(mischievous music) - Hi, there.

Today we get to experience life in the theater.

You're wearing your mics because it's tech rehearsal, right?

It's tech week.

- Yes.

Yes.

- Hi, I'm Chrisena.

Today we're visiting a very special place, well, actually, it's a group of people.

It's a theater company called The Inclusive Theater of Western New York.

♪ Let's go let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go, let's go, let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ (singer laughs) - Inclusive Theater of Western New York is a performing and visual arts company that is dedicated to advancing artists of all forms and levels of ability, including artists with disabilities.

Tell me a little bit more about your inspiration or why you founded this theater company?

- So the reason Inclusive Theater of Western New York was founded was because, one, my daughter has autism and she wanted to be an actor.

And she would audition and would not get a part, and oftentimes we were hearing it was because, "You know, they have a disability, we don't know if they can do it," or "We'll let her be there, but she can be in the background."

So she would be a dancer snapping her fingers.

She has this incredible rote memory, and that's an autism thing, right?

We joke that's her superpower.

And there were limited opportunities for people who were over a certain age, different color, different background.

We find people every day that are still kind of hitting those same barriers, and we hope to keep bringing them down.

- I love that.

- That's a good thing, right?

- Shattering the wall and building a ramp.

(mischievous music) - [Actor] The tub.

In the tub.

- [Multiple Actors] In the tub.

In the tub.

In the tub.

- Oh boy.

I didn't even notice.

Donuts.

- Oh, well, that's a good thing to do on a Saturday.

Saturday is a good hang around day.

- So could we describe just a little bit what a table read is exactly?

- When you audition, you just have what they give you to figure out what your character, how your character should be.

Once you get the table read, you now get to see the whole picture.

- So, what happens next?

- So our next step is going to the stage.

So that will be, I believe next week we're in there and then we get up and start moving.

We'll start adding the props and the items that we'll need throughout the production and then start beginning to run the play as a whole.

- I pretend that Arnold is my nickname so that when people call me Arnold I pretend that they're close personal friends who know me by my nickname.

It is, oh my gosh, like 70, 66 pages.

Wow.

It's crazy.

- Hard to memorize all your lines?

- It was, if I'm doing a scene with another person that's easy.

That makes sense.

Like we're talking back and forth.

But there's a lot of scenes in this play with like four or five characters and it's like, you know, and people are talking like at intermittent times.

(mischievous music) - Normally we wear black so that way we're not seen.

- And then the props live here when they're not being used.

- Yeah, they stay right there specifically.

- They live right here, 'cause they- - Same spot every time.

- Yes, 'cause we have to keep it organized because if we get disorganized there would be anxiety.

- Chaos.

- Chaos, chaos.

Because everybody's like, "Where's my prop?

Where's my golf club?

Where's this?"

So we don't want chaos on the set.

- Okay, so to stay organized we keep it in the same spot every time.

- Oh yeah.

- I like that.

I should start doing that at home.

- Same here.

- Stages were what they call raked.

They had an angle to them.

- Oh.

So it was literally- - So toward the audience it was downstage.

- Downstage.

- And upstage.

That's why you say - Yeah, the back of your calf muscles.

- when somebody's upstaging you.

- Oh - They're backstage going.

(mimicking teasing) So they are upstaging you, they're behind you.

- Okay, so - Time to get loose.

- What's your favorite stretch or warmup?

It seems like there's fun and responsibility in this process.

So for tech week rehearsals, are there any audience members that come watch you?

- Generally, no.

It's usually a dress rehearsal.

We try to figure out the lighting and all the technical aspects of the show.

However, like last night we did have an audience member, a priest who came to watch our show which was really cool 'cause you get to hear the audience even if it is one person or two people, you get to hear a little chuckle or a sigh or a, you know, a gasp or something.

So you know that, you know, the lines are actually hitting and people are responding, which is good.

- Great.

- You got me keys.

(audience laughing) - They're nice, huh?

Try them on.

I can't wait to see them on.

(mischievous music) - There's more than one way to put on a play.

There's more than one way to practice.

How is theater important to you?

- It came because I wanted to see other people act because I think acting is a great way to experience all different types of personalities that you might not be able to experience as like who you are as a person.

- I find theater as a way to have a creative outlet.

You know, seeing different people and their lives and stories.

- Theater kind of found me in a way and it's grown on me to a level of importance that I didn't think that was there.

But I've also found that I found a little bit of my voice in theater.

I'm mystified by faucets and elevators and radios and newspapers and popular songs.

- How is theater important to you?

- You know what, I never thought in a million years it would be this important to me.

- Really?

- 'Cause all my life I always want to be involved in like the show business and stuff.

But for many years I've been told no because of my developmental disability.

Having autism, it puts a lot of limits and challenges because of how society sees you and precedes you as a woman with autism.

And that's what I was told no for so long.

And the rest is history.

- How good does it feel to prove people wrong?

- It felt great.

- It's a little bit, what does it mean to have a disability?

Are there different kinds of disability?

- A disability isn't an adjective.

You can't just use like autism as an adjective or it's just something that you have and you can't control that.

- Autism, ADHD or cerebral palsy, you know we're not all the same.

- All disabilities are different.

Some you can, see some are hidden and you wouldn't necessarily know unless someone told you.

But it's the person first.

- Always.

- Always.

- Always.

If someone needs more time to learn their lines, we build two more weeks in or whatever they need to get them to a place where they're comfortable acting on stage.

- What we do here is we adjust the environment.

Environment because life will do its thing on you itself.

So we got to do our part in making the world a good place for everybody.

- At Inclusive, we don't look at the person as being disabled.

We look at the environment as being disabling so that when somebody comes in and they need an accommodation made, we aren't trying to fix a person that has nothing wrong with them.

We fix what is broken around or what is not working appropriately.

- It was so great getting to hear so many different perspectives in the world of theater.

What does inclusion mean to you?

Inclusivity helps everyone.

When everyone's perspective is included, we all have more fun.

I got to go journal.

I think I might even have an idea for a play of my own.

- One, two, one, two, ready, go - See ya.

♪ Where are we headed today ♪ ♪ Jump in, I'll show you the way ♪ ♪ So much to learn and see ♪ ♪ Take this adventure with me ♪ ♪ So let's go, let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go, let's go, let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ (singer laughs)