Make Believe in Central Park!
Only Make Believe was back in Central Park this year as part of YAI’s Central Park Challenge - benefiting members of the I/DD Community.
Combining efforts to empower children and young adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, Only Make Believe (OMB) has partnered with the Young Adult Institute (YAI) affiliate agencies Manhattan Star Academy (MSA) and The International Academy of Hope (iHope). The partnership has yielded several weeks’ worth of performances hosted by the children of YAI’s two affiliates to celebrate and highlight the talents of youth from each organization.
The actors from the NYC/DC-based nonprofit create interactive theatre with children who have medically fragile conditions or developmental disabilities and who are in hospitals, special education schools or care facilities. This year, OMB is celebrating having served more than 100,000 children since its founding in 1999 by Dena Hammerstein.
Throughout the spring of 2023, these three partner organizations worked with children and young adults to create interactive theatre performances. A rare public final performance was held on Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 10:15am as part of the YAI Central Park Challenge at the Interactive Stage near the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park.
YAI’s Central Park Challenge is one of the largest events in New York, welcoming more than 4,000 people. Only Make Believe was honored to participate for a second year in this city-wide event. It celebrates people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and, each year, raises much-needed funds for YAI’s mission to create opportunities for people with I/DD to live, love, work and learn in their communities. The event has been going since 1986, and features a 3K Walk, Junior Races and a festival area with live entertainment and performers.
Only Make Believe performed for over 30 children and their families at YAI’s Central Park Challenge, and looks forward to many more interactive performances coming up this summer and fall.
Young Teens Unite in 'Best Buddies' Partnership
Doing shows with the Best Buddies program has been a great experience for myself and the rest of the company, and I look forward to continuing to work with them! Our performance of “Imagination Unlocked” in February at Hunter College was my first experience with Best Buddies, and the first OMB show ever for two of our actors, and I don’t think they could have hoped for a better experience. The students and faculty at HCHS are all helpful and supportive, and our friends at Rebecca School are an awesome audience!
Although I don’t get to see them outside of performances, I would absolutely say that the kids at Rebecca School are confident, funny, and outgoing. While we’re setting up for performances and striking our props and costumes afterwards, they come up to us, ask questions, and tell us how much they love when OMB comes to visit. Getting the chance to actually talk about the shows (or anything else) with the audience isn’t something all actors get to do, and it’s really meaningful.
Only Make Believe has been partners with the Rebecca School for over ten years, so a lot of these kids have seen our programming before. Through long-term partnerships like this, we’re able to form a bond with these students and see their growth over time, as many of our long-time company members will tell you. It’s incredibly gratifying to walk into a school and see a group of students who are passionate about theater; it shows us that we’ve made an impression. Our programming is unique in that there are opportunities where the audience is encouraged to interact with the actors and take part in the story, and it’s awesome to watch kids take advantage of that and express themselves through singing, dancing, even gymnastics! This reaffirms our mission to encourage children to strengthen and explore their imagination through play, and it’s awesome to watch live.
by Bonnie Christilaw