From KETV in Nebraska:OMAHA, Neb. -- It takes confidence to perform on stage. Acting demands imagination, concentration and determination: They’re qualities shared by the young students at a recent creative drama class held at Omaha’s Rose Children's Theatre.
“I always say you should never sell your child short,” said Mary McHale whose son Daniel just finished a series of classes at the Rose.
His mother’s efforts helped open the class to more than a dozen students who’ve never had the opportunity to take a drama class. They’re students with Down syndrome.
“They’re very uninhibited. Even though it may take them a little longer, the outcome is just as wonderful,” said drama instructor Anthony Abdullah.
During one of the final acting classes, eight students charged around the room, shooting pretend laser beams, reading lines and laughing. They helped create a six minute play about superheroes.
“Go,” Daniel instructed the other students if they missed a beat in picking up their lines during rehearsal. The fifth grade special needs student at Western Hills Elementary has a knack for memorizing plays.
“He knows everyone’s lines,” said Abdullah.
McHale helped the theatre staff find state grants to help pay for training and salaries for additional teachers to work with special needs students. As president of the Omaha Down Syndrome Parents Network, she personally held training sessions for the drama teachers.
McHale wanted to the staff to understand some of the challenges of children with Down syndrome.
As part of the training she had the teachers place marshmallows in their mouths and asked them to try to talk. She made them write on a chalkboard wearing mittens. And she taught them to give the students simple instructions, slowing down the tempo of their teaching style.
“We just want our kids to have the opportunity to have the same experiences. You don’t know if they like it unless you try,” McHale said.
In Daniel’s class, four students with Down syndrome attend class with four of their typically developing peers. It’s a casual class with no chairs and lots of room for creativity.
As students practiced one scene, Daniel swooped in as a flying super-hero and delivered his lines with enthusiasm.
“I’ve searched the whole island and the headquarters is missing,” he announced to fellow actors.Last year, the Rose opened their classes to children with autism, blending them into classrooms.
Michael Harrelson, a manager with the Rose, said the theatre wants to be accessible to all children.
“They have wants and desires just like any other students and they should be allowed to pursue those,” he said.
In the class of nine to 13 year olds, there were no stand-out star actors, just a bunch of children gaining confidence and pretending with friends on a Saturday morning.
The blended classes at the Rose show that children with Down syndrome are more like their classmates than different.
“The kids bond together and help each other out,” said Abdullah.
“Our children can do this but they need support, they would definitely fail without that,” McHale said.