Dr. Phillips Center Offers First Sensory Friendly Performance Today

The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts announces its first sensory friendly show today, January 17, 2015 in the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater and the launch of a 'social story' video and book that will aide children on the autism spectrum in attending any performance at the Dr. Phillips Center. The video and book will be available on the Dr. Phillips Center website, drphillipscenter.org. The book is available as a downloadable PDF and on iBooks.

The first sensory friendly show at the Dr. Phillips Center will be Spencers: Theatre of Illusion followed by the Hocus Focus workshop. Spencer's Hocus Focus workshop serves students with special needs by teaching simple tricks as a way to help students develop fine and gross motor skills, says Spencer, "These little tricks are also effective in helping them reach some of their educational goals while improving attention, concentration, memory, task-follow through, frustration tolerance and more." Funded in part by a grant from South Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and with support from the Winter Park Health Foundation, the Dr. Phillips Center was able to fund not only the Spencers residency and sensory friendly performance but the creation of a social story video and book. A social story is a tool used by educators and parents to help children on the autism spectrum practice a behavior and prepare for an activity or outing.

Students from Access Charter School and OCA, both organizations that serve children with autism, will attend the invitation only sensory friendly performance and 25 students will engage in the Hocus Focus workshop. During the performance OCA staff and volunteers will run a 'quiet room' at the Dr. Phillips Center for students that need to take a break. In preparation for the event, Dr. Phillips Center's education department and creative team produced a video and book for parents, teachers and children that helps people with autism attend any event or performance at the arts center. Five Access Charter School students performed in the video, shooting scenes in and around the Dr. Phillips Center.

"The students' performances in the video are outstanding and our team had an incredible time working with these talented kids," says Kathy Ramsberger, CEO and president of the Dr. Phillips Center. "Our generous sponsors paved the way for us to create these tools and partnering with Access Charter School and OCA was a great connection point for the community. Because of this collaboration people on the autism spectrum will be able to attend and enjoy the Dr. Phillips Center for years to come."