Paper Mill Playhouse Earns Award for Sensory-Friendly Performances

A follow up on the article about Paper Mill Playhouse's sensory-friendly performances! Congratulations on all of your hard work!


MILLBURN, N.J. - Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee- Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) created a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere for the very first sensory-friendly performance presented at the Millburn theatre on June 11th. Designed for children on the autism spectrum and with other developmental disabilities, great care went into structuring the performance into a fully accessible theater experience. This sensory-friendly performance of Pushcart Players' Stone Soup and Other Stories was supported by a grant from The Merck Company Foundation. In recognition of its success, Paper Mill Playhouse and Pushcart Players received the 2011 "Innovator Award" on June 23rd from the Cultural Access Network of New Jersey, which is sponsored by the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

"We've received suggestions and encouragement from the over 300 people who attended this first performance, and with their support we hope to grow this effort so that it's not a special event, but a regular occurrence." remarked Lisa Cooney, Director of Education at Paper Mill Playhouse. "

Adapting Show for Children with Autism

When Lisa E. Cooney, director of education for the Paper Mill Playhouse, called a meeting last November to discuss the particulars of "Stone Soup and Other Stories," a children's show to be presented June 11, there was crying at the conference table.
The attendees moved to tears were two Maplewood mothers who had contacted Paper Mill, in Millburn, last spring about adapting a show for autistic children, said Ms. Cooney, 45, of Woodbridge.
"Just the idea that we were asking, 'What can we do to help prepare your kids for this performance? How can we be helpful?' meant so much to them that they got very emotional," she said. "These are people who would love to bring their children out, but they hold back."