Goodness in Action™

We celebrate the good work of our clients, and the impact they have on the world. Read their stories. Tell us yours.

Pushcart Players

"I can't thank you enough for making this day so special for us. I have two children with autism and going places is very difficult.... We went from being afraid and not wanting to go into the theatre, to sitting in the front row and enjoying it! Both my children had a fantastic time. One of my sons left singing the Stone Soup song."
- A happy parent who attended a Pushcart Players production

Can you imagine a world without theatre? Because of cuts to arts programs in schools, there is a generation of students who are growing up without the arts in their school's curriculum. Pushcart Players, based in Verona, New Jersey, is attempting to fill this gap.

Pushcart Players is an award-winning professional theatre and arts-in-education organization that has been introducing theatre to young audiences for 38 years. Pushcart's goal is to entertain and educate at the same time, and they travel to schools and theatres throughout the nation to deliver workshops and performances, so that all children in a given community have the opportunity to enjoy arts programming presented by professionals in the field.

Pushcart's presentations of original and thought-provoking shows like the bilingual musical Cuentos del Arbol ("Tree Tales") and The Last, the Very Last ... Butterfly about the Holocaust, are part of why schools as far away as Alaska have sought out Pushcart for workshops and performances year after year.

Ensuring that their programs are available and accessible to all is central to the mission of Pushcart Players. They offer ADA access services such as audio-described and sign language-interpreted performances, as well as large print-versions of study guides and support materials, and they only rehearse or perform in facilities that are accessible to people with disabilities.

Pushcart's newest accessibility initiative is a groundbreaking series of sensory-friendly adapted performances for children on the Autism spectrum. Working with Paper Mill Playhouse, Autism New Jersey and The Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers University, Pushcart's performances have had a wonderfully positive impact on young people on the Autism spectrum or with other developmental disabilities. One patron said, after attending their first adapted event, "I never thought I would be able to take my son to the theatre. I can't thank you enough."

See a video excerpt from Stone Soup:

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