By Benjamin Joe
Stacy Kowal and Heather Benson sit across from each other in “The Go-Away Face” by Scott Mullen and directed by Shanda Gardner. Photograph Credit: Benjamin Joe
ITOWNY’s 2024 Short Play Festival is coming to St. Mary’s High School in Lancaster starting April 12-14 & 19-21.
Nine short plays will be presented to audiences by Inclusive Theater of Western New York, many of which were written by local playwrights. The plays are “Building Balanced Men in Buffalo” by Justin Karcher, “On Rooftops and Rowboats” by Bella Poyton, “Soar Spot” by Allison Fradkin, “The Merry Men of Tinder” by Madison Sedlor, “Peace in the Mist” by Adam Norton, “The Golden Girls Convention” by JB Stone, “Damn You Roger” by Mark Lloyd and “Coffee Dance” by Lynnemarie Scrivano.
Founder of the acting troupe is Aimee Levesque. She said her daughter, Jessica Levesque, was obsessed with acting, but her diagnosis of autism seemed to be shutting doors for her passion. Inflamed the English professor said if no one else would give Jessica a stage, she would.
That’s how Inclusivity Theater started out.
“We like to give people local opportunities,” Aimee Levesque said, humbly.
People in the troop don’t have to have a disability, but they won’t be barred from it if they do. Levesque explained that many people from all different walks audition and she doesn’t shut them out. Given the correct environment, actors and actresses with disabilities can be just as professional, hard-working and successful as anyone else, she said.
And many of the actors in the troupe are professional actors, disabilities or no.
Take Hussein Mohsin, 20, for example. He started his acting career 10 months ago.
“I’ve always loved (acting) since I was young. I always was into film and stuff like that, but I never did anything because I didn’t have the courage. I didn’t think I could do it,” he said.
However, something happened last year that Mohsin swallowed his fear and got on stage. While in college he saw the opportunity to do it and decided to pursue what he really loved.
“Even if I failed … I didn’t care if I failed. At least I know I tried,” he said.
Since then Mohsin has gathered a few credits to his portfolio: a commercial for Evergreen Health, Bomb Prom (a short film starting next month), and a small role in the same feature as Sadie Sink of Stranger Things and The Whale fame.
“Myself I have a physical disability. That was one of the reasons why I didn’t think I could do acting. (I’d say) I have a disability, I probably can’t do it,” he said.
“But then I realized it doesn’t matter what your background is, where you come from, anyone can act.”
Jessica Levesque said that self doubt wasn’t the only thing stopping people with disabilities from being among the great actors of the world. It was actual conditioning from a young age. People saying that show biz and physical or mental disabilities just didn’t mix.
“I had seen over the years how individuals with disabilities weren’t represented on film,” she said. “Or in theater. I didn’t see anything like that and I had always been into acting since I was a little girl.”
Even as a young girl Levesque said she remembers listening to the naysayers. People saying, “they won’t put up with you.”
“People in society. They didn’t treat us equally,” she said. “Especially our own teachers telling us, ‘That’s just a pipe dream. That’s not something you should pursue.'”
Determined though, the younger Levesque got her first part in another community theater group where she played a teddy bear and a shoe.
“I wanted to try it out to see if they’d put up with me,” she said.
For those parts, she said, it felt amazing because she’d just begun her career and was high on life. There was only one problem and that was she had trouble reading. She learned best from comic books, she said, and while teachers didn’t understand, her mother did.
“She said, ‘Literacy is literacy’,” Levesque remembered. “’She’s still learning, just a different way.’”
Levesque was able to get through the parts, and the inclusive approach appears to be working. The elder Levesque explained, that while it is a cliché, “diversity is beautiful.”
“Disability is what we’re good at, but also we work with different people of different cultures, different backgrounds,” she said. “So this is a safe space like some of the plays do have gay characters. Characters from other countries. Because that’s important to us, because diversity is beautiful, and that’s what it’s like. I mean that’s what the world is like.
“For so long people have spoken on behalf of people with disabilities. And they do that to people of different cultures, too. But it’s time they got their voice back and that is so important to me.”
As for the cast, it’s not about money or fame. Geno Delmaro, also an owner of a roofing company, fell into theater three-years ago.
“I met a girl in a bar and she’s a writer/director/actress and she let me audition for something after we started talking for awhile, and she gave me the part,” he said.
Delmaro said that he’d originally thought that that acting was a “one and done” experience, but he couldn’t keep away. That first part “snowballed” into other things, including parts in Inclusive Theater’s Nine Short Plays.
Delmaro plays a mysterious suitor in “Coffee Dance” and the much tormented Bills fan in “Building Balanced Men in Buffalo.” It’s not cutting into his day job, but he enjoys himself.
“I fall off a roof once a year,” he joked. “There’s really no money in this, but it’s a lot of fun. Especially in Buffalo.”
Opening night happens Friday and Inclusive Theater is holding its breath and crossing its fingers. Find out more at inclusivetheaterofwny.com.
Buffalo Music Players 