Schools

VIDEO: Avon Middle School Unified Theater Holds Debut Performance

At least 75 students, with and without disabilities, wrote and produced, 'Road Trip,' a night of skits, laughter, art and music.

Unified Theater had its first-ever performance Wednesday night, including skits, songs, art, dances and a rendition of "We are the World" done in sign language.

"It's about camaraderie," Avon Middle School Principal Marco Famiglietti said.

The premier show was called, Road Trip. The 75 students involved took the audience on a comical trip around the world to places like France, Antartica, South America and Africa, as well as pop culture scenes like Hogwarts, Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and the underwater world of SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Like Unified Sports, the new theater program includes a mixture of students with and without disabilities.

"It has not only benifited students with disabilities, it has benefited our students without disabilities, equally if not more, as well as the staff," Avon Middle School Assistant Principal Kathryn Lawson said.

Find out what's happening in Avonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lawson said that with theater there's much less competition than in sports.

The students wrote and produced the skits and performances.

"It's supposed to be perfectly imperfect," Lawsom said.

Students Ryley Higgins, Kirsten Longbottom, Sofia Galli and Meredith McHugh lead the group and went to a leadership conference for training.

The students also collected cans of food and donations to give to a local food bank.


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