On the long-running PBS show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the titular host often journeyed to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe to meet up with King Friday, Queen Sara Saturday and the other inhabitants of the imaginary kingdom that was just a trolley ride away from Mister Rogers’ house. For children who are confined to hospitals and other care facilities; however, even an imaginary trolley ride to a land of make-believe can often feel out of reach.
Only Make Believe (OMB), a program run by influential members of the Broadway community, has made it their goal to help children use their imagination to escape the harsh realities they have to face each and every day. In doing so, they hope to empower them through the collaborative process of theater.
So what does Mister Rogers have in common with Joe DiPietro, who recently won two Tony Awards for the hit Broadway show Memphis? Just like the beloved children’s television host, DiPietro, who has been on the OMB board since the organization’s inception, makes it his mission to have an impact on everyone who sees any show in which he has a part. He helped write some of the catchy music featured in OMB’s shows and even stepped in to play a mermaid (that’s him in the pink wig and iridescent skirt, above) at a recent performance. OMB invited Tonic to attend a show at the Icahn Medical Institute at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and then speak with DiPietro about Only Make Believe, the impact the program has on children and how it relates to Memphis.
Only Make Believe was started ten years ago by Dena Hammerstein, the daughter-in-law of the great Broadway book-writer and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, after her husband Jamie passed away. “Dena had been very involved in a lot of children’s charities, so she wanted to combine [her husband] Jamie’s love of theater with her love of children into one organization to honor him, and she came up with Only Make Believe,” DiPietro explained. “It really started with her vision and her financial support.”
The core of the program hasn’t changed much since it’s inception — what has changed is the number of shows the various troupes of actors are able to put on per day, and the number of sites they visit per year. In its inaugural year, OMB visited the Rusk Institute at NYU Medical Center and one other site; in 2010, they will serve 38 hospitals and care facilities in the New York metropolitan area. This year alone, over 4,000 children will be able to participate in Only Make Believe programs.
The numbers may be impressive, but nothing compares to the magic that unfolded during the forty-five minute production we watched. Three professional actors told us the tale of Eco-Babe, who had to journey under the sea to help stop a man called B.B. (short for “Big Business”) from building a mall that would cause tons of fish to lose their homes. There was singing, dancing and costumes, which are made by the volunteer Costume Collective (When was the last time I got to wear a Hogwart’s Quidditch cape and a d’Artagnan-style hat? Never, that’s when. It was awesome.). The children were so into the story, they refused to help Eco-Girl sabotage B.B. because he had “hired” them to work for his company, and they didn’t want to hurt their boss since he wrote their imaginary paychecks. The actors said they’d never seen anything like it!
“The big thing is getting the kids to participate, so they’re also able to improve,” DiPietro told Tonic. “[The goal is to] gently prod them along and adapt the script if the kids aren’t responding. We’ve had selectively mute kids start to speak; kids who are totally in their shell, and by the end of the Only Make Believe cycle, they’re participating and people in the hospitals are amazed at the progress.”
Each OMB cycle lasts six weeks. During the cycle, the same three actors will return to the site each week to put on a different interactive show. And it’s a quality piece of theater; Dena Hammerstein wouldn’t have anything less. “Dena always insisted on treating these troupes like professional theater troupes,” Joe explained. “So it’s a regular audition process; you kind of have to be the right actor for these roles. They obviously have to be able to work well with kids and deal with all sorts of situations. Children tend to be the most honest audience imaginable, so if they’re bored or don’t like what you’re doing, you know it right away.”
The best part about OMB is that it’s entirely free for the hospitals and care facilities, which often don’t have extra funding for programs like this. By having a solid financier like Dena Hammerstein and support from the Broadway community, Only Make Believe board members are able to raise funds through word of mouth and by bringing friends to see performances. Seeing children watch an OMB performance would make anyone want to open his or her checkbook!
There’s even talk of expanding the program beyond the New York metro area in the next 5 years: “We’ve been talking; it started with two hospitals, ten years ago, so there’s been remarkable growth. I think we’re trying to figure out now how to grow the program and still keep its integrity and effectiveness so it doesn’t become too big, too quick.”
DiPietro described the nonprofit’s belief in transformation and healing best by comparing it to a show of his we all know and love that also has transformative powers: “Only Make Believe, it really is like a show. You have actors and you have an audience, and you have to engage the audience. It really has all the same principles. Hopefully, I think — I mean, I saw Memphis last night — and, you know, you want the same effect. You want the audience to sort of be changed by the end of the show. By the end, you end up on your feet singing and clapping, which is the same thing really we do in Only Make Believe.”
Considering I went about the rest of my day singing: “Eco-Babe wants to save the world! Eco-Babe wants to save the sea! Eco-Babe wants to save the mountains! Safe for all humanity,” with a big smile on my face, and I caught some of the kids doing the same on their way out of the show, I’m going to say mission accomplished.
Photo1 by Lindsey Brown, photo 2 by Maricha Miles.