Dear Friends,

I am writing to you this holiday season as a member of the ArtStream Board of Directors. That’s right – a guy with Down syndrome is on ArtStream’s Board of Directors. ArtStream sees me and my talent – my ambition. ArtStream has confidence in me, and high expectations. ArtStream takes the ‘dis’ out of disability and focuses on ability. I am not a person with a disability at ArtStream. I am Adrian.

ArtStream is first and foremost a theatre company. I create all my characters in ArtStream’s special process of writing original scripts based on the imaginations of everybody in the company. We improvise themes, characters and scenes and ArtStream artists make our creativity and teamwork come to life on stage.

In the first ArtStream Silver Spring play, Lost in a Dream at the Super Hero Diner, I was Dream Lyric, a poet whose mystical powers wrote a happy ending to our story. This year, in the Gaithersburg Company A play, The Lost Toys, I played a battery who brought together the loved toys and the unloved toys by powering the love.

From 2005 to 2015, I have stretched, and grown, and changed – just like ArtStream. Theatre is the heart of ArtStream, but we also do so much more.

• I work with ArtStream staff on community events, doing public speaking about ArtStream, but also about having high expectations for people with (dis)abilities;
• I’ve used what I learned to independently lead theatre workshops for high school students working with other students with (dis)abilities;
• I am an assistant in an ArtStream workshop for other people with Down syndrome to improve communication skills; and,
• I speak independently at conferences and professional meetings about how to have high expectations for people with (dis)abilities and to encourage them to go to college and to work in jobs like everyone else.

2015 is ArtStream’s 10th Anniversary, and we’re celebrating!

For 10 years, ArtStream has supported me and the other members of our ArtStream family. Now, ArtStream needs your help to reach more people with (dis)abilities (including adults with intellectual disabilities in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and wounded servicemembers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda) and continue growing over the next 10 years.

Here are a few ways that your donation can help:

• $25 provides art and drama supplies for arts sessions at Walter Reed in Bethesda;
• $50 funds a full costume for an Inclusive Company actor;
• $100 sponsors a participant for three sessions of Inclusive Social Clubs or drama skills classes;
• $250 underwrites a public speaking workshop with a deserving partner;
• $650 sponsors tuition for one Inclusive Company actor;
• $1,200 pays for one month of twice weekly arts sessions for wounded military personnel and their families; and,
• $3,000 underwrites theatre space for one Inclusive Company performance

ArtStream has helped me learn to be who I am – Adrian, the actor and the advocate, the college graduate and the employee, not the guy with Down syndrome. I want ArtStream to be my legacy. ArtStream gave me real skills that I use every day to communicate, to advocate and to help others. ArtStream brings me joy and inspires me. If ArtStream inspires you too, please consider supporting us this holiday season.

Sincerely,

Adrian Forsythe y Korzeniewicz
Client Liaison and Member at Large, Board of Directors

2015 Annual Appeal

Donate today to support ArtStream’s life-changing programs.

Donate Now!

Thank you for your generosity!