Theater Program for People with Disabilities

Without her Emerson College experience, Libby Lit says she wouldn’t have created Unified Theater, a program designed to help adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities express themselves through performance.

“Every step of the way, I’m influenced by my education at Emerson,” said Lit, MA ’23. “I don’t think I’d be doing this unless I had specifically gotten my degree [in Theatre Education] from Emerson.”

Lit created Unified Theater, a program of the Hopkinton (Mass.) Center for the Arts, in 2022, and staged its first show the following year. The program performs two annual shows directed by Lit, who prepares for months at a time. The most recent show, performed on January 10 and 11, was a salute to Disney, and featured songs from Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, Mulan, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, and more.

“They’re incredibly talented and gifted individuals: singers, storytellers, musicians, and they love what they’re doing,” said Lit. “It’s a really fun program. Our cast is mostly comprised of those with disabilities. We have volunteers who don’t just support the cast, they become part of the cast, and typically don’t have neurocognitive disabilities.”

Lit works as a severe needs paraprofessional for Hopkinton High School in Massachusetts. While at Emerson, she student taught at Milford High School, where she helped develop an adaptive curriculum for special needs educators. Her job involved working on real life situations with people with special needs, which spawned a theatrical idea.

“I was working with teachers who work with autistic people and [those with] Down syndrome,” said Lit. “The school nurse brought all the equipment, and the students got to see everything close up and play out a scene of what it’s like at a doctor’s office. That’s dramatic application. That’s applying those imaginative higher order thinking skills to engage them in a no-stakes environment, so when they go to a doctor’s office, they already have practice.”

Lit said students also learned about costumes and puppetry, and made sock puppets, which was great for identifying their emotional needs.

“It’s easier to project your emotions on[to] a second party. They created a backstory for their sock puppet,” said Lit. “We did facial recognition, like ‘Show me your sock puppet being sad or happy’. Engaging through sock puppets is inherently theatrical.”

Through her experiences using theatre to teach life skills, Lit was inspired to create Unified Theater, which allows people with cognitive and developmental disabilities to see themselves represented on stage.

The Hopkinton community has embraced the program: Tech company and sponsor Dell Technologies has an office in Hopkinton, and high schoolers volunteer with the program. One of the high school students designed a T-shirt that performers wore, and was sold as a fundraiser.

Right now, the program costs $100 per program participant for materials. The program is for individuals 18 and older, but Lit is working on creating a program for 12- to 17-year-olds. Her goal is for the programs to initially hold one class a week, and eventually have another class that mixes the two age groups.

“The bottom line is representation. Younger students seeing older students doing it, they’ll know they can do it, too,” said Lit. “A goal is to create a mentoring program.”

Lit said all aspects of the program is neurodivergent influenced, including her directorial decisions.

“We have people who know what’s best for the autistic community, or Down syndrome community, to see the best way they can learn,” said Lit. “I’m mindful [that] I’m not living their experience. I’m not just doing what I think is right.”

And it is her Emerson experience that continues to guide Lit. She said three professors were instrumental in her career path: Performing Arts Associate Professor Bethany Nelson ‘82; former Performing Arts affiliated faculty member Valerie Madden, MA ’17, MFA ’20; and Performing Arts affiliated faculty member Melissa Bergstrom.

“Bethany Nelson – I learned so much about pedagogy and different learning styles. I learned the Linklater Method with Valerie Madden – that sound begins in your feet, and to visualize our sound, which is really helpful for [individuals with special needs] population,” said Lit. “I took Documentary Theatre with Melissa Bergstrom. She is the one who really put the love of serving this marginalized community into my heart.”

Lit’s initial capstone project plan was to create a documentary theatre piece about people with special needs.

“It evolved and became Unified Theater,” said Lit. “Their unaltered voices deserve to be heard, loud and clear.”