by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
In 2021, Jan Monroe, the executive director of the local nonprofit STEP VA, asked Noah Finch, one of the program’s longtime participants, to write a song about how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected people with disabilities.
“In 30 minutes, a song was in my inbox,” Monroe said.
STEP VA—an acronym for Sensory + Theater = Endless Possibilities—was founded in 2014 and offers theater and arts education to children and adults with disabilities.
Finch had been attending the organization’s summer camps for six years at the time, and Monroe knew he had the skill and creativity to be able to channel his feelings about the pandemic into song.
Within six weeks, that song turned into a full two-act musical, with orchestration, which Finch directed and starred in along with 12 of his friends. STEP VA staged the production of “A Special COVID-19” in February of 2021—and “in true STEP VA fashion,” Monroe said, everyone started asking as soon as it was over what musical they would put on next year.
This weekend, the organization will present its fourth annual musical, “Seussical Jr—the STEP VA Way.”
Everyone in the cast of 40, which includes four tech crew members, has a disability. The ages of the cast members range from 13 to 30 years old, and a group of younger STEP VA participants, ages 6 to 10, will do a pre-show performance.
All the parts have been adapted to provide whatever support the individual needs in order to give their best performance, Monroe said.
“Whatever the supports are that we find out you need, or that we know about ahead of time, we’ll provide while maintaining the integrity of the licensed work,” she said.
For example, one young man who auditioned for “Seussical Jr.” has decreased verbal abilities, Monroe said.
Not only did the show’s choreographer and director adapt a part for him, but it’s a leading part, she said.
“Supported by his friends, he gets to be who he is, in all of his gestural communication, with his personality, which is infectious,” Monroe said. “He fits the part perfectly, but he needed that support.”
Adapting each show to the various specific needs of each cast member is “a lot of cognitive work, but it’s worth it,” Monroe said.
“Theater and theater arts anyway is ‘out of the box’ and you have to allow for that creative license to be able to do the work,” she said. “So all it is, is we’re being creative.”
Students are involved in all aspects of staging a musical, from auditions, to rehearsals, to scouting out props and building scenery, to tech responsibilities like lighting and sound system.
STEP VA has grown immensely in the 10 years since its inception. It now offers four separate summer camp sessions, year-round yoga and art classes, the spring “Musical Experience,” and the newest offering—a professionally-directed “all abilities choir.”
The choir debuted at last fall’s 10-year anniversary gala, performing “This is Me” from “The Greatest Showman.”
“There was not a dry eye in the house,” Monroe said.
The organization is always seeking volunteers to support its programs, especially the summer camps.
“You don’t have to be an arts person. You just have to be a teen or adult that has an interest in serving,” Monroe said. “We love to nurture our volunteers.”
There will be two performances of “Seussical Jr.” this weekend—on Saturday at 6 p.m. and on Sunday at 3 p.m.—both at Courtland High School in Spotsylvania. Tickets are $15 (free for ages 5 and under) and are available here.
The magic of live theater is always that it unfolds in real time before the audience, and one never knows what might happen. At STEP VA performances, because of the special nature of the performers, that magic is even more heightened, Monroe said.
“Our tag line is, ‘Expect the unexpected,’” she said. “We’ve been in the trenches of this show, and we have no idea what it’s going to look like, but we have staff members who are getting emotional because it’s just so good.”
