Paper Mill Playhouse's Theater School Director Mickey McNany Honored with NJ Arts Education Awards

Paper Mill Playhouse, one of the country's premier not-for-profit theaters, has announced that Theater School Director Mickey McNany has received the New Jersey Governor's Award in Arts Education and The Education in the Arts Award recently presented at two special ceremonies. Ms. McNany was chosen for her work with Paper Mill Playhouse's Theater For Everyone initiative, which in recent years expanded to include children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

The New Jersey Governor's Awards event celebrates awareness and appreciation of arts education and recognizes the creativity, talent and leadership of the award winners. National and statewide organizations selected students for their exemplary work in creative writing, speech, dance, music, theatre and visual arts. Education and arts professionals were chosen for their exceptional commitment and contribution to arts education. The award ceremony at the War Memorial in Trenton also featured a performance from Paper Mill Playhouse's newest arts education initiative, The Paper Mill Playhouse Broadway Show Choir.

The Arts Achievement Awards is an annual program through which VSA New Jersey, the state organization on arts and disability, honors outstanding student artists as well as educators and administrators who have developed exemplary programming for students with disabilities. This awards program is part of the Governor's Awards in Arts Education program, and top winners, including McNany, receive both honors.

"Together, VSA New Jersey and Paper Mill Playhouse have implemented theatre classes for young people with disabilities as well as professional development for teaching artists. Collaborating with Mickey throughout these programs has been a joy. Her commitment to the continued growth of our work and her enthusiasm are endless," states Vanessa Young, Executive Director of VSA New Jersey.

Designed specifically for children with developmental disabilities, and planned in cooperation with VSA-NJ, this new class includes theater improvisation, storytelling, music, movement and visual art. The series creatively addresses and includes diverse learning styles and modes of communication. The drama class for children with disabilities is also open to their non-disabled siblings and parents or other caregivers.

This class offering continued Paper Mill's tradition of innovating new ways to bring theater to everyone. Paper Mill Playhouse has long provided a Theater For Everyone model and in 2011 the theater began offering a groundbreaking program, Sensory Friendly live theater performances for children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Recently Paper Mill Playhouse announced it was expanding its special programming to the main-stage with an Autism/Sensory-friendly performance of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID. This performance, designed specifically for children on the autism spectrum or with other developmental disabilities, and planned in cooperation with Autism New Jersey and Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers, will be held on Wednesday, June 26, 2013, at 4:00PM. Tickets for this very special performance may be purchased by calling 973-376-4343, online at www.papermill.org or at the Paper Mill Box Office, 22 Brookside Drive in Millburn. For more information about Paper Mill Playhouse programs for students on the autism spectrum, visit: http://lnk.nu/papermill.org/24c0.html.

McNany, who has worked at Paper Mill Playhouse for 30 years, has dedicated her career to sharing her love of the arts with everyone she encounters. McNany's work with VSA New Jersey was inspired by a successful 'theater-themed' birthday party that she planned and hosted for her grandchild with Down syndrome. McNany began thinking about a theater class for special needs children. McNany explains, "Following the party, Lisa Cooney, Paper Mill's Director of Education and I reached out to VSA New Jersey and they introduced us to Leslie Fanelli who leads these classes at schools and centers throughout New Jersey. Our Theatre for Everyone classes have now become a regular offering every semester and we are really proud of the program."

McNany adds, "I am very humbled and thrilled to receive this award. This entire journey with VSA-NJ has been such a learning experience and a gift to me, and that in itself has been a tremendous reward."

"In my humble opinion, Mickey McNany is a New Jersey state treasure," remarked Lisa Cooney, Paper Mill Playhouse Director of Education. "In her 30 years of service to the arts education field, Mickey has nurtured and positively impacted the lives of thousands of young people. She continues to be one of the reasons that Paper Mill Playhouse's education and outreach programs have been so successful."

Paper Mill offers a wide variety of access programs and services including: sign-interpreted performances, open-captioned performances, audio-described performances, pre-show sensory seminars and barrier-free access theater-wide.

Richard Herring, former director of the NJ Division of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing comments, "the comprehensive communication (interpreted performances, captioning and assistive listening devices) offered to patrons of Paper Mill Playhouse are among the most progressive and inclusive in New Jersey entertainment."

Paper Mill Playhouse received The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' 2009 Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Award, the 2009 Arts Presenters/MetLife Award for Innovation and Excellence in Access, and the Cultural Access Network of New Jersey's 2010 Sustainer Award and 2011 Innovators Award for its "Sensory-Friendly" live theater performances. These awards recognize the theater's innovative access programming, its commitment to accessibility, and its example to other arts organizations in New Jersey and across the country.

Paper Mill Playhouse Access programming is generously supported by MetLife Foundation, The Merck Company Foundation, C.R. Bard Foundation, Inc., Fund for the New Jersey Blind, and Cultural Access Network of New Jersey.

Autism-Friendly performances are supported, in part, by grants from The Merck Company Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Pictured: Nick Paleologos (Executive Director, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Mickey McNany (Paper Mill Playhouse Theatre School Director), Tracey Severns (Deputy Chief Academic Officer, State of New Jersey) and Carol Cronheim (Assistant Secretary of State, State of New Jersey). Photo courtesy of NJ Arts Education Partnership.

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