The success of Petunia has inspired the Players to continue on the path of self exploration in developing their new show. In this last year they have participated in several writing workshops with professional writers and, based on the work developed in those sessions, are beginning to put together a lyrical new piece.

The first workshop was with our own board member and poet, Kathryn Levy, and it was so exciting and inspiring to the Players that they wanted to continue in this vein.The next workshop was with Lori Carson, a song writer, which yielded more material. These workshops were filmed and then viewed and dissected by the Players. They are now in the process of experimenting with different improvs to see how best to translate and interpret their writings into a dramatic format. In March, Carolyn Doctorow will conduct yet another song writing workshop and there are plans to call on other local artists to come work with the Players. Even visual artists can have an input into this creative process, it’s all food for thought and inspiration.

The new show will be developed over the next year or so and ready for production, hopefully, in early ‘09.

The new show will give the Players yet another opportunity to express their hopes and dreams and to demonstrate to audience members how their mutual similarities far outweight their differences.

On Saturday, March 29th the 3rd Annual Day of Awareness Conference for Developmental Disabilities on the East End convened in Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook University Campus, Southampton.

This year The East End Special Players were invited to participate in the Conference. After the keynote speaker, EESP made a 20 minute presentation which included an introduction to our organization by Jacqui Leader, Artistic Director of EESP, our video about the Players, and a live performance of two scenes from the current show, Petunia: one was the “Meds” scene, a humorous take on the routine of taking medication and the other was “The Marriage Proposal” scene, a hilarious commentary on betrayal.

After the presentation, the Players participated in a lively Q & A that brought down the house. Joy O’Shaughnessy, director of the EEDA (East End Disabilities Assoc.) said, “The East End Special Players started our Day of Awareness Conference off with an inspirational message through their performance of You are a Petunia in my Garden. All too often families of children with disabilities can’t imagine what contributions their child will make as adults. The Special Players provided families and professionals with hope, humor, and the insight that the dreams and desires of people with developmental disabilities are just like yours and mine. I just thought the group was fantastic and I was in awe of the entire process."

Nina & Scott got married in October 2007

Scott is driving the town bus that transports people with disabilities to their jobs

Betsy & Tom moved to a new apartment in Riverhead, making it a lot easier for them to attend rehearsals

Greg is working at the Southampton Town Hall

Bill continues his work at Southampton BMW

Lillian works at in the bakery at Walbaums in East Hampton

Phoebe graduates from Southampton High School in June and is applying for a job at Headstart in Bridgehampton where she now is doing an internship

Mary got a job cleaning at Maryhaven in Yaphank

Suzanne is at Maryhaven helping with promotional mailings

Marsha is working in the kitchen at AHRC in Westhampton Beach

Leona Walton passed away this spring and she is missed by all.