Community Corner
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND OTHER ACTORS STAGE FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, JR.
For three recent nights at Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield people with developmental disabilities who are members of Community Access Unlimited united with actors from the wider community to stage a very special production of "Fiddler on the Roof, Jr.," the fourth production of the CAU Community Players.
“Fiddler" portrays the lives of Russian villagers addressing the challenges to their traditions, livelihoods, families, lovers, friends and freedoms. While a famous and familiar play, its complexities can be hidden behind several well-known songs.
For Marguerite Modero, the production's director, the challenge was presenting the complex production with a cast of 60. Yet “Fiddler” is the perfect work for that challenge as it is a play with a message of inclusion, she said.
“This play is about a community, with all types,” Modero said. "There is adversity and change but in the end the play shows how the community responded to the challenges. That is what the cast accomplished, as well."
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That cast – including children and adults, stage novices and theater veterans – worked in concert, some even dancing in wheelchairs. And at curtain's fall they all joined together for their well-deserved applause. This enabled the audience each night to see them not as individuals who were different but as a cast of actors who presented a night filled with laughter, tears, forgiveness, song and love for one another, according to Modero.
“This is a community,” she said of the CAU Community Players. “They showed bravery and showed people they can do it.”
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CAU, celebrating its 35th year, provides support programs and services to people with disabilities and youth served under the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to enable them to live independently in the community, in areas including housing, vocational and life-skills training, education, advocacy and recreation.
The CAU Community Players, the first of its kind in Union County, was formed in 2012 to allow CAU members with developmental disabilities to engage in the pleasures of acting, singing and dancing side-by-side with people from the community and to be judged for their talents rather than disabilities.
"Fiddler" was the troupe's third annual musical production, in addition to one drama. The previous musicals included “Beauty and the Beast Jr.” and “Seussical Jr.” As with "Fiddler," those productions carried messages of inclusion and community, as well.
For CAU member Annie Johnson, “Fiddler” was an opportunity to again be on stage and sing. This was her third theater production and she played a villager.
“I like being on stage,” she said. “I want to be a singer. This was hard work with a big cast but we all helped each other. It gave me a chance to show my talent.”
Tina Hansen, one of the actors from the wider community, stepped into a big role in her second CAU Community Players production, appearing as Tzeitel, the eldest daughter of Tevya the milkman, the show's central character. Working with a cast of diverse abilities added to the experience, she said.
“This was very rewarding," she said. "It is about people sharing in life, sharing their experiences. It can help open a little conversation about these issues.”
Springfield resident Scott Birnbaum, a stage veteran, played Avram the bookseller. He previously appeared in high school plays and numerous productions at the JCC Metrowest, a Jewish community center in West Orange.
“It’s in my blood,” he said. “But this is special.”
Birmbaum even corrected a backstage visitor who wished the cast well.
“Never say ‘good luck.’ It’s ‘break a leg,’“ Birnbaum said from his wheelchair.
Keith Radzion, a veteran actor playing one of the lead roles of Motel, the village tailor who married Tzeitel, said that performing with CAU actors was rewarding. All the cast and crew worked well together, helped one another and produced a wonderful play, he said.
“In the end there was the courage to see no differences, just one cast,” he said.
Michael Perrone, who took the stage for the first time with the CAU Community Players and who portrayed Mendel, agreed.
“No one thought about being different," he said. "The curtain opens and the audience is there and all the work is done. Now we see if all the work paid off.”
The production was staged June 27-29. The show was supported with a grant from the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities. All proceeds go toward supporting CAU programs for its members.