#ut alumni

[utblog]

Cast Members Turned Advisors

by Abby Condon & Emily Camargo, UT Alumni and current UT Advisors

This year, the UT Staff realized something very exciting - we had two new advisors who are also Unified Theater Alumni! Both attended Conard High School and are back in West Hartford teaching middle school and continuing the UT tradition for a new generation! We asked Abby and Emily to reflect on their UT experience and why they wanted to become advisors!

by Abby Condon, Advisor at King Philip Middle School

I joined Unified Theater during my freshman year at Conard High School after participating in Unified Sports throughout middle school. I knew I had found a group I wanted to be a part of when the focus was on encouraging everyone’s ability to shine, opposed to competing against each other by focusing on our differences. According to the Mean Girls’ categorization, our group included the band geeks, the varsity jocks, the math nerds, and the freshmen. However, at Unified Theater, those labels do not matter. We all collaborated, cooperated, and contributed towards our final production. We danced, we sang (in Sign Language, too!), and we acted. I was continuously reminded that imperfections should be embraced. I was shown that there are multiple ways to communicate, whether it be facial, via an iPad, or through movement. I learned how to lead a large group of people toward a common goal. It was in those moments that I decided to become a special education teacher. I wanted to help people realize their true potential while defying the limits of their labels. Now, I am beginning my first year as a Unified Theater advisor and I could not be more excited. It’s like they say, everything happens for a reason.

by Emily Camargo, Advisor at Bristow Middle School

My name is Emily Camargo and I am now an alumni and soon to be a teacher advisor at the wonderful Bristow Middle School in West Hartford. I participated in the very first middle school UT performance. From that point on, I was hooked. At the age of about 12 years old, I loved the feeling that I had as I was able to work with people of all different kinds of abilities. UT helped me see that those with disabilities are more alike then people may think. After two years of UT at middle school, I moved along to take part in the UT program at my high school where I was really able to engross myself in the program. During UT in high school, I loved it so much that I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. FAST FORWARD. I am back from a short college break and am going to be introducing and leading many wonderful children into the new UT program at Brisow Middle School. I look back and think how grateful I am to have had UT to guide me into my passion of working with those with amazing abilities. I can't wait to pass that passion onto my students.

[utblog]

Music Therapy & Unified Theater

by Melissa Acheson, UT Alum, Simsbury HS 2016

“Personal Song Share: Prepare to bring a song into class that has had great meaning in your life in either the past or present.” This was my most recent assignment for my Overview of Music Therapy class as a first semester Music Therapy major at Temple University. I was stumped at first; music has accompanied me through a lot in life and no single song seemed to stick out as the most impactful in my life. Then, I sat down to write this blog and instantly knew what song I would share with my peers. A song many of them have likely never heard before, but which has touched thousands of lives from coast to coast. “We Are Unified”, a song that is inextricably linked to this amazing program that has impacted my life in amazing ways for over 5 years, and will undoubtedly continue to shape my life for the better as I move through college and beyond. No other song encompasses so many memories with so many amazing people, and no other song best explains what led me to choose music therapy as a career.

The idea that music and the arts have undeniable power is central to both Unified Theater and music therapy. When both performing onstage along with my peers in the many different UT performances and when observing music therapy sessions I’ve had the same feeling of “this is it”. This is truly making music and magic together, this is positive change, this is inspiration, this is happiness. There is plenty of scientific research behind music therapy, including how music affects our brain and allows for physical, emotional, and cognitive improvement. But what makes music therapy so powerful and special to so many therapists and clients is hard to pinpoint with scientific proof, just as the way performing for the first time or crossing an imaginary bridge created by different abilities is hard to describe.

The first time I sang the lyrics “watch how we shine…” in eighth grade, I had yet to realize the new direction my life was being taken by joining Unified Theater. Up until then, I had little to no experience with my peers with disabilities, or any sort of disability awareness or activism. I was shy, unsure of myself, and unsure of how to interact with those who at first seemed so different from me. Fast forward 5 years, I was singing the lyrics I knew by heart for the last time with my Simsbury High group, fighting back tears as I held hands and took a bow with some of the most amazing people I have ever and will ever have the privilege of knowing. I’ve made connections with other teenagers through the Spring Tour, CampUT, and the YLC, and I can only hope I’ve touched some of these people’s lives as much as they’ve touched mine.

As I shared a video of “We Are Unified” with my class, I was filled with immense pride and gratitude. My professor commented how nice it was of me to get involved in a program like that. But I knew my peers, especially those with disabilities, gave so much more to me than I could ever have given them. I’ve learned patience, compassion, the importance of a smile, and that even when one’s brain or body works a little differently, that does not affect their ability to shine. I hope that as a future music therapist, the musical experiences I share with my clients help them to each find their own unique light to spread through the world.

[utblog]

What Unified Gave Me

by Brendan McKay, Conard HS Alum ‘04

Every time I see a Unified Theater performance, I immediately remember participating in some of the first shows 15 years ago. For as much as the organization has grown into a nationally recognized leader in inclusion, at its heart, it is still a small, community-driven program that has retained its student-led roots.

I still see so much of those early days on the faces of the kids during the shows today – nervous excitement as the curtain comes up, laughter as scenes and songs are finished, and overwhelming pride as the audience rises from their seats in standing ovations as the stage lights dim.

Watching these shows, it is hard to contain a smile when you recall those exact same feelings as a teenager (particularly one who wasn’t someone who’d ever get a lead part in the school play, but felt included and empowered at Unified Theater). Making new friends at Unified was easy in a high school-world filled with social circles that were often difficult to navigate, even those that you were familiar with. I felt welcomed and unjudged from day one, and that feeling persisted until I graduated and moved away to college. What Unified gave me, very early on in my life, was an appreciation for approaching people with an open mind and arms, regardless of their outwardly apparent abilities or disabilities. People have a funny way of surprising you when given a chance, free from preconceived notions, and Unified Theater was instrumental in developing that mindset for me.  

It brings me such happiness to know that the Unified Theater community has grown exponentially since the very first program at Conard High School, and has left thousands of participants, audience members, families and educators with a better appreciation for the power of student-driven inclusion. It’s pretty amazing what kind of accepting and empowering worlds kids can create on their own, and ones that are often more educational than a classroom setting. Here’s to another 15 successful years of Unified! I can’t wait to see what is in store next!

(Brendan, center, at the 2014 UT Spotlight Celebration)

[thegameswelove]

Kenny Vaccaro the newest member of the New Orleans Saints.

DB, Texas, 1st round 15th pick

[thegameswelove]