Take One Special Players is a theater program for special-needs people, based in Long Island, New York.
About the program[]
Take One Special Players has been in service since 2012 (for over a decade). The program houses people with specials needs as actors, ages 12 and up. Jessica Brooke is the current director of the program, with additional staff including Jennifer Keisner and Abigail Brockhoff (choreographer). There are also "buddies", volunteer actors who have special-needs actors follow what or where they are told. Their task is to ensure that the actors must stay within either of the three actor group lines the "buddies" control.
Every year the program hosts a show with a collection of songs in a different theme. Most of the songs are done in dancing, and some with the lyrics sung in sign language. Some songs include solo and duet performances. There are also songs performed either by all the boys or girls in the group, not counting the "buddies'.
Rehearsals currently take place in New Life Community Church in Sayville, NY, on Wednesdays, starting at the second Wednesday in October. The last rehearsal in the church is ten days before the show. The second week in June is "Tech Week", where the last two or three rehearsals are done in Theater Three in Port Jefferson, NY, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (the middle sometimes), the latter of which is the dress rehearsal. The full show takes place on the second Saturday in June in the same theater. On the day of the show, after the closing bows, awards for every actor are handed out.
Connection with A Chorus Line[]
Take One Special Players has only performed one known song from the musical, "What I Did For Love" (the actors sang the lyrics in sign language) in the 2019 show, "This Is Me".
List of shows in the program[]
- Showcase (2013)
- Showcase II (2014)
- Let's Go To The Movies (2015)
- Time Warp (2016)
- Reading Adventure (2017)
- Back To The Future (2018)
- This Is Me (2019)
- Destination Disney (2020, postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
- Rock On (2022)
- The Tony Awards (2023)
- The Greatest Show (2024)