Andrew Parkin was diagnosed with autism as a young adult.
“For the majority of my teenage years, I thought I was broken, I thought there was something actually wrong with me,” he said.
It wasn’t until he was diagnosed and joined The Penguin Project of McLean County — a theater group for youth and young adults ages 10 to 24 with intellectual and developmental disabilities — that he realized nothing was wrong. He’s just different.
“I think people have a hard time accepting that sometimes, but being here, having this incredibly supportive environment, it just means the world to me,” he said.
At Penguin Project, he became an actor in a theater program willing to make any modifications and accommodations that will get him on the stage. When it came time to leave the group behind as he approached age 25, Parkin said he was “almost distraught.”
“Like I was just so sad, because it is a family,” he said. “It's like coming home every time you enter the doors. You're just greeted with so much love and so much excitement at being there.”
That’s when Director Jackie Gunderson decided to make another accommodation. For the first time in McLean County Penguin Project history, she offered an organization participant a job.
Parkin said he accepted without hesitation.
Penguin Project is a national organization that started in Peoria in 2008 and spread to McLean County a year later. Since then, Gunderson said the organization has been teaching youth like Parkin how to build relationships, self-confidence and communication skills — all through theater.
“Putting a musical on is the cherry on top of all the other things we do,” she said.
Each year, the McLean County Penguin Project produces one show, and this year’s was The SpongeBob Musical, which opened Thursday night with a pay-your-way entrance fee at University High. Shows will continue Friday through Sunday with ticketed entry.
In The SpongeBob Musical, a typical cast has 30 to 35 actors, but the Penguin Project doubled those numbers — one of many modifications made so youth and young adults with special needs are center stage in every role.
Gunderson said there were around 40 mentors and 35 mentees.
“Their mentor supports them anywhere from just being a friend by the time we get on stage, and just being in the shadows, all the way up to physically helping them get on and off stage and do their dance moves,” she said.
Mentor and high school student Bridget Herr has been doing the Penguin Project for five years and participates in theater outside of the group as well.
“Depending on your pair, sometimes the focus is the show and optimizing your performance, and other times, it’s just getting through our rehearsals without having a meltdown,” she said.
Gunderson said in her 10 years as director she’s watched dozens of youth go from questioning whether they can make it on stage at all to performing entire shows in front of hundreds.
“By the end of the season, we have friends that we weren’t sure were going to make it through the first rehearsal on stage, singing, dancing, saying their lines, being a part of the community and being a part of the story,” Gunderson said.
Nikki Griffin, who plays SpongeBob for this year’s production, said it’s taken years of Penguin Project productions to gain the confidence required of the lead. He said his goal each year has been to improve, so “every year I did.”
His goal this year is to “just make people happy.”
“I mean, everyone knows SpongeBob and I’m trying to give it my best,” he said.
At the final show Sunday, Gunderson said the reality of what everyone has accomplished will inevitably set in. She said some people don’t “blossom” until that point.
“You really can't feel the magic of Penguin until you get through show weekend,” she said.
With the final show, comes the end of the show season. Gunderson said she hopes people experience the magic before it's lost.
“Penguin lets me forget that the world isn't built for my friends because (of) this space. We do everything in our power to prioritize our artists getting a space that's theirs, and letting them shine,” she said. “I hope that when people come to penguin project, they get that feeling in the audience, and they take it back to whatever space that they're in.”
