[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
hi I’m Rachel Danae and I’m the director
of choreography focus for the penguin
project at Lincoln community Playhouse
the penguin project is a theater program
where kids with special needs or artists
play all of the roles and they’re
assisted by peer mentors together they
put on a full-scale theatrical
production what makes the penguin
project so special is that the audience
can see the connection between the
artists and the mentors hi I’m Ashlyn
and I’m a mentor I’m Eric and I’m an
artist
hey I’m Trey and I’m a mentor we do a
two-hour mentor camp at the beginning of
the season and just try to help our
mentors understand what types of things
they might encounter at rehearsal we
talked about like focus on abilities and
not stuff they can’t do and I always
thought oh you know I’ve never really
looked at it that way it’s really just
about being a good friend you end up
having a great friendship by the end of
it I felt like Eric was more of my
mentor than I was his the mentors have
to learn all of the lines all of the
music all of the choreography of their
artists to not perform the role
themselves as a mentor you want to stand
up a few steps behind the artists so
they could be the center of attention
that they would be the star
they do it because it becomes so
important to them to see their artists
perform well what it does for people
with special needs is it includes them
it makes them part of the community
appreciated for their talents their
abilities and a chance to be accepted my
friend came to one of the practices and
he said well these kids are doing
amazing things so why can’t they be
doing it normal plays you know you don’t
get much exposure to children of special
needs in the general community so you
tend to think they’re very limited but
when you come here and you see a play
with the book that thick that these
children are memorizing there is no
limitations there may be some physical
things that are different but I don’t
consider it limiting I know it’s magic
when I hear kids talk about how this
program has helped them feel more
comfortable at school it helps them have
more friends for the mentors it helps
them to not be afraid of someone who’s
different than they are we hear from
parents and families about how this was
the first project that their child could
really do former special education
teachers come see our show who will
leave in tears and say this is all we
ever wanted for our kids while we were
teaching it seems to affect everyone in
a positive way it certainly did that for
me I knew once I started working on this
project that it was going to be the
thing that I cared about most going
forward I’ve been doing theater for
20-plus years in my life and this has
been the most satisfying work that I
have ever done
I feel like we’re creating a ripple
effect in our in our community that more
and more people who are part of this
program and their families and the
audience members are going to go out
into their own communities and be more
accepting of people with disabilities
everybody’s normal and everybody’s
special and no matter what type of
ability you have you are the same as
everybody else
you just said what I was exactly
thinking
[Music]
I think this model is a huge opportunity
to offer peer mentoring programs in
schools in churches and eventually in
workplaces there is a need in our
communities for kids who age out of high
school that have special needs and still
need a social network or opportunities
outside of the school systems and what I
think we’re doing here is is building
stronger communities by being inclusive
to everyone because of the penguin
project being in this community year
after year it’s going to make Lincoln an
exponentially better place for people
with disabilities to live and grow and
thrive
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
hi I’m Rachel Danae and I’m the director
of choreography focus for the penguin
project at Lincoln community Playhouse
the penguin project is a theater program
where kids with special needs or artists
play all of the roles and they’re
assisted by peer mentors together they
put on a full-scale theatrical
production what makes the penguin
project so special is that the audience
can see the connection between the
artists and the mentors hi I’m Ashlyn
and I’m a mentor I’m Eric and I’m an
artist
hey I’m Trey and I’m a mentor we do a
two-hour mentor camp at the beginning of
the season and just try to help our
mentors understand what types of things
they might encounter at rehearsal we
talked about like focus on abilities and
not stuff they can’t do and I always
thought oh you know I’ve never really
looked at it that way it’s really just
about being a good friend you end up
having a great friendship by the end of
it I felt like Eric was more of my
mentor than I was his the mentors have
to learn all of the lines all of the
music all of the choreography of their
artists to not perform the role
themselves as a mentor you want to stand
up a few steps behind the artists so
they could be the center of attention
that they would be the star
they do it because it becomes so
important to them to see their artists
perform well what it does for people
with special needs is it includes them
it makes them part of the community
appreciated for their talents their
abilities and a chance to be accepted my
friend came to one of the practices and
he said well these kids are doing
amazing things so why can’t they be
doing it normal plays you know you don’t
get much exposure to children of special
needs in the general community so you
tend to think they’re very limited but
when you come here and you see a play
with the book that thick that these
children are memorizing there is no
limitations there may be some physical
things that are different but I don’t
consider it limiting I know it’s magic
when I hear kids talk about how this
program has helped them feel more
comfortable at school it helps them have
more friends for the mentors it helps
them to not be afraid of someone who’s
different than they are we hear from
parents and families about how this was
the first project that their child could
really do former special education
teachers come see our show who will
leave in tears and say this is all we
ever wanted for our kids while we were
teaching it seems to affect everyone in
a positive way it certainly did that for
me I knew once I started working on this
project that it was going to be the
thing that I cared about most going
forward I’ve been doing theater for
20-plus years in my life and this has
been the most satisfying work that I
have ever done
I feel like we’re creating a ripple
effect in our in our community that more
and more people who are part of this
program and their families and the
audience members are going to go out
into their own communities and be more
accepting of people with disabilities
everybody’s normal and everybody’s
special and no matter what type of
ability you have you are the same as
everybody else
you just said what I was exactly
thinking
[Music]
I think this model is a huge opportunity
to offer peer mentoring programs in
schools in churches and eventually in
workplaces there is a need in our
communities for kids who age out of high
school that have special needs and still
need a social network or opportunities
outside of the school systems and what I
think we’re doing here is is building
stronger communities by being inclusive
to everyone because of the penguin
project being in this community year
after year it’s going to make Lincoln an
exponentially better place for people
with disabilities to live and grow and
thrive
[Music]
[Applause]
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