Arts for Everyone

So, I explained why the volunteer experience was perfect, but let me tell you a little bit about why I chose to travel from Salem, MA to New York to Volunteer for this Sensory Friendly Performance of Wicked.



Let's go back in time a bit:
Right out of College I was fortunate to receive an internship position with a wonderful regional theatre. I was a Company and Production Management Intern and to this day I consider it one of the best Professional experiences of my career. During a performance of a family oriented event in a packed house, a child became very vocally responsive to the performance. The family was sitting in the front orchestra in the middle of the aisle. While the child was not in danger and the child was enjoying the performance, the other audience members and the cast were having difficulty. The audience was distracted. The cast felt that the responsive nature would cause them to possibly make a mistake on stage (of note: This was an incredibly technically advanced production. The cast and crew were also dealing with another situation that was causing adjustments to the show on a daily basis)


I remember this situation causing a lot of tension, not just for this performance but for future performances.

I'll be honest, I don't remember the outcome (I don't remember if the family returned for the second act). I just remember how much tension this caused among the entire company.

Over the years I have thought about this experience a lot. Many experiences have brought it front of mind. In my current job, I work with Box Office professionals and many of them are working to make more accessible environments for their audiences. It is from these people that I learned about organizations that present sensory friendly performances. Again, I thought of this family. 20 years ago nobody would have thought of sensory friendly performances, and here we are in 2018 creating these environments.

So, I certainly had this child in mind when I signed up to volunteer for this performance.

A couple of months ago I was trolling twitter, and of course keeping tabs on my favorite Come From Away Cast. They were all talking about the TDF performance that they had just experienced. They talked about how welcoming the audience was, how responsive they were, how wonderful the experience was. I was touched, I was moved. I thought of that child 18 years ago. In other pictures on twitter I saw people in volunteer T-shirts and thought "Hey, I want to do that." Thankfully the folks from TDF were super responsive and got right back to me with a form to fill out. when they announced sign ups for Wicked, I was THERE!

I arrived for training and was presented with my name badge and my T-shirt. The training was so perfect. They ran it so well.

After training and breakfast we headed over to the gershwin, I forgot how huge that theatre is. We packed u our backpacks with fidgets. Kooshballs and stress stars. These would be handed out to the guests as they arrived at the theatre. These fidgets are one way to help make the theatre experience more relaxed for people with sensory issues.

As guests arrived at the theatre, being able to give out these fidgets brought so much joy to so many faces. My name was also very popular among so many visitors (It's amazing how many people know someone names Elizabeth. also, apparently Joseph's girlfriend is named Elizabeth. I assured the group of girls that were so beautifully dressed up that I was not Joseph's girlfriend).



I'll admit that I had to put a lot of my own theatre etiquette standards aside during this performance. This was a relaxed performance. This was a day where if someone needed some food to keep them comfortable, they were able to bring food into the theatre. If someone needed an ipad to communicate, an ipad was allowed in the theatre. While this is normally something that would drive me crazy. Today, it is what made the day perfect. The message of the day was "relax".. If you know me, you might know that is not the easiest thing for me to do. The message of the day was "don't say no" but rather "Let me see what I can do". When parents ask "is this okay" It was wonderful to be able to say "Yes, it's totally fine today"

It was more than the experience that was perfect. Everything about this day was more than I expected. Wicked is a show that I have always enjoyed, but experiencing it with this audience was so much more. This audience was truly cheering for Elphaba. Elphaba, a girl who is different. A girl who is misunderstood, a girl who doesn't want to be different, a girl who can't always control her emotions.

I look forward to more experiences like this in my future. I am so thankful that TDF offers this opportunity not only for people with sensory issues, but for those of us that need to remember that Arts are truley for everyone.