A song in their hearts

At Baltimore County's musical theater program for disabled adults, learning dialogue is secondary to learning to believe in themselves

By Jonathan Pitts | Sun Reporter

May 4, 2008

She occupies a folding chair in the center of the auditorium, right where the orchestra pit would be if this were the Hippodrome or Carnegie Hall.

On the stage 10 feet away, 24 actors - squat and round, slender and intent, smiling and sniffling and dour - engage Barb Thomas with their eyes, reflecting as deftly as they can every movement she makes.

She lifts her arms; they lift theirs. She leans left; mirror-like, they tilt right. As the melody of a show tune rattles through a boom box on a table in the auditorium at Riderwood Elementary School in Towson, she bends to the floor snapping her fingers, and they do the same, in time.

It's a satisfying moment in the last rehearsal before the big show, Snoopy!!! The Musical, the curtain for which rises Tuesday night. For seven months, Thomas, director of Baltimore County's musical theater program for disabled adults, has drilled her cast in dance, elocution and song. She's a human metronome, eliciting the claps, taps and gestures they're starting to believe they know.

They range in experience from none to 20 years, in disability from severe Down syndrome to high-functioning autism. These performers are special, she says, not for what holds them back but for who they are.

"There's such a range of personalities here," she says. "Some people are shy. Some love the limelight. A lot of them can't quit talking."

She spins in the chair, a cyclone of arms and legs. They twirl and stamp in something like unison. "It's coming together," she ventures.

Opening night awaits.

It starts, as ever, in jovial chaos. One warm October evening, a gaggle of vans and SUVs fills a rear parking lot near the baseball diamonds, and parents, siblings and caregivers spill out, actors of all ages in tow. They meet in the "Cafetorium," swapping greetings like cousins at a family reunion.

Many have been in multiple shows, from Singin' in the Rain (1992) and Grease (1996) to Annie Get Your Gun (last year). She knows their quirks and isn't afraid to challenge them. They're glad to see her.

"May I hug you?" Tara Lilley, 30, a brunet actress from Towson, asks of Thomas. She and her twin sister, Heather, have learned that some people can be squeamish around those with disabilities, but their spirits are as generous as their frames.

"How was your summer?" Thomas cries, her outstretched arms triggering embraces.

At 6:15 p.m. - tap time - parents find seats in the back. Thomas, a tsunami of positivity, sweeps her performers onstage. She and aide Beth Farrell, a specialist in dance and physical therapy, align them in rows.

"Remember this?" Thomas says, brushing a sole on the floor, then slapping it down. "Sometimes we go brush-step, other times brush-stomp. Which is louder?"

"Stomp!" they cry.

"You haven't forgotten much," she says.

Learning lyrics

Thomas seats the group around her onstage. She was planning to stage It's a Wonderul Town, about small-town folk who move to the big city, but the CDs didn't arrive in time, so she's making a switch. They'll be doing the Snoopy musical.

"You're all adults, of course, but you'll be playing little kids," she says, to shouts of laughter.

She slips in a CD. Burly Rick Linowitz, 58, a program veteran who was once Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, booms out the words: "Sit! Lie down! Roll over, play dead!" Leah AliKhan, 29, circles for just the right pitch.