The first-ever play about a boy with dyslexia is making its debut at the Magik Theater on Saturday, thanks to a collaboration between the theater and local nonprofit Celebrate Dyslexia.
Eddie & Vinnie is the story of a fifth grader who struggles in school because of his dyslexia. Vinnie is Eddie’s gecko, and his best friend. The two want to spend the summer having fun building puzzles but first Eddie needs to get his grades up so he will not have to go to summer school.
One in five people has dyslexia, a learning disability characterized by reading struggles. People with dyslexia are often very intelligent, and often have great imaginations and large vocabularies, according to Celebrate Dyslexia. They tend to excel in math, visual arts, computers, social studies and writing.
Yet many people go undiagnosed, causing them struggle and shame. Those who are diagnosed may feel stigmatized. As part of its “Meaningful Messaging” initiative, Magik Theatre hopes Eddie & Vinnie can reduce that stigma, open a dialogue about dyslexia and not least, offer an engaging and positive portrayal of someone learning to manage the disorder.
The collaboration with Celebrate Dyselxia began in 2019 when the nonprofit’s Executive Director Jasmin Dean approached Magik Theatre Artistic Director Anthony Runfola about the possibility of doing a children’s play about this topic. Runfola loved the idea and the pair set out to find a children’s play that could fit the bill. They were unable to find one, however, for one very simple reason — none existed.
Runfola and Dean decided to commission their own play about dyslexia, but their plans were delayed by the pandemic. Finally, in the summer of 2021, Dean and Runfola were able to move forward.
Enter playwright Jenny Millinger. Dean and Runfola selected Millinger because of her personal connection and interest in dyslexia. According to Dean, Millinger also had “extensive professional experience working with K-3 teachers on the Science of Teaching Reading in her own theater community.”
Dean connected Millinger, who serves as associate artistic director of Childsplay in Arizona, with young people who were struggling with dyslexia. She conducted a series of interviews, and the experiences of many of these young people are reflected in the play.
Eddie struggles when he is called upon to read aloud in class, and to focus on school work — but he excels in artistic endeavors like building geometric figures using puzzle pieces. Eddie’s struggles are exacerbated when he is partnered with Penelope (aka “Pen”) to complete a class report. Penelope is everything that Eddie is not: an organized and focused high-achieving student. At first, Eddie feels inferior, but Penelope helps Eddie see that his artistic abilities are impressive, just in a different way — and that he too brings important qualities to their collaboration.
When Penelope gets sick the day they are scheduled to give their report, Eddie must step up and do it all on his own. At first, this is a terrifying prospect but then Eddie realizes he can use his puzzle skills to help him memorize the facts that he needs to present in the report.
At this moment, said Dean, Eddie is “implementing a strategy that worked for [him]. Most dyslexic students go unidentified and do not receive intervention. Instead, they compensate in different ways.”
Dean and Runfola felt an obligation to portray dyslexia as accurately as possible. In preparation for the production, the entire cast of Eddie & Vinnie and the staff of Magik Theatre went through a dyslexic simulator created for them by Celebrate Dyslexia.
Using the simulator “allowed non-dyslexic folks to experience the emotional reaction of struggling to read and write when also dealing with a learning difference such as dyslexia,” said Runfola.
Venny Mortimer, the actor who portrays Eddie, said he felt like he had a unique connection to Eddie from the start.
“As someone on the spectrum and with ADHD, I also had difficulty in the classroom. Things that seemed easy for other students were difficult for me. I felt a lot of the same frustration, shame, and helplessness in the dyslexia simulation as I had in my own school career. Those are the feelings and experiences I called on to help Eddie’s more emotional moments ring true,” he said.
Performances at the Magik Theatre will run through Oct. 28 to coincide with National Dyslexia Awareness Month. A touring version of the show is already on the road.
Eddie & Vinnie is only the second play in Magik Theatre’s 27-year history to receive grant funding from the National Endowment of the Arts. Other supporters include Texas Cultural Trust, Texas Commission on the Arts, the Betty Stieren Kelso Foundation and the H-E-B Read 3 Initiative.
To reach the widest possible audience, the Magik Theatre is offering several special performances of Eddie & Vinnie, including masks-required, American Sign Language-interpreted, sensory-friendly and pay-what-you-can performances.
On Oct. 22, Dean is hosting a Dyslexia 101 workshop for educators, which aims to help educators “learn how students experience the frustration of dyslexia in the classroom, as well as empower [them] with tools for supporting their learning needs through accommodations.” The workshop fee includes lunch and tickets to the 2 p.m. mask-required performance.
