Rolling with the Punches

Left to right:
Adam Lebow as Rusty, Carrie Jean Henley as Jackie,Nicolette Blount - Producer, Shiomara Gonzalez as Alex (Off Broadway: The House Where Nobody Lives), Marc Winski as Ethan (Broadway National Tour of Grease) Carey Cox as Jo Lee (Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale, Broadway’s Glass Menagerie, Off Broadway God of Carnage), Ben Rauch - Director, Becca Ayers as Loreen Lee (Broadway: 1776, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, Adam’s Family, Les Miserables, Avenue Q), Tessie Herrasti (Hotel Happy, Off-Broadway) as Mama Rama, Marisa Giachetti as Chris, Jo Lee Understudy, Allen Lewis Rickman as Mr. Brudnick, Bucky (TV: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Boardwalk Empire, Film: A Serious Man, Son of Saul, Broadway: Relatively Speaking, Off Broadway: Yentl, Mack and Mabel), Jordan Richards as Tommy, Hollis, and Tatiana Montes - Stage Directions (Assistant Company Manager Little Shop of Horrors) Not shown here: Kenady Sean (Associate Producer), Iben Cenholt (Managing Producer), and Bob Ost (Executive Director Theater Resources Unlimited)
Special thank you to Pearl Studios NYC and Streaming Musicals.

Synopsis: Based on real events. Jo Lee, is a paraplegic who was paralyzed by polio as a child. She lives in modest a 2nd story walk-up apartment with her single working mother, Loreen. The building, lacking an elevator or ramp, confines Jo to the modest apartment, unless she can talk someone into to assisting her downstairs. Jo’s world is turned upside-down when her mother Loreen, announces that her on-again off-again boyfriend, Rusty, is returning to Chicago and needs a place to stay. To avoid an inevitable clash with Rusty and escape the oppressive confines of the apartment. Jo goes to a special summer camp for people with disabilities, her experience at Camp Jened is transformational. It alters her view of not only herself, but her worldview of others with disabilities. Jo’s efforts lead to a milestone in the disabled Civil Rights movement, forcing the repeal of Chicago’s archaic Municipal Code known as the ‘Ugly Law’, which states unsightly and deformed people must stay off the streets and out of sight from the public. Rolling With the Punches highlights a part of the disabled community’s challenging fight to live lives as fully as others.