(Riverton, WY) – The Library Stage in Riverton filled with laughter and applause Wednesday night as Community Entry Services held its annual Actors Showcase, which brings together developmentally disabled adults who have spent the year honing their craft in monthly acting classes.
The evening featured live skits and the third installment of what has become a showcase tradition: a student-produced silent film. This year’s entry blended comedy and horror, and drew laughter from the audience of friends, family, and community members who came out to watch.
Amara Fehring, a local actor who has helped lead the acting program since its launch in fall 2016, said the silent film format has opened up a new dimension for the CES performers.
“With the silent film, they’re not worrying about remembering lines or exactly what’s happening,” Fehring said. “It kind of comes across a little more natural, and they’re able to act with their bodies instead of trying to remember lines.”
This year’s production was shot scene by scene, with Fehring guiding performers through each moment as it was captured, rather than rehearsing a full run-through in advance. The result, she said, was some of the most expressive work the group has produced.
“Keeping them in the moment is really one of the things that we learned in this one is that that’s where they really thrive,” she said.
Fehring runs the program alongside her mother, Kris, a retired special education teacher with 35 years of classroom experience. Together, the two developed a format with one narrator and one instructor working directly with performers on stage. Classes run from October through early June, building toward the Festival of Trees performance in December before shifting focus to spring showcases.
Some participants have been part of the program since it began nearly a decade ago. Watching that growth, she said, is the most rewarding part.
“To see them grow to that point where they’re just really comfortable doing all of that is just a delight,” she said. “We really trust each other. The absolute delight and happiness of just being able to have a good time… That’s what we get out of it the most.”