Accessible Stages Collaborative
The Royal River Community Players has joined forces with local organizations to launch the Accessible Stages Collaborative—an initiative dedicated to making theater welcoming and accessible for all. Take advantage of free workshops and valuable resources designed to help Maine's theater groups create inclusive productions, where everyone, regardless of ability, can shine on stage.
Past Workshops
Pathways To Inclusion
Pathways to Inclusion
Presented: Monday, Sept. 15th at 7:00 PM
Presentors: Chris Sullivan, David Sheehy,
Jessica Walton, & Michaela Knox
Duration: 01:19:24
Building The Unified Experience
Accessible Stage Productions: Building the Unified Experience
Presented: Monday, Sept. 29th at 7:00 PM
Presentors: Chris Sullivan, David Sheehy,
Jessica Walton, & Michaela Knox
Duration: 01:30:58
Resources
Before You Begin
This needs assessment helps theaters reflect on their readiness for Accessible Stage Productions. It’s not a compliance test, but a tool for honest evaluation, highlighting strengths and areas to grow. The assessment encourages collaboration among board members, production staff, and volunteers, guiding conversations to foster inclusivity. It also identifies where training or resources are needed, reassuring theaters that it’s okay to begin without everything in place, and supporting intentional planning for accessible, welcoming productions.
Audition Templates
The attached 'Word Doc' offers essential casting call information. In our ASC productions, everyone is cast, and our goal is to make the experience as welcoming as possible for all. Since auditions can be intimidating, especially for first-timers, we include plenty of details about our space and audition process.
This links to a 'Google Form' that needs to be copied to your Google Drive to be customised. For ASC productions, everyone who auditions is cast. The rehearsal process lets directors get to know actors before assigning roles. Audition spots are capped based on theater size and casting needs to ensure a manageable cast and an effective rehearsal process for all involved.
Interviewing actors after auditions keeps everyone informed and supports a smooth, inclusive rehearsal process. Use this guide to conduct initial cast interviews for all auditioners and their parents or guardians. It includes suggested questions and process tips to help you understand each performer’s needs and required accommodations.
Production Planning Resources
The attached 'PDF' is an example schedule that outlines the key steps for producing an ASC show. While this model is condensed into a two-month period, every theater’s timeline will vary. For instance, our process usually takes 11 weeks, with rehearsals held only two to three times each week.
This ‘Google Spreadsheet’ helps directors, choreographers, and music directors organize casts by scene, dance, and solos. Costumers can track sizing and costumes for each scene. It’s especially useful for large ensembles and shows where performers play multiple roles, keeping all information accessible in one place.
The attached 'PDF' provides a song breakdown from Lyric Music Theater’s production of Cinderella, designed to streamline coordination between the director, choreographer, and actors. It identifies who blocks or choreographs each song, lists cast assignments, and includes notes on performer roles, costume, and prop requirements for efficient planning.
The attached ‘PDF’ offers tips for directors, designers, and producers, compiled from local Accessible Stage Productions. Many suggestions are universal and help make productions smoother and more inclusive. Contributions are welcome to expand this list and promote best practices for accessible, effective, and inclusive stage production processes.
The attached 'PDF' is a sample sensory guide from Lyric Music Theater’s 2025 Accessible Production of The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition. Sensory guides outline possible sensory triggers in performances, like loud noises or strobe lights, to help neurodivergent and sensory-sensitive patrons prepare, offering scene-by-scene or general notes without revealing plot details.
Tools For Supporting New Actors
Share cast and crew bios and photos before the first rehearsal to build trust and community. Use this PowerPoint template to organize and email team information, helping everyone connect and know who to contact with questions. Start the production process with an informed, united team.
This PowerPoint template introduces new actors to blocking, notation, and stage directions, ensuring everyone starts with a shared understanding. Update and send this guide before your first blocking rehearsal, and review concepts with a "Simon Says: Stage Direction" activity.
Not all performers have attended a music rehearsal before. This PowerPoint template introduces key information so actors know what to expect and how to prepare. Update and send this guide before your first rehearsal, then review the concepts at the start to help everyone feel comfortable and ready.
Technical elements are challenging to integrate. Use this PowerPoint template in full or by section to introduce new theater spaces, lighting, props, costumes, or sets. Share it with your production team in pre-production and have them fill in details for their discipline to ensure smooth transitions.
ASC Members
The Accessible Stages Collaborative brings together theater professional David Sheehy, occupational therapist Jessica Walton, and Michaela Knox, Executive Director of Spark Inclusive Arts.
David Sheehy
Director of Accessible Stages Collaborative
David Sheehy has spent the past decade creating theater across Maine and New Hampshire, working as a director, music director, performer, and business leader. In 2023, he directed what he believes to be the first unified theater production at a community theater in Maine—though he hopes he’s wrong—at Lyric Music Theater, where he has served as both Performance Operations Director and, more recently, Facilities Director. Since then, he has brought accessible theater to Gorham Arts Alliance and Royal River Community Players, helping to build a growing community of participants passionate about inclusive performance. He is currently music directing and co-producing RRCP’s unified production of Footloose: Youth Edition.
David holds a B.A. in Mathematical Science and Education, as well as an MBA from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, where he works as a Learning Designer, developing curriculum for SJC Online. He also designs and teaches math courses for Cambridge College of Healthcare and Technology, based in Georgia.
Through his teaching career and his longstanding involvement with Camp Fatima’s Special Needs Week in New Hampshire, David has cultivated a deep commitment to serving individuals with disabilities. He is mindful of the many privileges he has received—both in the theater and beyond—and is dedicated to creating spaces where those opportunities are extended to everyone. His work in accessible and unified theater reflects his belief that the arts can and should be a space for all people to thrive, create, and belong.
Michaela Knox
Michaela Knox is a Maine-based performer, choreographer, and teacher. She is the founding artistic director of Spark Inclusive Arts, www.sparkinclusivearts.org and a Master Trainer of the DanceAbility method. She holds a B.A. in Theater and Dance and an M Ed. in Educational Leadership. She was a company member of 20 moons Dance Theatre from 2014-2018.
Over the last two decades Knox has taught thousands of students with and without disabilities. She has trained over 200 performing arts teachers in disability inclusion practices.
Knox is passionate about supporting others in the discovery and research of their self-expression. She considers it her life’s work to help dissolve barriers between people with and without disabilities with the hope of creating a more inclusive society for all people.
Jessica Walton
Jessica Walton, MS, OTR/L, serves as an Associate Clinical Professor, Assistant Program Director, and Academic Fieldwork Coordinator in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of New England (UNE), where she has been a faculty member since 2019. In these roles, she is responsible for coordinating clinical placements, mentoring students, and contributing to curriculum development with a focus on experiential and inclusive learning.
Jessica brings extensive clinical experience from her work with Northern Light Home Health and Maine Medical Center, where she provided occupational therapy services across a range of settings and populations. Her professional interests center on accessibility, community engagement, and the intersection of health and the arts.
Though not a performer herself, she is deeply engaged in the theater community through her family’s involvement and has developed a personal and professional commitment to fostering inclusive arts education. She is excited to be participating in the Accessible Stages Project and looks forward to supporting theaters throughout the state in advancing inclusion in community theater settings.
The Accessible Stages Collaborative is generously supported by the Onion Foundation.
Community Partners and Special Thanks
Spark Inclusive Arts
Choices Are For Everyone Inc.
STRIVE
Lyric Music Theater
Gorham Arts Alliance
Sue Finch
Sarah Kennedy
Jericah Potvin
Michael Donovan
Anna Halloran
Bob Gauthier
Bridget Parker and Meghan Casey
Paula and Noel Thompson
Jessica and Carter Creedon
Peg and Jack Prato
Nancy McAllister
Olivia and John Tabb
Wendee, Everett and Todd Devenish
Jack, John, and Cate Parker
Addison and Nadine Seguin
The full cast and production team of our Unified Production of Footloose The Musical: Youth Edition
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Addison and Nadine Seguin
