What improv offers the differently abled
Bright Invention teacher Kiersten Adams address the Acting Out! Ensemble
It was March or April 2014. With the help of my brother I had just opened a small performing arts studio in my hometown of Elkins Park, PA. As I was standing on the sidewalk outside, I was approached by a woman and her teenage daughter. I noticed that her daughter hid behind her mom while her mom spoke to me. This caught my attention.
“This is so great!” her mom said of my little studio. “Will you be offering classes for young people with disabilities?” I told her that was something I was personally interested in but I didn’t want to misrepresent us. I explained that we – the ensemble and I – weren’t trained in working with that population. She introduced herself and her daughter to me. Her daughter is on the autism spectrum.
Two weeks later she emailed me and offered me this: she would pay to have me and as many of our ensemble as were interested trained by a woman who had been offering theater classes to kids with disabilities for years. I was moved and excited – and said yes! In the fall of 2014, we offered our first class for young people with disabilities and we named it Acting Out! This fall we celebrate five continuous years of offering this class.
Teachers Kiersten and Shea Sonsky tape down the floor for the Final Share while founding members Isabel, Carley, Elias and Eric help.
Of all the various constituents Bright Invention serves and has served – from summer campers to corporate entities- our community of families in the disability community have been the most steadfast and loyal. Of that original group in 2014, four students have been in every class since, and we have begun to call them the “Acting Out! Ensemble”, and have begun thinking of ways to raise the bar in terms of their performance and visibility.
One of the things that sets our class apart from others like it is that we make no distinctions of either ability or disability. Many creativity classes are focused on particular disability or disability spectrum: autism, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, etc. We essentially throw our doors open and say, if you think this is the class for you you are welcome. This affirms our commitment to radical inclusivity, and it comes with some challenges. Our teachers need to create an eight-week experience that serves everyone in the class, some of whom read, some who don’t, some who can jump around, others can’t, some who are very verbal, others who are very quiet. We have experimented with many approaches, and at first were using a variety of scripted formats to create theater, everything from original plays written by teachers from student ideas, to short Shakespeare scenes. But the scripts were challenging and had the unfortunate effect of dividing our group in to two basic groups: those who could read and memorize, and those who couldn’t.
Around this time I was developing an approach to organizational development, team building and leadership training which has come to be called Creative Corporate Training. These workshops use a “scenario-based” approach in which we design tailor-made scenarios we perform for our clients, which enact themes or challenges they want to explore. Then through a feedback sequence, the client group watches a problematic scenario improve as our actors replay the scenario making adjustments based on client observations and ideas. We create these scenarios using “structured improvisation” in which we design a simple three-act story based on our client’s needs, and our actors rehearse and perform it like it’s a little play. Except it isn’t. Because there’s no script. You see where this is going?
Since 2017, this three-act, structured improvisation technique has been at the center of our work with people with disabilities. With this technique, everyone in the class can participate to their full potential. Everyone in the class is co-creating a three-act play, with assigned roles, a repeatable and rehearsable structure, and no limit on anyone’s creativity and imagination. All of the benefits of creative dramatics are engaged in this process. Our students are gaining confidence, developing verbal skills, acquiring emotional intelligence, and learning basic narrative structure: beginning, middle, end. Because our students are theatre people, our classes also include a rehearsed and performed show tune, which is now woven into the three-act play they create. We are really lucky to have talented and committed teachers who know how to lead structured improv, and can also choreograph a kick-ass show stopper. And we are expanding. This year, we brought our technique to a new community to us: teenage girls recovering from trauma.
A happy community after a successful final share!
Over the years, through my deepening relationship to these families I have learned a lot about what matters to them. I can write all I want about (see paragraph above) but here’s what the families tell me. Having a safe and reliable communal experience, in which their loved ones are having a fun and creative experience together is what matters. Because for their loved ones in this class, there aren’t a lot of places that offer that safe, creative space. I keep trying to innovate and they tell me, sure, okay, but just keep doing this, because this is essential for us.
That shy girl I met behind her mom on the sidewalk in 2014 is Isabel, and she is a core member of the Acting Out! Ensemble. She has been in every class since. She has performed for us and for her school, where I saw her play a leading role in their production of Hairspray. Here is a short interview I did with her before the Acting Out! final share last weekend:
I can no longer think of her and her classmates as “disabled”. She and they are just this bunch of amazing young people we get to play with year after year, and stand amazed as they bring their gifts, creativity and love to each other, us and the world.
Happy Thanksgiving. There is much to be grateful for.