Thoughts on all topics from the twisted mind of a Midwestern writer
Iowa Scribe
  • About
  • Blog
  • Plays
  • Poetry And Prose
  • Columns
  • FAQ, Etc.

PENGUIN PROJECT: Some warmth in a world that's often cold

2/26/2018

0 Comments

 
"Try and stop us!"

The words came from behind the stage and echoed through the theatre.

The stage itself was dark and empty for the moment, with the exception of one bright spot -- one lone large penguin. Not a live penguin, but a stuffed animal type of penguin. At the time, I didn't understand why the penguin was there. I'd eventually find out.

The question had been something along the lines of "are you guys ready to put on a show?"

The collective reply from backstage was a challenge -- a unified, smiling challenge -- to anyone who would dare ask that question.

"Try and stop us!"

No one did. Not even the penguin.

It was my 13-year-old nephew's theatre debut last weekend, a junior-version production of Disney's  "Beauty and the Beast" at the Brunner Theatre Center at Augustana College in the Quad Cities. It was presented by the college theatre, the local arts center, and something called the "Penguin Project."

As I found out, the Penguin Project is a national non-profit organization with the vision of creating unrestricted access for children with special needs to the performing arts. This is accomplished with the assistance of multiple sites across the country that produce a modified version of a well-known Broadway musical. Artists with special needs fill the acting roles.

At first glance, it's just another stage musical -- a tale as old as time (forgive me, I had to work that line into the column somewhere) -- but on close examination, it's something unique and special, and I'm thrilled I was able to witness it.

The cast was made up of kids and young adults, the youngest were still in the single digits in age, while the oldest were in their early 20s. All have special needs. Some of them have Downs Syndrome, some are on the autism spectrum. Some have cerebral palsy. Intellectually disabled, congenital heart disease, cognitive and developmental delay. Hearing impaired, visually impaired. One kid was in a wheelchair.

Call them ailments or handicaps or disabilities or whatever you want to call them, but just know that whatever disadvantages the cold hard world has heaped upon you or me, there's somebody out there fighting out of a bigger heap. And that person is fighting to pursue the same happiness that you and I are.

One of the actors has visual and physical challenges due to a post-operative stroke. It's something of a miracle that she's even able to talk, and yet, her solo version of the play's famous title song, "Beauty and the Beast," was no doubt the most soulful and touching rendition I have ever heard.

One of the actors is non-verbal. He can't talk. So he was equipped with a device upon which he pushed a button when it was time for him to deliver his line, and his pre-recorded line was delivered. The acting came in the form of gestures, facial expressions and body language.

Each of the actors gets a peer mentor, someone their age without disabilities who essentially keeps them on task, nudges them when it's time for their entrance or exit, and prompts them if they forget a line -- but there were no noticeable forgotten lines Saturday night.

There were choreographed dance routines that defied belief, and left little doubt as to how much work these young people and their directors had put in over a period of several months.

The Penguin Project's motto is, "Penguins might not be able to fly, but that does not prevent their spirits from soaring."

That's a good motto, but it seemed to me that some penguins were actually flying Saturday night.

My nephew played the part of Monsieur D'Arque, the twisted and slightly creepy head of the insane asylum who is commissioned by the bad guys to lock up the heroine's father. I was proud of his performance. His lines were successfully delivered in a deep and authoritative manner, and his costume -- which included a black mask, black hat and black cape -- was about the coolest costume on stage, with the possible exception of the Beast.

The actors who portrayed the principal characters -- Belle, The Beast and Gaston -- were especially delightful to watch, and I couldn't help but think what a shame it would have been if these young people had never gotten this opportunity. Great things can come from unexpected places. How many great things has the world missed out on simply because individuals such as these were not afforded an outlet like this?

There were many great things happening on that Quad Cities stage on Saturday, but perhaps the best part of the night was the end, the finale, after the curtain call, after all of the actors had taken their bows.

The curtain call itself was a sight to behold -- as the young actors took their bows and received a standing ovation, they beamed with pride. They were appreciated, their hard work and talent was validated.

I could feel how they felt. I've experienced a few curtain calls of my own. Everyone should get the opportunity to take a bow at least once in his or her life, to listen to others cheer and applaud something they've done.

Everyone should know what it's like to feel as though for this moment -- however brief this moment is -- for this moment, you are the reason everyone is happy.

At this moment, you are a warm, bright thing in a cold, dark world -- and everyone loves you.

And after that moment, came the celebration. The song "Don't Stop Believin'" was cranked through the theatre speakers, and the entire cast sang and danced and laughed and clapped and swayed to the beat and played air guitar. The penguin was up there with them.

They invited the audience to join them, and many of us did.

Because when someone invites you to share that kind of joy with them, there's really only one thing to say.
​

Try and stop me.
Picture
0 Comments

Florida Kids Not Playing The Same Victim Game

2/19/2018

2 Comments

 
We make fun of the next generation. I know I've been guilty of it from time to time.

The "Millennials," as they've come to be called, have taken a lot of criticism — sometimes fairly and sometimes not — from the "Baby Boomers" and the "Generation Xers."

The next generation behind the Millennials, who haven't even been around long enough to have a name yet, get a lot of that heat as well. These are essentially the kids who are currently from high school age on down. Millennials are now between the ages of 19 and 36, give or take a few years, depending on who you ask.
​
They're so dumb they eat laundry detergent, we say. They listen to horrible music and watch horrible movies and follow the Kardashians. They're lazy, narcissistic, unrealistic, need "safe spaces," think everyone should get a trophy, and they behave as though they are entitled to everything.

We don't tend to mention that a lot of these kids went over to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill or be killed in wars that only existed because we screwed things up.

We forget that it was our generation who thought participation trophies were a good idea, not theirs.

We never mention that they give more to charity and do more charitable work than any generation before them did at that age, despite the fact that they have less earning potential and more debt than any generation before them did at that age.

We also forget that these are the first two generations that have to entertain the legitimate possibility that they could be shot to death just for going to school.
​
Last week's horrible events in Florida accentuated that possibility.

It was just the latest in a long history of mass shootings in the United States, many of them at schools.

The U.S. is the only nation that seems to have this problem, and sadly, we've gotten used to it. It's a routine now.

There's the press coverage, there's the shock, the sadness and anger.

Then there's all the ridiculous arguments and name-calling all over Facebook and Twitter and other social media, and on news shows, and we see people — who know they're wrong — work very hard to change the subject or rationalize their beliefs.

There are "thoughts and prayers" expressed by politicians, there's a lot of mindless, ignorant BS tossed around everywhere.

And then someone says it's "not the time" to talk about it, because of the poor victims and their families, and everyone forgets about it until the next mass shooting. Nothing ever gets done.

But something was different this time. These kids, this unnamed generation of kids — they aren't behaving like they're supposed to.

These kids aren't playing the victim game. These kids are different.

These kids are calling the rest of us out on our BS.

"Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it's time for victims to be the change that we need to see," said high school student Emma Gonzalez, who survived the tragedy, though many of her classmates didn't.

Another student, Cameron Kasky, spent the time during the shooting helping to protect his disabled younger brother and his special needs classmates.

"There were about 20 students. The lights were off. The door was closed," Kasky said. "My little brother, Holden, again, who does have special needs, was so brave. He kept himself together probably better than I did. And it was an hour of pain and confusion. And I'm very lucky to be here."

Kasky wrote an editorial piece called, "My Generation Won't Stand For This," which received a lot of attention this past weekend.

"To those who say we can't politicize this, they don't understand that if we don't politicize it, no action is going to come from this," Kasky said in an interview. "We need to start moving now. And as much as we love thoughts and prayers, we don't need them from our lawmakers. We need action, and we demand it. And we're going to get it."
Victims of horrible, tragic events have generally been expected to retreat from the fight, to ask for privacy and reflection and a mourning period.

Not these victims.

These victims are redefining the role of the victim, and they are doing it with an eloquence, intelligence and confidence that I'm not sure we've seen before. Certainly not from high school kids, perhaps not from anyone.

"Maybe the adults have gotten used to saying 'it is what it is,' but if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case, if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something," Gonzalez said.

These kids and dozens like them were much more eloquent and intelligent than Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, for example, who last week spoke out against — well, against himself.

"It seems to be common for a lot of these shootings, in fact almost all of the shootings, is the mental state of the people," Grassley told reporters last week, after the shooting. "And we have not done a very good job of making sure that people that have mental reasons for not being able to handle a gun getting their name into the FBI files, and we need to concentrate on that."

Oh, but Grassley has already concentrated on that — just not the way he wants you to believe.

His statement seems reasonable enough — looking into ways to get unstable people on criminal watch lists is one thing that might work.

In fact, it kind of was working, once, until Grassley got involved.

One year ago Grassley was the chief — in fact, the only — sponsor of a bill to make it easier for the mentally impaired to buy a gun. That bill was one of the very first bills that President Donald Trump signed into law.

There was federal policy in place to prevent people who receive disability benefits due to mental illness from purchasing a firearm. The Social Security Administration reported those names to the FBI’s background-check system. By all accounts, that mechanism was working fine. Some people who shouldn't be getting guns weren't anymore.
Then Grassley got his law passed. The law put an immediate stop to the reporting.

It's unlikely that the Florida shooter was receiving disability benefits, so Grassley's bill probably didn't impact that particular incident.

But it certainly didn't help. And it would be interesting to see if the law impacted any other acts of violence.

And now, Grassley seems to have completely and conveniently forgotten that he did that. And he hopes we'll all forget that he received more than $230,000 in contributions from the National Rifle Association.

Perhaps it's Senator Grassley who is mentally ill?

Or perhaps it's those of us Iowans who have continued to vote for him, year after year.

Or perhaps it's the President himself who's mentally ill.

Mr. Trump — in a storm of embarrassing, barely-comprehensible, sometimes profane, usually grammatically-disabled Tweets throughout the weekend — alternatively blamed the victims, the FBI, the school, and neighbors and classmates of the shooter, among many other individuals and institutions. He then ham-handedly attempted to make the whole incident about himself, how he was somehow a victim in the shooting, and he complained about how he was going to have to miss a few rounds of golf because he had to visit victims and doctors at a hospital.

The President did mention mental illness on a few occasions, but offered no solutions, made no mention of that bill he signed into law that allows some dangerous and mentally unstable people to more easily obtain weapons, and somehow never mentioned that the National Rifle Association spent more than $30 million dollars on his behalf in 2016.

So I say we lighten up on the younger generations a little, and let them have their say.
Because if I have to choose between the duo of Grassley and Trump or the duo of those two high school kids, I'll choose the kids.

In fact, I'll just choose Holden, the special needs child, who was "so brave," hiding in the darkness, while his world exploded around him.

I'll choose that kid over the BS of any one of our elected officials, any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.

I'd like to think you'd choose him, too.
Picture
2 Comments

    IowaScribe

    Thoughts on all topics from the twisted mind of a Midwestern writer. Playwrighting, poetry, journalism, sports, hunting, fishing, rock music, movies, good food and
    progressive politics, among hundreds of other things.  
    Contact Iowa Scribe.

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    May 2011

    RSS Feed

    Picture