Letters: Thanks to Supporters of McCarter’s Relaxed Performance for People with Autism

Dear Editor:

McCarter Theatre was delighted to present a relaxed performance of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery on March 18th to an audience of 427 guests. A relaxed performance is one that’s specially designed to welcome members of the autism community and others with sensory sensitivities, and their families. It was the third time McCarter has held such a performance and was our biggest turnout ever.

We are grateful to our partners from Eden Autism Services who advised us on how to make appropriate adaptations to our production and who conducted a training session for our staff and volunteer ushers. We would like to acknowledge the support we received from the New Jersey Theater Alliance. The Alliance assisted our marketing efforts and were in attendance on Wednesday. Thank you to our amazing cast for so eagerly agreeing to undertake this special performance.  Lastly, we appreciate the friendship of Rev. Karen Hernandez-Granzen of Trenton’s Westminster Presbyterian Church who helped us to welcome members of her community to the event and who arranged for transportation.

We also wish to thank The Karma Foundation whose generous support enabled this special performance.

It was an extraordinary evening of theatre for all involved and an event we hope to repeat in future seasons.

Respectfully,

Timothy J. Shields
Managing Director, McCarter Theatre Center