#*Music The Inclusion Desk.

A forum on the arts is presented as part of Dialog on Disability Week, part of the Herman and Margaret Schwarz Community Series, a partnership of WXXI and the Al SIEGEL community of agencies.

Additional support provided by the Fred L Emerson Foundation and moved to include with support from the Golisano Foundation.

Hi I'm Jeff Spevak with WXXI News and thank you for joining us for this inclusion this forum on the arts.

The Inclusion desk is part of the exercise move to include initiative, which encourages thoughtful discussion about issues related to inclusion.

And here at WXXI, this is Dialog on Disabilities Week.

So as I welcome our three guests, you ask each one of them to describe themselves for members of our audience who are blind or visually impaired.

And I'll start.

I'm I'm your standard white man in your sixties.

I am wearing the drab colors of winter and I have ridiculously long hair.

And like my dog, I'm getting a little gray around the muzzle.

So joining me remotely is a race.

Eberhardt.

He's an actor with Down's Syndrome, who this summer will be starring in a locally produced film, Straight Undercover.

Raissa, welcome and describe yourself for us.

Yeah, well, I'm 34 years old and I'm a man with Down's syndrome, and I am five foot at hair and brown eyes.

I have glasses.

I am wearing my bright blue aura shirt.

Okay.

And Suzanne Eberhardt, who is Reese's mother, is right by your right by email.

You may see her or hear from her during the broadcast today.

She is also joined by and Royster.

She's a visual artist and a singer at Cobblestone Art Center and has cerebral palsy.

Welcome in and describe yourself for us.

Hi, my name is in Worcester.

I'm 34 years old.

I have cerebral palsy.

I am wearing a butterfly outfit, tan and a little bit of white.

And I have or it's in my hair.

Okay, Thanks, Santa.

You may be joined by a cop, my colleague from our Couples in the Arts Center, a performing arts coordinator, Sara Andreozzi.

And in a few minutes, we'll hear from Justin Riley, who's the founder of SB Works Theater Company.

Just as a playwright, actor and director, and he has Asperger's Syndrome.

So if you'd like to join the conversation, you can post your questions or comments on the live feed and our guests will address them later in the broadcast race.

We're going to start with you first on as we talk, we'll be watching some of the video from the trailer that's been filmed so far for a street undercover.

So when you first realized that acting is something that you wanted to do?

When I was about second grade, my ten year old, our class did a performance space where I was 80 and I was married to a man that was white and oh, I loved that.

And then I started to do performance with the group.

So I was a star, as Donald Trump is now, our school, actually.

And and I started to ask someone to date about 50 years ago and I director of the Rochester Bank Daniel came one of those performances.

He was looking for an actor with Down's syndrome.

So I saw film.

He was doing a he to ask me to be in it.

And as we're looking now at some of the some of the video from it, and I don't know how much of that you've shot yet, but it's a pretty interesting.

Yeah, I'm sorry what they're about They're about qualified takes action many times, actually.

Just this is a clip of rent my my time, my main it does raise great is where you are today.

You're was working on a farm and my retirement savings so I mean the politics game is politics who actually I'm the method actually just got to know you just better we saw this really kick it off and I I our stage we just are in the movies banking and day banking I a 2019 by two years ago.

So we're going to see more of that fighting.

Yes.

Yes.

I was doing the defi scene during that time actually, when I started my train, our bank guy and he taught me how to use financing CapEx gets going that time and we doing a lot of high kicks and doing face pans to other actors and actresses until allure.

Why now?

I'm doing some.

Okay.

So and before we throw the same question to you, we're going to watch a short video about the accretive things that you do that is actually me.

And you hold it like that.

As you see, we have a lot of artwork around our building, our music.

It's important to me because people that have disabilities should be able to do different activities and not be in the House all day.

And I did a little intro first.

I love music because when I grew up my mom and I used to sing all the time and I got my voice from her standing there and even this movie used to express myself.

I can sing to other people and see how they feel in these movies.

So it opened my brain and I feel happier.

And when you first realize that painting and singing are things that you want to do creatively, I first realized it when I was like 13, 14.

And what what prompted it?

What prompted it was again, my mom and myself, we.

Was there anything particular that you saw that you said, I want to do that kind of a thing?

When I was 13 years old, I actually went to an art show that look that really, really looks like a real paintings.

And that's what got me into art.

Okay, Grace, back to you.

Who do you admire in the arts in particular?

Film and TV and stuff that I find who works in acting in high school Musical.

I'm watching from Harry Potter with my my pleasure.

Very are mine and Hannah Paybarah who was at Congress or Narnia.

And I hope to learn to be a great actor locked down.

Okay.

And how about you?

Who do you admire in the arts?

I admire your style is kind of abstract, so I'm wondering if I admired Theresa McCardle because she has taught me a lot of technique as far as shading different conclusions on different projects.

Is she a teacher of cobblestone?

Yes.

Yeah.

And how about singing?

Great.

My aunt singing as well.

I admire Paul McCartney, but I also admire Carrie Underwood, Plato and Martina McBride.

Okay, High standards are our third guest.

Justin Riley could not be with us in person today, so we recorded this interview with him last week.

Justin For our visually impaired friends, describe what you're wearing, what you look like right now.

I am in mind.

I am 37, almost 38 of I have short brown hair, blue eyes.

I have I have a gray dress shirt on with a tan khakis.

And I have black boots on that hopefully have dried through the snow.

But that's that's what I look like right now.

Those are Rochester winter boots.

Justin, Jeff, you hold down a daytime job and at night you're just creative monster.

Try to be writing, try to be directing, producing, doing shows that mark the Multi-Use Community Cultural Center.

That's that's extraordinary.

You don't take a break.

I don't know if you would call it extraordinary.

I mean, it's I guess it's just the way I function.

You know, I don't I mean, I'm sure I'm the fact that you would call it extraordinary is a high Is it definitely a high compliment?

But but I'm sure whatever I do is I'm sure there are other people's lives were probably way more extraordinary than mine.

I mean, I just you know, I just do I just of course, I have my job because it's my job.

And, you know, whether I'm working from home or in an office, you know, if there's a job, it kind of keeps keeps the bills paid and keeps keeps things reasonable.

And then outside of my job, you know, I like to try to create things, of course, depending on how things go during the day, you know, maybe there isn't much opportunity to create.

But sometimes when the spark, you know, comes right to your brain and there's something you want to get down, you want to try to find the right moment in the right time to, you know, to put things you have to put things down.

So you could at least say, at least I'm working on something.

But you were initially diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which we're now looking at as autism.

Yeah, it you would you would look at it now as part of the autism spectrum.

I know the DSM manual has changed the outlook of Asperger's to including it as part of the autism spectrum.

So so I know that that term really has kind of kind of gone gone to the wayside a little bit.

But but not to the point where it's completely, completely gone.

It's just it's just evolved into part of something much bigger and hopefully more include sort of with regards to the spectrum.

And how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Probably about 25.

So it's kind of a little late.

You know, although I had a feeling, I think, that I might let's just say there was a moment much earlier than that.

Perhaps there might have been a clue.

And I was.

And as a matter of fact, I was actually talking about this, you know, with with my mom today in preparation to come here, because I because because I talk to her about doing this conversation.

And I remembered a moment where, you know, I was I was in school in the very beginning, like five or six years old.

And I just for whatever reason, I just didn't want to hang around the other kids.

And it was a natural thing, just, you know, just wanting to be by myself.

I mean, I know what, you know, got me, you know, picked on by kids, you know, later on in life and throughout school.

But but it was just one of those things where I just was naturally withdrawing.

And, I mean, hopefully, you know, as I've grown up and have gotten older, I've tried my best to not be in that position.

But, you know, you know, basically when I started, you know, started getting that all important education, it just I wasn't socially connected or I wasn't being connected with kids as my peer group.

And it just it just wasn't one of those things where it was, you know, I don't want to be around people.

It's just it just happened.

There was no explanation.

Did things change for you when you understood what was happening?

Absolutely.

I definitely could sense, especially when I realized the the significance of Asperger's and, of course, being on the autism spectrum is there were things that if there was if there were still questions about why certain things happened the way they did, there was a lot of clarity and it enhanced things.

It enhanced a little bit more of an understanding of certain things that happened to me.

But I also know that even when I realized where I was in terms of the diagnosis, in terms of this is this is part of who I am.

And I and I remember talking to my father about that experience and and I told him and at first there really wasn't anything anything he said.

But then I told him again, he said, I heard what you said the first time.

It doesn't change anything about who you are because I love you as you are.

And by the way, how's your car running, by the way?

I want to make sure it's run to do thing right dancing.

Okay.

How old were you when you started thinking, Theodore is for me?

I it's it's so weird because it really just kind of started out as a hobby more or less, because I was probably about 2010 or 20 or 2010.

There was a former high school friend who invited me to join a group they were in as a writer because they knew I was they knew I like to write.

And so I went to this group and I got a chance to, you know, to meet everybody that was connected there.

And I wrote, you know, short little pieces for them.

And it was and it was great.

And then then that lasted for about a year and a half, two years before the group moved to another city.

And I wasn't invited back, which I won't bore you about that, but it was around 2012, right around the time this whole ending was happening, that I first heard about the mark and I and that was the first time I met John Bourque and and I and a couple of days after I met John, I gave a piece to one of the shows he was doing, which was called Unrehearsed.

And it was essentially a group of actors that he invited would all come to the mark and he would choose John would choose pieces for the actress to perform.

And I had written a piece called Writer's BLOCK for Three, which was written for essentially a young man trying to overcome writer's block, and he's just throwing these wads of paper and throwing them in a trash can.

And it turns out it was an older gentleman who ended up reading that piece, which was really interesting.

But it got over it.

It went over well enough to the point where I went to the much more I was writing, more.

And over time I started thinking about producing and directing too, and asked me works, which was which is the company I have.

In a way, it kind of started out as an in-joke because there were friends that I had gotten to know through theater who had their own companies.

So there's that whole idea of while so-and-so has a company and so-and-so has and has a company, why not me?

And so I just so I just I just created Ask B works just as kind of a company slash production house for my own work.

And about it's almost ten years later and it's it's kind of evolved into something that people have taken notice which there are times when I'm I know there have been times where I've been thinking, why are people so interested in this?

But thankfully people have.

And it's it's a grateful thing.

Was there a point early on when you thought, I don't know if I can do this because of my Asperger's or autism?

I'm sure that there I'm sure there are experiences where maybe generally when you're when you're doing a show of theater, you you always have a moment of second guessing yourself.

And for especially for a show like Ghost Story, I was always thinking I was tending to go for shows that people usually would not want to see.

They're not the raise the roof triumphs or the you know, the absolute happy fun shows that people tend to gravitate towards.

I tend to be more interested in more human interest, human nature kind of stories and ghost story.

This great play by a wonderful British playwright, Mark Ravenhill was was an example of that.

And, you know, especially in the rehearsal process, when you're trying to create the atmosphere that you're trying to to present, especially with the subject matter of ghost story, which was a play essentially about illness and how we try, whether or not we decide to tell the truth or try to hide what we're really experiencing, the emotional pull of it can sometimes be it can be exhausting.

But thankfully it was an experience where I was working with some really good quality people, you know, the actors who were in the show, Jane Farrell, Andrew Daskal, Chanel Davis, Kesha Sheree, who is stage managing, you know, when you have a good solid ensemble, you know, on stage and behind the scenes who believe in the work just as much as you do, if not more than you do, and sometimes can help get you through those rough patches where you're trying to figure out if this whole thing is working or not, then it's okay.

Do you realize then, even for all the stumbles and the second guesses that you sometimes deal with, if you have a good group, they can get you through anything.

You're focused, man.

You're very intense.

Do you think that's a result of the Asperger's autism?

Maybe I. I think that's certainly a possibility.

I know that sometimes and especially, you know, especially when you know, when I'm especially when I'm working, whether it's, you know, my regular job or theater or anything else, when you've got a lot going on in your head that the wiring feels different.

I mean, I remember just I remember writing in a play, a character had a line where they would say the wiring sometimes is different, but the plugs still plug in somewhere.

So I still I still work, I still live, I still function.

And sometimes there are moments where my mind just can can have so many different things going on and you're trying to figure out what, how am I supposed to get through this?

Is there clarity here?

What do I do?

What do I do?

But but there are always those moments afterwards where you get through the heart of what you're doing and there's a calmness to it.

And and you try to find that calmness if if it and also talk about just being intense and being very focused, you know, the focus part I I've tried, you know, as I've as I've gotten older try to be better about being focused and also, do you know as far as being intense, You know, I always want to try to do my best at everything we do all the time.

I don't like doing anything half full, half empty.

I want to give everything I can in whatever I'm doing, whether it's work or theater or being with it, being with people I love, you know, my family, my friends.

I want to be there for people, you know, and I want to be there and know that I'm giving everything I can.

I I'm not one of those people that wants to just sleepwalk through things or give less than 100%.

Because if you give less than 100%, what are you doing?

Why are you doing certain things?

So if that's kind of my I have kind of my own feelings on it.

Well, you've given us 100% today.

Thank you.

And looking forward to your next project.

I think you do have earned it.

I mean, I will be honest, I. I don't know if this will be part of it.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

But I'm this is probably this is this is probably a lot tougher for me, you know, sitting and having a conversation like this.

And it's not because it's, you know, with the cameras and everything.

But, you know, there's there's a part of me that always tries to, you know, kind of keep myself to myself because because people can always look at things and go, wow, he's he's really you know, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

But thankfully.

But but but thankfully.

Yeah.

This is a lot tougher.

Yeah.

Because I'm because I'm trying to find the right thing to say and try to keep the flow of conversation going and I can't find it, but what's probably other things you think about all the time that might explain it a little bit.

So, you know, you just go through it.

Yeah.

You live with it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And just but it, but it is.

But it's good also that there are platforms like this where people can talk about these things.

And I know there are other people in the autism spectrum who I hope this forum benefits them.

And B, it also provides an opportunity for people who are also on the spectrum, hopefully somewhere down the line where they can get their work noticed.

I mean, I know people on the spectrum who are artists and filmmakers and also people in theater as well, who I hope somewhere down the line their work can get recognized.

This to me is just it's just one of those wonderful opportunities where, again, if I didn't meet certain people like John, I don't think this is possible.

I'm just one person who's kind of in this in the same boat as a lot of other people, and I hope other people who are in the same position that I that I'm in, that I've been in can get an opportunity like this to where they can show their passion, what they do, what they love to do, and people can catch on and go, I like to see what this person is doing.

I think it's really great.

Okay.

Thanks, Justin.

Thank you, Jeff.

Well, that was Justin Riley.

He's founder of SB Works Theater Company and he has Asperger's Syndrome.

So get back to our life.

Yes.

No, start with race again.

You heard Justin talking about how he manages his creativity through his Asperger's syndrome.

How's your Down's syndrome reflected in what you do creatively?

Can you tell something about that?

I get my point.

In my movie, I discover and I actually have Down's syndrome.

My difficulties, like with speaking clearly I've had many of them would be appropriate humor, some other things.

And and I kind of bounce the same question at you, too.

How's your cerebral palsy reflected in what do you do creatively?

Creative creating it, really creative creativity.

It really doesn't affect my ability to do anything.

But having a disability can affect some anything else.

Okay, But does it hold you back?

Do you feel it does hold me back?

Sometimes, Yes, because there are some things that I cannot do.

And you make up for that by doing other things.

Yes, Focusing on other things.

Your art and your singing.

Right.

Okay.

Race.

What difficulties in life does acting help you deal with, If I can put it on race, I think we're going to need to talk more to the microphone.

There.

Yeah, it has to slow me down.

A machine to patient data helps me to focus better.

It helps me to speak clearer.

So it kind of centers your life a little bit.

It gives you direction and.

Yes, yes, yes.

It is definitely like and maybe you can explain further what difficulties in life does your art help in singing help you and doing Well, I and I'm going to explain this.

I was able to walk into through 2006, 2006, I was able to walk from where I was sitting to up to wait for my foot going up and across the stage and then back to where I was sitting.

So now I'm no longer talk.

And so now art and music help my mind take me thinking or walking because I, I still think I want to be able to walk.

But the the doctors say I can walk.

Oh, okay.

Race respect to you.

What do you want to do next?

What do you want to take on next in your life?

Um hmm.

Another You see that?

Okay.

Race.

Can you talk to the microphone?

Okay.

This is all about acting too, man.

You know this?

Yeah.

Yeah, I know the movie and everybody.

And see me and I see so Amy Soprano role, and I like to be on Broadway in the city.

I like to see my friends and my people in disability.

All TV, movies.

So you got an ambitious career plan to head here?

Yes, that's right.

Okay.

And and what do you want to do next?

What do you want to take on next?

I actually want to become a music teacher.

Yeah, okay.

I'm actually going.

I'm hopeful.

Hopefully going to FLC C in the fall.

Okay.

Studying music?

Yes.

Good.

Okay.

We asked people who are listening in to ask questions.

These aren't really questions, but these are comments that I find worth reading tomorrow's.

Tomorrow's is love to see you out there sharing yourself with everyone just and this is a just and you are such an awesome dude.

Love you Karen.

And so is Justin explains his creative process so well.

That's why we don't have any questions.

Comments.

Max says, Yeah, race.

Proud of you, brother.

Don't know what you will next with dry humor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You just one of my brothers.

Okay.

Is your voice in?

Yeah.

Yeah, it is great.

I have brothers.

How many times we actually.

I mean, two brothers, actually, I have.

One is who is 28 years now?

He just finished Tanisha High School and another one who is now almost 24 years old also.

Oh, okay.

Here's one last one I have Annie.

And he says, Awesome race.

And he says, And keep sharing your gifts.

You're so talented.

And yay, Justin Riley, you are extraordinary.

And I agree with all that.

The kind of close closes out.

I just want to mention that and post it on WXXI News website is the column I write weekly Across the Universe.

And this one column does deal with this particular subject, in particular talking with some of the things that race and and are dealing with.

And Justin, we also since Justin was rambling and so on, we pulled out a section of his, his, his speech about the Spalding Gray, his relationship with the late actor and writer.

And I will be posting it on WXXI News Facebook page and also on the WXXI News YouTube channel.

That's it for this edition of TV execs Nice Inclusion Desk Forum during a Dialog on Disability Week.

Thanks Chris Everhart and thank you on moisture.

Thank you to wrap up, I'm sure the WXXI Inclusion desk is part of move to include a partnership to encourage thoughtful discussion about issues related to inclusion.

My name is Jeff Spivak and I'm with WXXI News.

Thank you.

And thanks to our three guests.