ADAM
PHOTO BY RANDY BACON
ADAM
“Go For Your Dreams”
My dad has always said that I “crash landed” into the world. It is true that from the first moments, life has been dramatic. I was two weeks early, and my parents had just moved into a new house with boxes still packed when I decided to arrive. My mom was in agony for twenty-three hours, and when my heart rate started dropping, the doctors in the emergency room were very concerned about my well-being, so they delivered me in an emergency C-section. When I was born I weighed four pounds, eleven ounces; too small to go home right away. Nine months after that, I had open heart surgery. I had a small hole in the center of my heart where the chambers didn’t grow together properly which needed to be treated. Even before I can remember, I was the lead player in some dramatic stories.
Perhaps it is no accident that even as a very young child I have been involved with theatre. About the time that I was recovering from heart surgery as a baby, I started attending musicals, plays, and other shows in my mom’s lap. She studied theatre and the arts in college and couldn’t help but pass along the passion to me. Twenty-one years later, I have found a role in life that is my passion: being part of the technical theatre crew. Being a part of something special makes you special, and that’s how I feel about theatre. It is just a soul-searching, wide-eyed, heart-pounding, wholly remarkable experience that I always want to be a part of. Just trying to take it all in, it’s like a force beyond reckoning, a soul of a deeper love than yourself, when you step on the stage where so many have been before you. In everyday life you may struggle, but on stage you can’t be touched. The spirit of the theatre is with you in the mind, soul, spirit, and body. To me it is both a sacred place and a democratic place where each person there is part of the same experience, but brings something individually their own.It is a rewarding experience being part of a calling that wants you for who you are without any judgment.
So much of the drama of my life, including the “crash landing” is due to me having a disability (I have Down syndrome). I don’t really think of myself with a disability. I’m just a normal person with normal challenges (some harder than others). Outside of some things like balancing and coordination that are difficult, I can’t think of too many ways that I have let my disability affect me. I’m constantly facing new challenges day-in and day-out, but I work through them like any other human being. I don’t let that define me. I play many roles in life, just like at the theater. I am also a chef and business owner. I own Truffles E Truffles Handmade Chocolates, which I have owned for over eleven years. I graduated in May 2019 from Ozark Technical College with my Associate's degree, and plan to get my BFA in Technical Theatre from Missouri State University where I will begin as a transfer student this fall.
To me personally, the most life-changing experience is knowing that what I am producing, directing, acting or stage managing is changing other people’s lives too. The best thing you can do is be a friend to anybody you meet no matter what challenges they have. Theatre to me symbolizes what is good in life. If you find something you absolutely love, then you’re filled with joy for eternity. Go for your dreams no matter how far or hard it will be to get there. And in the end, all I have to say is that theatre is where my heart set me free, and I’m trying to catch it soaring me through my education and beyond… in my dramatic life.