's public awareness campaign motto is that, "If You Stutter, You're in Good Company." The gala benefit promises plenty of great company, not to mention music, singing and acting, as the Our Time Teens and musical director Everett Bradley take to the boards on May 10.

"Our Time provides an environment free from ridicule where young people who stutter discover the joy of creating and performing original theatre," notes gala host Jane Alexander, Emmy-award winning actress of film, stage and television, who first won acclaim for her Tony-winning role in The Great White Hope with actor James Earl Jones, also a person who stutters.

"The purposes of this event are manifold," said Taro Alexander, Artistic Director and Founder of the Our Time Theatre Company, a nonprofit group dedicated to providing an artistic home for young people and adults who stutter. "We want to increase awareness about Our Time Theatre, about National Stuttering Awareness Week, the Stuttering Foundation, and stuttering in general. We want to begin the tradition of having a wonderfully inspiring, public event where people can come together and celebrate. In short, we want to start the week off with a bang. It's also a chance for the teenagers at Our Time to speak publicly about the challenges that face young people who stutter."

Donny Sethi, an eighth-grader from Greenwich, Conn., caught the acting bug early. He sings, he dances, he clowns like any other aspiring young thespian given the limelight—and he stutters. For him, Our Time Theatre has provided a safe place to perform.

"If I don't talk, they take a part of me," says Donny, who, under the tutelage of musical director Everett Bradley and Alexander, has even composed a song used in the company's performances.

Taro's experience as a person who stutters, combined with the transforming power of theatre, compelled him to create Our Time. A successful actor himself—now in the cast of the off-Broadway production of STOMP—Taro's goal is to help others who stutter find a safe place to express their creativity, to find their voice in performing.

The intent of National Stuttering Awareness Week and of Our Time Theatre is to make other such voices heard, to give voice to stories that might otherwise have gone untold.

"Our Time provides a powerful way for the audience—families, friends, professionals—to begin to feel and understand the challenge of those living with stuttering," said Fraser.

For tickets or more information call or email Our Time Theatre Company at 212-414-9696 or moreinfo@ourtimetheatre.org. For a free color brochure of 15 Famous People Who Stutter, featuring Alan Rabinowitz, James Earl Jones, Buffy actor Nick Brendon and more, or for more information about stuttering, call or email The Stuttering Foundation at 1-800-992-9392 at info@stutteringhelp.org or visit us at www.stutteringhelp.org.