How to write theater for a more inclusive world

Pink Umbrella shares its lessons with the larger theater community

Playwright Patrick Thompson — who says he grew up in “farm fields of Wisconsin” (in Jackson) — knew he “had to write a musical for Pink Umbrella” after seeing Pink’s production of the play, SHINE!, a few years ago at Summerfest.

Although he now lives in New York, Patrick comes back to Wisconsin often and knew Pink Umbrella’s founder, Katie Cummings, from his years working in Milwaukee theatrical productions.

“As a music director, I’ve gotten to work at so many types of companies and in lots of classrooms for theater education, where I saw ‘inclusion’ represented as disabled people just being in the room with us, and that’s not enough,” Patrick said. “I wanted to be part of spaces where we’re lifting everyone up to be able to do this thing that I love, which is musical theater.

“I’m so grateful now that I can follow these guiding lights and make sure all voices are being heard, all bodies are being seen, and that they can participate in the same full way that everybody else is participating.”

Writing to ‘allow adaptations and accommodations to more freely take place’

Patrick knew from experience that plays are often written narrowly — with the characters envisioned in the playwright’s imagination and scripted with little room to deviate from the descriptors in the script.

“Having worked as a music director in so many things, I’ve learned that when doing a show from the canon like Oklahoma! or Into the Woods, when you license them, they come with strict parameters about the roles. Like, you can’t change the gender, so if you see a school when there’s a male witch in Into the Woods, they’re actually breaking the contract when they make those kinds of switches,” Patrick said.