At Backlight Productions adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities receive the opportunity to take part in the performing arts world as valued and respected performers and are given the chance to learn and perform lead roles in productions that they may never have otherwise been able to. They receive quality training in the arts that improves speech, expression, coordination, and overall confidence. They are taught to commit to long-term projects, work as a team, and they are given a consistent community that they can never “age out of”. Backlight promotes integration by partnering with local professionals and organizations to incorporate professional artists alongside students in every production. The artists that participate then have the opportunity to take a step back from the spotlight and use their time on stage to instead support and promote Backlight students. Through these partnerships and through touring productions, more audiences are reached and exposed to these kinds of integrated performances. Audiences of all ages are then inspired and given the chance to better understand a community to which they may never have had much exposure. 

A “backlight” is a light used to shine on a performer from behind to keep him/her from blending into the background; it is also used to signify innocence and purity. At Backlight Productions our aim is to keep people with disabilities from getting lost in the background in the performing arts world. We want to use the performing arts to not just entertain but to directly influence lives for the better. Backlight began as a way to bring some happiness and has become a way of promoting selflessness, empathy, kindness and integration in a world that desperately needs this message heard. We hope you will join us in seeing this mission furthered and spread!

Mission statement:

Providing opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to gain education in the arts and perform significant roles in integrated performances, enabling them to enhance their social skills through artistic expression and grow in confidence both on and off the stage.