Stage to be Seen

A woman who was initially too shy to announce her own name in an opening circle wowed her entire theater company with a solo vocal performance.

“To see the evolution of a young woman who could barely say her name out loud, growing into the artist that she is, where she can sing her own solo,” director KIM HENRY says, “that kind of says a lot.”

The young woman is one of many students with disabilities who have found a creative outlet and theater family through Theatre for All, an organization founded in Wilmington by Henry, GINA GAMBONY, and DYLAN PATTERSON in 2014.

To adults with disabilities, that outlet can be especially significant. While working-age adults without disabilities experience severe loneliness at rates of 8%-10%, the statistic jumps to 65%-68% for adults with disabilities within the same age range, according to Brown University School of Public Health. Mobility disability is the most common type of functional disability among U.S. adults, affecting roughly 1 in 7 individuals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Theater directors and educators Gambony and Henry believe theater, as its own language, has a way of transcending boundaries and reaching people in ways they may not have felt reached before.

“What being involved in theater does is, first of all, it helps develop communication skills, socialization skills, and comfort in meeting people. This addresses the issue of isolation,” Gambony says.

For Gambony, those connections have produced what she describes as “a million special moments” across her career. Witnessing students blossom into their full potential over the years has kept her showing up each day ready for the next student’s big moment.

Theatre For All began in 2014 when Patterson recognized a gap for performing arts opportunities in Wilmington for those with disabilities. Along with Gambony, with a background in teaching and working with people with disabilities, and Henry, with a background in theater and previous philanthropic efforts working with refugees, the three shared one mission: to provide a platform.

“They are actors and singers and dancers and comedians,” Henry says. “But what platform have they had? None.”

Gambony and Henry believe that each student already possesses the talent and charisma the audience loves before they walk into the classroom. When stage theater becomes more accessible, students can simply hone these skills and share them as they were intended to be seen.

From a beginning at Laney High School with outreach work, Henry, Gambony, and Patterson are now managing performance companies, summer camps, community classes, and leadership training classes serving nine schools across New Hanover, Pender, and Brunswick counties.

Over the years, transformative moments like the one Henry recalls with her student have cultivated talented actors who have stayed loyal to Theatre for All, amassing returning fans. Performers have produced several plays with the company, all of which are original and written based on the ideas of the actors themselves.

“Everything is original; we write the shows together with our performers. Every time you watch, it’s something you’ve never seen before and will never see again,” Gambony says.

In December, Theatre for All will present Threads, a festive show centered on giving and receiving, and symbiosis between cultures. It will take place at the Hannah Block Historic USO Center in downtown Wilmington. Details for the ticketed show, as well as other productions and classes, will be posted on the group’s website at theatreforall.org.

In September, the nonprofit marked its twelfth anniversary with a casino night fundraiser. Theatre For All wishes to continue to expand as an organization, in hopes of seeing the idea replicated across not only the U.S. but across the world.

Not only are the performers benefited by exposure to the audience, but it works both ways. Many neurotypical and able-bodied people simply lack interaction with people who are differently abled in their day-to-day life. However, research suggests that those interactions do matter: A research study from the University of Rochester explains that meaningful contact between differently abled people and able-bodied people significantly reduced prejudice.

“The truth is people often feel uncomfortable staring at people with disabilities because they were taught that it’s rude to stare. Here we’re saying, please stare,” Gambony says.

The goal, however, is not simply to put performers with disabilities on a stage. It is to change what audiences expect to see from a group of talented performers. By the end of a show, Gambony says, audience members have told the organization that they forgot they were watching people with disabilities. They were simply watching a story unfold.

“Part of what we’re doing is making the invisible visible,” Gambony says. “The invisible is the personalities, the talent, the complexities of people with disabilities.”

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