Acting Without Boundaries (AWB) shares mission with Lower School students
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Acting Without Boundaries (AWB) shares mission with Lower School students
Acting Without Boundaries (AWB) visited our third, fourth, and fifth graders to share AWB’s mission to transform lives and build self-esteem in an empowering community of people with physical disabilities through performing arts programs that celebrate ability.
AWB founder and executive director Christine Rouse shared the story of AWB’s founding in 2004, inspired by her personal experiences growing up with cerebral palsy. Having always loved performing, she created a community and organization that offers unique performing arts programs for people with physical disabilities. AWB meets and performs regularly on Haverford’s campus. Their next performance, “The Fisherman and the Fluke,” will take place on April 6 at our sister school, The Agnes Irwin School.
The AWB team invited volunteers to experience some challenges of living with physical disabilities. Boys stepped to the stage to try buttoning shirts with socks on their hands and lead blindfolded partners up and down Ball Auditorium’s steps as sighted guides. “This made me feel empathy for people with disabilities,” shared fourth grader Josh F. “We all have similarities and we all have differences,” fifth grader Vivaan V. reflected.
Acting Without Boundaries celebrates acting, so they shared the informational video “Disable the Myths” containing various scenes that demonstrated how to interact with people with disabilities. The video emphasized asking for consent and honoring dignity. As the video explained, people with disabilities can have the same likes, dislikes, passions, and pursuits as people without disabilities.
At the end of their visit, the AWB welcomed questions from the audience. Boys asked about favorite performances and passion projects, alongside practical questions about living with physical disabilities. The final comment from the crowd was a simple expression of gratitude, from the articulate fourth grader John J., to Christine Rouse and her team for sharing their important work with us.