Actors with special needs perform

Five years ago, Chelsea Shum, 21, of Lake Barrington, appeared as one of the flying monkeys in the "The Wizard of Oz."

This year, she showed just how far she has come by playing a lead role -- Maria, in "The Sound of Music."

Both productions took place at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, as part of its Flourish in the Footlights program.

This is the fifth year Metropolis has partnered with Arlington Pediatric Therapy and its Friends of Children in Therapy group to produce the program. Participants range in age from 16 to 30 and have a wide variety of special needs.

It started out as a handful of parents watching their children perform. However, last week, a nearly full house watched the troupe's one-night-only performance.

"It's just amazing to see the growth," said Starr Shum, Chelsea's mother.

The show opened on a high note, with all nine cast members dressed as nuns, singing and performing the choreography for "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?"

"That set the tone for the whole show," said director Megan Willhite, a member of the Metropolis staff.

Preparation for the show started back in September, when the actors began their training, including studying character development, improvisation, movement and team building.

Besides Chelsea, cast members included: Ryan Murphy of Buffalo Grove, Eric Brandt and Dan Conroy of Hoffman Estates, Oliver Heller of Arlington Heights, Aimee Breckenridge of Elk Grove Village, Vinnie Sluga of Rolling Meadows and siblings Katie and Kevin Buchberger of Wheeling.

"We work a lot on enunciation and projection, and encourage them to use their stage voices," said Mary Beth Mayer, a special educator with Arlington Pediatric Therapy, who works with Metropolis staff to help direct the cast.

Coming off last year's production of "Jungle Book," this year's cast wanted to take on a bigger challenge, and they lobbied hard for "Sound of Music."

"They've wanted to do it forever," Willhite said. "It turned out to be even larger a project than we thought, but they definitely rose to the challenge."

Vinnie played the role of Herr Zeller, the Nazi general, in the show. Off stage, he attends the New Connections Academy in Palatine, which focuses on education and socialization for persons on the autism spectrum. Finding his voice as an actor has channeled his creative side, his mother Annie said.

"He's a ham, but we never really had an outlet for his abilities," she said. "He has a very active imaginary world, so acting is a perfect outlet for him."

Work on the production included having cast members adapt the script to meet their needs, as well as rehearsing its scenes and seven musical numbers.

While Willhite concedes that one of the hardest parts was to get them to memorize their lines, she encouraged cast members to focus on developing their characters.

Chelsea definitely got into her part, her mother said. The Barrington High School senior, who works part time at Trader Joe's in Lake Zurich, practiced her lines daily at home and had the whole family singing the songs with her.

Her director, as well as the other cast members, noticed her transformation.

"Once she got on stage, she took ownership of her part," Willhite said. "She definitely came out of her shell."