May 2017 | Vol. 27 Iss. 05
Spay & Neuter Special
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SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS WIN OVER CROWD during spring play
In May!
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By Tori La Rue | tori@mycityjournals.com
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Josh Caroon, playing the part of Hercules, and McKailey Hart, playing the part of Megara, act out a scene in Kauri Sue Hamilton School’s production of “Hercules.” (Jordan School District)
electronic device. “It just means the world to him just to be able to be a part of something, part of a show, and he loves to have a main part,” Janette Barton said. The audience erupted in applause during one of Tyler Barton’s main scenes where his character taught Hercules, played by Josh Caroon, and other characters how to battle demons. Adults wearing black helped students do fake pull-ups, crunches and bench press foam weights to prepare for encounters with enemies. Tyler Barton’s mouth gaped open wider and wider throughout the scene, which
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his mom said indicated his excitement at the audience’s response. In a subsequent scene, Hercules uses what he’s learned from Phil’s training to battle a multi-headed Hydra monster. Teacher’s aids and other school staff rolled students in strollers onto the stage. Each student had a purple tablecloth draped over his or her chair with a hole cut out at the front for his or her head. Teachers held up cutouts of purple monster heads, creating the illusion that these students and teachers were part of the same gigantic beast. Growling sounds played over the speakers
INSIDE
ore than 200 special needs students ages 5 to 22 told the story of “Hercules” to spirited audiences at Kauri Sue Hamilton School in Riverton on April 5 and 6. For an entire week, regular school activities came to a halt as all students, teachers and staff members rehearsed the play from 10 a.m. until the end of the school day. “It’s hard on the school because it is a lot of work, but it is my favorite time of year,” Maddie Nelson, the school’s music therapist and creator of the production, said about the long-standing “spring fling” school play. “I know it is a lot of staff’s favorite time. It gives people a little bit of rejuvenation to go toward the end of the year.” It’s also an activity that the students look forward to. “It gives them an opportunity to have a typical children’s experience of being in a play, even if the work is mostly done hand-over-hand with adults often doing the movements for the students,” Nelson said. Complete with full costumes, makeup, set and props, the elaborate musical took shape as students, many of whom were wheeled onto the stage in wheelchairs, danced and acted to portray the story of a young Greek god named Hercules who falls to earth. Hercules must realize his own identity to save the world from danger. A couple students spoke into microphones during the performance, but most actors and actresses, who have varying verbal capabilities, used an electronic program called TapSpeak to deliver their lines. When these students pressed a button on a tablet, a pre-recorded message played over the loudspeaker system. Janette Barton’s 10-year-old son Tyler played the part of Phil, Hercules’ trainer. She said she was touched that the school made sure he could express the lines himself using an
as Josh, in the role of Hercules, used a plastic sword to try to slay the beast. Realizing the monster couldn’t be defeated so easily, he bent down, grabbed fake rocks and threw them at the purple mound of students and teachers. Josh pumped his fists in the air at the end of the fight, denoting that the beast had been defeated, and the audience cheered. Later in the plot, Hercules finds himself falling in love with a sassy girl named Megara. Megara begins to realize her feelings for Hercules and sings the song “I Won’t Say I’m in Love.” Playing Megara, McKailey Hart, gripped the microphone with fervor and tilted her head back as she sang along with the song from the Hercules soundtrack. McKailey missed a few words in most sentences to laugh or offer the audience a gawking smile, but she belted out each word of the last sentence clearly: “At least out loud I won’t say I’m in love.” The soloist received the second-loudest cheer of the play, topped only by the closing scene in which Shakira’s “Try Everything” played as some of the school’s youngest students jumped up and down and danced. Simultaneously, bubbles soared through the room and adult supervisors set off confetti cannons. Some parents, neighbors and other viewers, including Nelson, shed a few tears at the end of the performance. “I feel like I cry every year when I watch, but I definitely think just watching the kids get so happy and actually seeing the response of the audience to their performance is probably the best part,” she said. “These kids come out of their shells even if it’s just for the two minutes they are on stage because they see that people care about them.” l
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