Access to Equity

With their focus pointed toward accessibility and equity, the team at the Premiere Playhouse partnered with a national organization that helps to promote and facilitate all-abilities theatrical productions. For managing artistic director Oliver Mayes and education coordinator Alex Newcomb Weiland, it’s just one more way the organization can live out its mission on a regular basis.

The Premiere Playhouse presents its production if Seussical Jr. as part of the Penguin Project in June 2023.

“The Penguin Project helps us achieve our mission in a multitude of ways. No. 1 — accessibility. Providing equitable access to every individual in the community regardless of ability,” Mayes said. “But it also helps us achieve our goals within the inclusivity realm, which is similar to accessibility but is about equal opportunity and not just equal access. We’ve been focusing as an organization on achieving those particular two pillars within our mission and face values, and the Penguin Project helps us achieve that but is also an inspiring point for us to let some of that carry over into our ongoing mainstage programming. 

“Using it as a platform for them to feed each other, so that the Penguin Project is a platform for people of all abilities to hone their skills and learn about what we’re doing, and then maybe one day they’ll hop into a mainstage production. And the same goes the other way — we have people who have done a mainstage production who are now interested in mentoring for the Penguin Project.”

The Penguin Project, founded in 2004, aims to promote the production of all-abilities theatre for individuals ages 10-25. All roles are meant to be filled by young, differently abled thespians, with each person cast paired up with a dedicated peer of similar age for the duration of the experience.

“We also try to keep not only our casts all-abilities, but also our production teams being accessible as well,” Newcomb Weiland said. “We have many people in our community who are differently abled and doing creative things — it’s trying to help give them an outlet in that way.”

The local iteration of the program kicked off last summer, with a production of Annie, Jr., which both Mayes and Newcomb Weiland said provided great opportunity for learning and evolving the program for subsequent years.

“Our rehearsals are only about an hour-and-fifteen minutes long, which best serves our individuals participating,” Newcomb Weiland said. “It was all structured around them — we tried to keep traditional theatre values as well, with a stage manager, director, designer, etc., to keep the same sort of structure throughout the show, but very catered to making sure we give them what they need to feel empowered, successful and engaged in the process and the experience.

“The age of the (Orpheum Theater) has been a huge challenge for sure, but it’s something that we’ve worked directly with Lifescape on. Tammi (Waltjer-Haverly), our board member, is the director of special education at Lifescape, and she works in tandem with me to make sure that we have ADA plans. We plan around that and make modifications, whether it’s making the set accessible, temporary ramps — anything we need to accommodate for the people in the space. We document all of that stuff and make sure that it’s pretty specific to each individual for what their needs are the best we can.”

The Premiere Playhouse team takes special care to ensure the experience is equitable, not only from an opportunity standpoint, but also from a technical point of view.

“Similar to all of the things we’re doing to make the space accessible to everyone, we’re also trying to make the experience equitable to what would happen elsewhere or in a different setting,” Mayes said. “I think a lot of the time when an organization is producing an event that is accessible to all abilities, sometimes quality, quantity, etc., is sacrificed. The lights might not be designed in a fun way or the set might be smaller — but we’re actually working really hard to give them a full-blown production experience. The designs are curated around the participants, but with the integrity that they deserve for it to look really good.”

“We put as much thought, if not more, into every aspect as we would with a mainstage production,” Newcomb Weiland said. “Even specific sound and lighting and costume things we use to accommodate to ensure the safety of our performers.”

And the response to both last year’s production and the recent production of Seussical Jr., in short, has been brimming with positivity.

“I think the decision to continue with the program was almost immediate because of the participant and audience response,” Mayes said. “During the process of any show, you’re kind of like, ‘let’s get it done,’ and you’re trying to remember the importance of empathy. But as we approached opening, it just felt very special and it felt like the performers were so grateful for the experience they had.”

“Even watching all of our artists and mentors connect throughout the process was also so heartwarming,” Newcomb Weiland said. “It would be horrible to not give them that opportunity again and continue to grow the community we have in the shows, as well. This year we have a lot of new participants that heard from their friends who were in it, or came to the show last year and wanted to be in it because they saw someone up there that reminds them of themselves. 

“It’s so beautiful and powerful — it’s my favorite project we do at the Playhouse. It’s the root of community theatre — we are working with every kind of person in our space, which opens so many doors to compassion, empathy, understanding, fun and friendships.”