Josh Ducommun
The actors and co-directors huddle backstage before showtime at the Starlight Theater.
It’s about 30 minutes before showtime at the Starlight Theater in the sparkling new MYArts space on East Mifflin Street and the cast is gathered backstage. Abigail Tessmann is hanging out in the green room while Maria Wolk Bresnahan gets her makeup done by volunteer Katie Rainey. Others mill about the dressing rooms.
Tessmann says she’s not nervous about performing as she’s done public speaking before. But, she adds, “I think everybody else is.” Her MO? “You look at one thing at the back of the auditorium and stare at it. Just don’t look at your parents.”
Tessmann is a member of Ability Ambassadors, as are the other 11 cast members. All have an intellectual or developmental disability, and some have more than one. All are employed and all live independently. Tessmann works at MSCR and runs her own business, Transit2GO, which teaches people with disabilities how to navigate public transit.
The March 23 performance of Finding Your Purpose: Ability Ambassadors Opening Performance is the group’s first public show; the goal is to illustrate how employers can successfully hire people with disabilities and make their workplaces more inclusive. The ambassadors will be performing five humorous skits showing both how to treat people with disabilities with respect and how not to treat them.
Ability Ambassadors is a “first of its kind” group, according to Dedra Hafner, a co-founder. The members are former students who attended Edgewood College as part of the Cutting Edge Program, some graduating with a college degree.
Hafner helped get the program started at Edgewood when she was a graduate student there, serving as program director when she became a professor. After she left the program in 2018 she contacted some former students to see how they were doing; she says many felt lonely and disconnected. In 2019 Hafner teamed up with a group of parents to establish Post College Connections, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; today’s performance was funded with pandemic dollars through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Home and Community-Based Services program.
About 15 minutes before the 2 p.m. start, performance co-director Lori Fatla provides some final coaching on the skit, “Dining Out, or Not.” Emily Savage hams it up, demonstrating how to play a rude waitress who doesn’t feel like waiting for a diner’s order. “I don’t have time for this!” she says in her best, snotty voice. “I’m too busy!”
With minutes to go, the performers gather behind the stage to get mic’d up. Fatla hands out copies of some written remarks the cast members have prepared and then they huddle, hands placed on top of hands. “You guys got this,” Fatla says. “You’re going to rock it.”
Parents, friends and advocates fill about half of the some 300 seats in the auditorium. A picture of the actor Emma Stone is on the screen, along with her quote, “Flaws are my favorite part of people.”
Hafner asks the cast to share what it means to be an ability ambassador. “We are able to teach others how we wish to be treated,” says Michael Hwang, who has autism and a deep, booming voice. “Everybody should be treated with respect.”
After a brief intermission the skits begin. First up is “Don’t Underestimate Me,” starring George Keenan, who has cerebral palsy, and Kaethe Sigelko, who has Down syndrome. In the “what not to do” part, Keenan plays a neighbor at the bus stop who asks belittling questions and seems surprised to hear that Sigelko works. In “Let me Be Your Guide,” Tessmann rushes Egan Ahern, who has autism, playing a blind man at a work conference, across the floor and into a seat. Showing how it should be done, Tessmann asks Ahern if he would like assistance, gently takes his arm, talks to him while walking, and lets him know when they have arrived at the seat.
In introductory remarks, Fatla notes that the cast has been practicing since last fall, one to two times a week. “The skits emerged after personal reflection and stories from our ambassadors.” But, she warns, they are not to be taken literally. “Our ambassadors are acting.”
Once the skits are done, Hafner asks for questions from the audience. One asks what the ambassadors have learned from the process. Sam Dess, who has Down syndrome, says he learned that he’s part of a team. “I’m not afraid to go up to my team and ask for help. This is my second family too. They are always my brothers and sisters.”
551,592: Dane County population, 2021*
45,802: Number of people with disabilities*
8.3%: Percentage of population*
890: Dane County business employing people with disabilities**
841: Number of people with disabilities employed**
$3.6 million: Earnings of workers with disabilities**
14: Number of supported employment agencies + 12 high schools**
* Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2017-2021, American Community Survey five-year estimates. ** Source: Dane County August 2015 Employer Report
