NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In an effort to make every cast member feel they were in the spotlight, Backlight Productions cast every cast member as Belle or the Beast in their production of Beauty and the Beast for one scene only in May.
Brendwood-based Backlight Productions aims to give adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities the opportunity to gain education in the arts and perform significant roles in integrated performances.
"At the end of the day, it's not about the performance. It's about the performer," said Backlight Production Founder and Executive Director Melissa Smith. "Even if it takes us 15 minutes to get all these girls into their yellow dresses and time to come on, we will just loop that track over and over until they're ready and then by golly, the audience will wait. And we will have that moment come on to make sure it is exactly perfect for each individual who's on the stage."
After more and more students asked Smith if they could play the role of 'Belle' in their production, she decided they would find a way to give more students that opportunity.
"I think I scared our costumer a lot! She was not expecting that one and our costumer is so amazing," explained Smith. "She does so much work countless hours designing and creating all of these amazing costumes for our students. Many, many of them designed from scratch. And so when I said I needed about 12 yellow ball gowns just in one cast, she quickly just had to be like, 'Okay,' to figure that out. And so that's when the fun really began and but she took it on and she's made it as incredible as we even could have envisioned."
Backlight's Costume Creator Lori Johnstone is a mom to one of the students.
"We had just moved here from California. We were looking around for community theaters because her dad plays trombone for community theater, and an ad popped up in his Facebook feed about Backlight—something for students with intellectual disabilities. We're like, 'We've been waiting our entire life for this.' [Our daughter] Shannon has been a theater bug since she was three years old. And we signed up immediately," recounted Johnstone.
Community theater is known to work on small budgets, requiring the need for creative people.
"Because our budget is so limited, we spend a lot of our time looking at thrift stores and garage sales and hand-me downs and, you know, thrift store curtains and so a lot of what the costumes end up looking like is what I can find," explained Johnstone. "I really have to go in with an open mind a creative mind and see what occurs to me with the materials we have at hand...Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity and there's a thrift store in town called Smart Art Supply that employs intellectually disabled adults."
When Smith said she needed a dozen 'Belle' dresses, Johnstone knew she had to get creative.
"We just started you know, beg borrowing. ‘Does anybody have an old wedding dress?’ You have to get through Goodwill to find them and it was really a little nerve-wracking because I know for a fact many of these wedding dresses originally probably cost more than $1,000, but I just took my scissors to them cut off the train throw them in a huge bathtub of yellow dye and just crossed my fingers."
The result brought endless smiles on stage and tears to the audience.
"I think that was really a magical moment to see them all and see their faces as they saw themselves for the first time. And yeah, they felt like supermodels; it was great," recounted Smith.
The scene of a dozen Belles on stage leans into what Backlight Productions is all about.
"Our actors are not less than they don't deserve less than when it comes to the sets and the props and the costumes and so just sort of wrapping all of that up with a bow and having that look of you know, and seeing the pride on their faces. You know, 'We're big time.'"
To learn more about Backlight Productions, visit their website.
To celebrate their 10-year anniversary, mark your calendar for their performance of Cinderella on October 22 at TPAC.
