Magical Experiences Arts Company

Project Title: Community of Theater – theater to inspire, educate and heal

Project Activities

MEAC will use its thirty-five years of research, creating and implementing performances of intense emotional exploration to help educate, heal and enhance the lives of children and adolescents with severe multiple disabilities, and adults in the last stages of Alzheimer’s. The organization will present performances in special education and nursing home facilities, with a special emphasis on bringing the benefits of Theater to many of Maryland’s most medically fragile, multiple disabled and autistic children and adolescents. Through its unique combination of mime, movement, music and other theatrical techniques, the troupe will reach out to individuals with disabilities and engage them in a series of original and interactive one-hour performances. Unlike traditional theater groups that perform for an audience, the MEAC audience’ becomes the subject of each play, helping to shape the workshop’s gradual unfolding. Thus, as the play progresses its participants often discover themselves taking on roles, where they become the caretaker to their able-bodied partners. The programs goals are to provide the highest quality form of theater to youth & adults whose severity of disability has historically made it difficult for them to actively participate in the Arts. Each residency will be provided with a diverse range of historical and cultural Plays, including many inspired by American, and World cultural heritage.

Intended audience/ Participants/ community

Performances will engage children as young as three through to elders in the 80’s and 90’s. Children born with cognitive delays, deaf-blindness, autism, cerebral palsy, medically fragile and visual and hearing impairments will become part of the theater community, along with adults diagnosed with memory impairment and dementia.

MEAC’s Theater method was created with the aim of helping those who find communication, mobility and security in their everyday lives extremely difficult. People without such disabilities have the capacity to express emotions through the use of language and/or their bodies. For someone with a severe disability this can prove to be a major obstacle. MEAC believes that these individuals have the same needs for self-expression, if not greater due to their daily struggles. Often, however, their emotional requirements are suppressed. MEAC's method is designed to tap into such suppressed emotions and provide an outlet for them to be vented. This is done through a theatrical structure with the role of the workshop leader taken by performers who control the activities from within an overall framework that encompasses a story-line. The emphasis of each performance lies in exploring the different emotions experienced by the main characters at varies stages of the story, which, in the past, have included feelings of persecution and freedom. The role of the students is neither one of a passive observer nor one of performer; but they are actively engaged in the experience during all aspects of the play.

The outcomes are life enhancing. Participants of a MEAC residency over time will display increased skills in daily self-expression and communication skills. Self-injury, and negative behavior problems will be reduced greatly, if not completely. Gross motor skills will see improvement. Interactions between participant and family, peers, and the greater community will be enhanced. The 'humanity' of the participant will be recognized, and celebrated.

The theatrical structure of each performance uses a foundation of the Expressionistic Mime Method: To use the physical body to express emotions, without the use of the spoken word. This form of mime creates a perfect foundation for other theatrical methods such as dance, music and storytelling.  Joanne Margolius has been a teacher and practitioner of Expressionistic Mime since her meeting with the American Mime, Adam Darius in the summer of 1985.

Creative Expression and Production

1. The participants will use a variety of theatrical elements to communicate their feelings and ideas.

2.The students/adults will reflect and develop the performer's movements to explore characters and develop situations to dramatic problems. Emphasize is put on conflict resolution within the plays.

3. The participants will be encouraged to 'lead' the performers and develop the stories through their own emotional responses and imagination.

4.The participants will be able to touch and see a variety of textural costumes, cloth backdrops, props, and dramatic theater make-up.

5. The students/adults will observe varies ways in which people can communicate without verbalization.

6. The students will use a variety of loco-motor and non-loco-motor movements to express their responses to the play. Children in wheelchairs can be placed on floor mats and supported physically by aides.