Children's Theater | Montgomery Media | Andrea Green Music
Plymouth teen featured in documentary about local play promoting acceptance
Click here to view the article on Montgomery Media's website
By M. English, 21st Century Media News Service
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Ten years ago, Sean Hanlon joined the cast of an annual school play called “On the Other Side of the Fence.” At the time, the Plymouth Township youth was new to Philadelphia’s HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy and equally new to theater.
Not anymore.
At 16, Hanlon is an “On the Other Side of The Fence” regular. He’s also one of the youths featured in a recently released documentary about the musical collaboration between students at HMS and Germantown Friends School and its underlying message of acceptance.
As Sean’s mom, Kerri, puts it, “To be accepted for who we are, just as we are. To be seen, not for what our limitations or disabilities are, but for what we have to offer this world.”
The film is scheduled to air on public television’s MiND-TV on Sept. 3, Sept. 8, Oct. 23 and Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. (channel 35 on Comcast, Verizon FIOS, DirecTV and Dish television). The broadcasts follow its July premiere at Center City’s Roxy Theater (as part of Philadelphia Film Society’s Filmadelphia series) and Aug. 7 screening at Yoga Home, a Conshohocken yoga studio co-founded by Kerri Hanlon. In addition, WHYY radio’s Voices in the Family highlighted the GFS-HMS story in a program about using the arts to encourage empathy in children.
The documentary debuted internationally this month when filmmaker Henry Nevison and “On the Other Side of the Fence” playwright and composer Andrea Green traveled to Estonia to participate in the Estonian Chamber of Disabled People’s “Tolerance Through Theater” conference in Tallinn.
Green, also a music therapist, created “On the Other Side of the Fence” some 30 years ago. She was inspired by fellow teacher and project partner Teresa Maebori’s desire to promote understanding between the able-bodied and physically challenged students at GFS and HMS and driven by her own desire to teach participants about issues like intolerance, prejudice, bullying and other behaviors rooted in negative and unfounded biases.
In the end, Green crafted a tale set on a pair of neighboring farms. The feuding owners have separated their properties with a fence. But — against all odds — the critters on each spread begin to get to know one another and gradually break down the artificial boundaries that divide them.
Along the way, Green met documentary filmmaker Henry Nevison and suggested he make a movie about the GFS-HMS project. Nevison’s film — focused on preparation for the production’s 30th anniversary show in 2012 — was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised some $87,000 as well as a variety of benefits by local businesses and organizations.
According to Kerri Hanlon, one of the documentary’s executive producers, the film has only broadened her perspective on the power of the GFS-HMS partnership.
“For the first time, I’m seeing behind the scenes at their rehearsals, watching the relationship between Sean and his partner, Ezra [from GFS], unfold,” she says. “We were fortunate to have many family members and friends join us for the screenings at the Roxy and Yoga Home. The thing that strikes me most is that even for people who are so close to us and love Sean so much, it was illuminating for them to see Sean and his classmates in this way.
“I think Sean is tremendously proud to show everyone this film and allow more people a glimpse into his world. We have an article about the film hanging at Yoga Home, and he gets a huge grin every time someone greets him with, ‘It’s the movie star.’
“There’s no delicate way to put this … it can be challenging for people to see Sean and look past the wheelchair, feeding tube and other medical devices and realize that Sean is just Sean — a great kid with an outgoing personality, a great sense of humor and an abundance of joy.
“One of my favorite moments was at the premiere when two of my dearest friends arrived, and Sean just lit up as they asked him if he was excited for them to see the movie. In that moment, Sean knew he had something special to share and was bursting with pride to show my friends … these friends who have been there to drive us to CHOP [Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia], sit with Sean when he was recovering from surgery or illnesses and do so much to support me. To sit with them and watch this film was a moment I’ll never forget.”
She gets no argument from her son, who uses pre-programmed assistive technology to communicate and conveys “yes” with a direct smile, “no” with a sideways-turned straight face.
Asked a series of questions about the new documentary, Sean notes he’s “proud of the movie and so happy to share it with his family and friends.” He’s also “excited to see himself and his friends on the big screen” and is especially happy for everyone to see why he thinks performing partner Ezra is “so cool.”
More information is available at www.mindtv.org/fence or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Children's Theater | The Jewish Exponent | Andrea Green Music
Building Bridges With a 'Fence'
Click here to view the article on the Jewish Exponent's website
By Diane McManus, JE Feature
August 27, 2014
The meeting room at Germantown Friends School is empty. Soon it will be filled, but not for the kind of worship service typically held in such a room.
Rather, it will be the scene of a school performance — one that has drawn upon the collective work of music therapist and playwright Andrea Green; students from two schools, GFS and HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy; as well as teachers, staff, parents and volunteers.
All are engaged in creating a safe space for artistic expression for students of varying abilities and backgrounds. Some of the cast members have cerebral palsy, some have other struggles not as apparent to a casual observer.
While this cooperative effort involves just two schools and two groups of students, its reverberations may be much further reaching.
Aptly named The Other Side of the Fence, the play is a fable centering around two adjoining farms and each farmer’s fear of those on the other side. Yet as the play unfolds, so do friendships, first between two pigs, Ham and Bacon, and then between animal residents on both sides of the fence.
As with other fables, this one models a lesson for its human audience: The barnyard fence is a metaphor for the fences we construct to protect ourselves from those we fear or mistrust. Who better to present this lesson than children who seem to represent two sides of a fence, but who in reality have more in common than they realized?
The cooperation between Germantown Friends and HMS in the project is portrayed in Henry Nevison’s film, On the Other Side of the Fence, which recently premiered at a special Philadelphia Film Society screening in Center City. The film is now about to be shown on TV, with broadcasts set for cable’s MiND Channel 35 — along with Nevison, the station is the film’s producer — beginning Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. (Click here for additional screenings.)
This project and story go back to 1982, when Teresa Maebori, a teacher at Germantown Friends, was disturbed by a student’s reference to someone as a “retard.” She wanted her students to move past this kind of labeling and respect one another.
To that end, she took a group of them to HMS, hoping they would interact with the challenged children there. It was then that she met Green.
A Jewish music therapist-composer-playwright, Green came up with the idea of bringing students from GFS and HMS together to participate in a musical. Maebori and Green then collaborated on the project.
Students were each assigned partners from the other school. The partners worked together during the once-a-week rehearsals to build not only a musical but bonds of friendship. Initially nervous (a word used by every child interviewed in the film), the GFS students soon overcame their fears as they got to know their partners.
Often that fear centered on not knowing what to say, as exemplified by GFS student Maya Plimack. Yet she discovered that when she and the other student met, “I knew what to say.” Although many with cerebral palsy have difficulty communicating except via assistive devices such as computer screens or through blinks, nods and other non-verbal means, these devices often proved to be enough when the students worked together.
The students from HMS overcame shyness as they began interacting with their partners and came to trust them.
Amy Warmflash, whose daughter, Jordana, attended HMS and participated in the musical, recalls that at first Jordana feared crowds and performances, even to the point of crying on stage. Yet she later said she “loved” her involvement.
Warmflash reflects that for her daughter, the musical was “an opportunity for her to do something mainstream,” while for GFS students, it served to “demystify” disabilities as kids “learned to help automatically,” wiping drool or supporting partners’ heads if needed.
Kerri Hanlon, also the mother of an HMS student, Sean, confirms the value of the musical for her son. For example, she notes, he sat taller and smiled while his partner performed. And he began to try singing the songs from the musical, learning them well enough that if his mother sang along and changed the words, he would stop singing.
Most importantly, Hanlon cites the value for Sean of the “one-on-one friendships” with GFS students. “Kids from both schools,” she says, “have their vulnerabilities. Working with each other helps them to allow themselves to be vulnerable.”
This is borne out in the film, when GFS student Max Marlowe asserts that “you have a difference but there’s always something good about you that other people don’t have.”
Sometimes, as was the case with award-winning theatrical composer Michael Friedman, 38, participation in the musical — he was a cast member as a third-grader at GFS — can “ignite a spark.” While music was always part of his life — and he had acted in school plays before his first exposure to Other Side of the Fence — this was his most extensive role as a kid, he notes in the movie.
He reflects that in this play “everyone was doing something new,” and that the show was “about moving beyond our comfort zone.” He valued the sense of “shared purpose” that allowed participants to “get to know each other."
A successful film-maker, Nevison met Green a couple of years ago, learned of her project and “wanted to do something with a greater purpose.” And Green’s enterprise, then approaching its 30th anniversary in 2012, was a story, he says, “that needed to be told.”
It might not have been told but for Nevison’s determination.
“At the time, I didn’t even own a camera,” he recalls. Yet he recognized that the project was “heading to a profound destination.”
Fortunately, he had established a connection with MiND TV and was able to borrow some equipment. In addition, a friend volunteered to help.
As the filming project moved forward, he was able to obtain more donations of time, equipment and, through the online funding platform Kickstarter, money to see it through.
Nevison says he believed that the musical wasn’t just about a single performance but the “transformation” that took place in the cast during the rehearsals, teaching kids to “accept people who were different.”
For their efforts, both the GFS teacher and the HMS music therapist were honored by the City of Philadelphia last year.
Being on hand for the movie premiere this summer, says Nevison, “I felt the ebb and flow of emotions. The response was tremendous.”
The scene is short for a musical theater production, calling for one actor to sing “It’s a doggone shame!” in a Southern accent followed by another cast member repeating the same line.