Disabilities don't keep FREE Players off-stage

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Disabilities don't keep FREE Players off-stage

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-

etlede5554808jan29,0,7715025.story?page=1

BY ROBERT KAHN

January 29, 2008

Opening night is still six months away, but Brennan is

focused on the lyrics to " Fugue for Tinhorns " as if the curtain will

rise in a few hours. Flanked by two other young men in a classroom in

Old Bethpage, he clutches a Daily Racing Form, a prop he'll use in

the opening number of " Guys and Dolls, " and begins to sing.

" But look at Epitaph ... he wins it by a half! "

" This is a big thing for me, " Brennan, 24, says afterward. The

Rockville Centre man, born with Down syndrome, has landed the part of

Rusty Charlie, a gambler, in the FREE Players' take on the

quintessential Broadway musical. Brennan can function academically

and physically at a very high level, but the DS affects his ability

to carry a tune, so his delivery in the classroom this afternoon is

as much spoken as it is sung.

Along with 90 or so fellow " consumers, " as they are referred to in

mental health parlance, Brennan will present Loesser's " Guys

and Dolls " at the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack,

beginning June 14. Where a local community theater might launch a

production in a matter of weeks, progress among the FREE Players,

which operates under the auspices of a not-for-profit agency called

Family Residences & Essential Enterprises, is measured in months.

" Our actors might rehearse a scene hundreds of times before they get

it right, " says Sisto, artistic director of Theater Day

Habilitation at FREE. " By the time we do a show, it needs to be

almost second nature for them. "

Wide range of clients

FREE is a 30-year-old agency that runs group homes and day treatment

centers throughout Nassau and Suffolk for more than 3,000 people.

Their clients have disabilities that range from mental retardation,

cerebral palsy and Asperger's syndrome to lesser-known conditions

such as Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic disorder. The group's

mission is to foster independence among its clients.

Sisto, 54, a former graphic designer, joined FREE in 1989 as a cook

at a group home in Ridge, eventually rising into a series of

management jobs. An avid theater fan, he launched the FREE Players in

1993, believing he could help people with disabilities gain control

over their symptoms through performance.

Since the program's inception, Sisto has shepherded to the stage

semiannual musicals, including productions

of " Grease, " " Tommy, " " Little Shop of Horrors, " Into the Woods " and -

twice - " ph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. "

Initially, Sisto says, it was easy to get sympathy for his cause, but

more difficult to get an audience at venues such as Theatre Three in

Port Jefferson and the Pilgrim Rehab Center in West Brentwood, where

earlier productions were staged. " Generally, " Sisto usually tells

visitors, " this is not a population that makes people feel good. "

" It's like the telethon with Jerry , " Sisto continues. " People

think, 'They're gonna be dragging themselves across the stage, so

we'll just throw money and leave.' But now we have this group that's

amazing to watch and really does make you feel good. And it really

changes the whole idea so you're thinking 'differently abled' instead

of 'disabled.' "

Recent productions have filled the Suffolk Y's 640 seats. " Guys and

Dolls " will run for six performances over two weeks.

Members of the FREE Players enroll in a hodgepodge of classes geared

to increasing team skills, bettering one's ability to efficiently

manage requests from others and increasing the ability to stay

focused on long-term tasks - all skills necessary to stage a musical.

During the first " ph, " in 1994, Sisto recalls one consumer who

had schizophrenia and hallucinated in such a way that he could not

communicate with others or hear them speaking to him. But the actor

was able to hear his cue and snap out of the hallucination long

enough to perform.

A few years later - Sisto thinks it was in a production of " Pippin " -

there was a performer who couldn't remember when it was his turn to

speak. But the man had a knack for remembering numbers and was able

to recall that after another actor spoke 35 words, then it was his

turn to deliver a line.

" Something about being in the play allows consumers to be able to

control their symptoms, " Sisto says.

Initially, the Players had no funding, and all the staff were

volunteers; the cost of equipment rental and performance venues came

from fundraising. In 1999, FREE applied for financial assistance to

create a day treatment service that focused on using theater arts as

a way to gain skills and control symptoms. The funding came through

in 2005.

A socialization experience

A typical budget for a production is around $14,000. Sisto can save

money by scouring eBay for props - such as the cymbals he's currently

hunting down to help the " Guys and Dolls " mission band in the " Follow

the Fold " number.

For participants like Brennan, an aspiring computer maven awaiting

word on a job he's applied for at a local Applebee's, being a member

of the Players is a unique socialization process. The other members

of his trio have degrees of mental retardation and autism.

" Everyone interacts as best they can, " says Brennan, who has

previously acted in " ph " and " The Most Happy Fella, " another

Loesser musical. " To answer your question, different handicaps are a

really good source of fun. "

For Jerome, 21, of Manhasset, the FREE Players also have been

a form of theatrical therapy. Jerome has Asperger's syndrome, a mild

form of autism. She's easily frustrated and describes herself as

prone to emotional outbursts - though far less so now than when she

joined FREE last June.

In " Guys and Dolls, " Jerome will play righteous Brown, the

missionary girl who is opposed to gambling.

" I remember when we did 'ph' last year, I got angry during the

show, " Jerome says. " I messed up on a huge scene - a small scene, I

should say. It was added, like two seconds before the show. I got

angry and ... I look back on it horribly. Now, I look back and

say, 'Hey, they added the scene two seconds before the show. It can't

be perfect.' You fix your glitches along the way. "

Opening night is already on Jerome's mind. " It's gonna be very

intimidating, " she says.

" I take that back. What I meant to say is, it's going to be a little

intimidating. "

A FREE Players success story

Officially, White, 46, is a Habilitation Specialist Assistant on

staff at Family Residences & Essential Enterprises. He'll also be a

lighting tech for the production of " Guys and Dolls " set for June.

What distinguishes White from the other instructors at FREE is that

he also was once a consumer in the program. White, who was raised in

West Islip and lives in Brentwood, came to the program in 1993 to

help manage a mood disorder.

" At the time, they said I had 'Schizo-affective Disorder,' " says

White, who characterizes his most noticeable social difficulties as a

tendency to get " jammed up " when talking in situations that aren't

rehearsed.

" Right now, my newest label is bipolar. "

As a consumer, White won the part of Tevye in the FREE Players' 1997

production of " Fiddler on the Roof. " While he was in rehearsals, he

also met his wife, Laurie Ann Lee, a staff member at a different

residential program, who was escorting one of her clients to see the

actors. The pair have a son, , and a foster daughter, Tasha.

After his marriage, White transitioned out of the program but was

eventually invited back as a staff member in 1999.

He doesn't make a point of communicating his past here to the other

Players, but most know about it, anyway.

" In some ways, it makes it easier for me because they identify with

me more if they know I was a program participant, " he says.