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Young Communicators Make Stage Debut with Classic Fairy Tale

A performance of "The Shoemaker and the Elves" for a full house on a Sunday afternoon in October, 2002, had all the elements of any theatrical debut. The stars wore colorful costumes and felt butterflies in their hearts. There were dramatic lighting changes, clever props, amusing one-liners, dancing, audience participation and anticipated applause.

What set the production apart from a typical children's play was that most of the eight players delivered their lines using DynaVox 3100 devices while making their way around the stage in wheelchairs with the help of a sibling, parent or other assistant. Sharing the stage with the young augmented communicators were a few co-stars without disabilities. The show marked the debut of The Techno Troupe, a group of performers ranging in age from 4 to 16, who met in an AAC workshop at The Center for Creative Play, an inclusive day care center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the works for more than a year, the performance was an opportunity for the children to give of themselves through an activity that gave them a taste of freedom and responsibility.

"The demands of performing are rigorous," said Beth Sinteff, the speech-language pathologist who directed the show." You must do things with new levels of independence."

Through their contemporary recreation of the classic fairly tale of the elves who secretly lend a hand to the old shoemaker and his wife during hard times, the Techo Troupe did more than prove their readiness to meet the challenge. They had fun with it.

In his role as the king's employee, eight-year-old Benton Haggett warmed the audience up with jokes programmed into his device. Narrators Mark Steidl, a seven-year-old DynaVox communicator, and Hannah Rule, 13, kept the show moving and never missed a beat. Elissa Rule (Hannah's 16-year-old sister) played a perky wife to the sober shoemaker portrayed by Josh Kuznetzov, who used devices with voices to match their characters.

The script, written by Sinteff to reflect current times, included a bit where the elves leave pizza and Chinese food for the shoemaker and his wife one night, and requests from the shoemaker's customers for brands of shoes that people with mobility impairments wear.

Sinteff knew some of the performers through her work at The Children's Institute, a local rehabilitation and special education site affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In her opening remarks to the audience, she conveyed all that went into the production.

"Our actors and actresses have had only one opportunity a month to perform their lines, learn their moves and improve their timing. Some players had just a few practices to perfect their acts," Sinteff said. " It wasn't easy, but everyone's commitment to accomplishing the goal (especially when it was just plain hard) brought us here today."