Shake on the Lake hosts educational programming at K-12 schools through our Groundlings Programs. Classes and workshops can be a day or several weeks.
Please reach out to Linda Franke, Executive Director (lfranke@shakeonthelake.org) to learn more or book our educational programming.
October 2025
Theater for All of Us: Two Day Workshop
A hands-on workshop for producers, educators, theater makers, artists, actors, and caregivers with tools for developing sensory theater for autistic and neurodivergent audiences with Leigh Walter, Marty Allen, and Andrew Duff the creators of Trusty Sidekick’s ‘A Perfect Party for Trees’
October 3 | 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
October 4 | 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
(Two Day Workshop)
Theatre@37, 37 South Main Street, Perry, NY 14530
October 4 | 3:30pm public performance of ‘A Perfect Party for Trees’
Tickets are for both days of the workshop: Reserve a spot here!
In our 2-day workshop, we share a flexible toolkit for creating inclusive theater through multiple lenses, including:
Producing/Directing: from imagination to implementation: how we get a show for our audiences going, and what we consider along the way
Writing/Composing: incorporating and celebrating neurodivergent needs and voices in worldbuilding, storytelling, language, and song
Performing: preparing to flexibly connect to audience and the moment using structure, improvisation, and sensory theater techniques
Design: building a sensory-friendly world that supports audience needs and creates space for exploration
This workshop is made possible due to the generous support of the Palma Foundation.
A Perfect Party for Trees
October 4 at 3:30 p.m.
Theatre@37
37 South Main Street
Perry, NY
Reserve a spot here! Limited Seating – free but ticket reservation required
In A Perfect Party for Trees, we welcome our party guests to try multi-sensory activities, participatory puppetry, and collective live music in a celebration of nature, and the many ways that we see ourselves as a part of it. Guided by our friends The Beekeeper, The Bear, and Ms. Branch, we create a gentle and playful space for our audience to dig like a badger, sing like a bird, and sit quietly like a tree to become a part of the forest itself. With no wrong way to celebrate, it will be the perfect party every time.
Running time: approximately 45-60 minutes.
Link to NY Times Review.
Link to Social Story, Character Guide, and Storybook.
This performance is made possible due to the generous support of the Palma Foundation.
Workshop Leaders Bios
Originally from Nebraska, Leigh Walter is an artistic leader, director, producer, and manager based in NYC for the past decade. She has worked at Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, The Public, Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Trusty Sidekick and HERE Arts Center among a myriad of other theaters, warehouses, bars, museums, streets and parks. This work has been focused on developing new theatre, with a passion for immersive/non-traditional productions and puppetry.
She has worked on over 100 productions in the past 10 years, which have included Off-Broadway musicals, performance art, dance, opera and everything in-between.
Regarding her work for autistic and neurodivergent communities, Leigh originally trained with the theater company Oily Cart, pioneers of sensory theater and makers of accessible theater for over 40 years. She went on to be a part of the creative teams behind Up and Away, Campfire, A Perfect Party for Trees and Frolic, original sensory theater experiences made for and with neurodivergent young people. As a collaborator and eventual artistic leader of Trusty Sidekick she went on to partner with organizations such as Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Bridge Park, The Autism Nature Trail, The Rose Theater, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and Shake on the Lake in order to advocate and bring accessible theater to young people with developmental disabilities across the country. – leighwalter.com
Andrew Duff is a Brooklyn-based actor, devisor, and advocate for the autism community.
Diagnosed at the age of two, Andrew created the one-man show Where Are We Now as his senior work at Bennington College, where he explored his diagnosis. From there, Andrew collaborated with Tectonic Theater Project on the piece Uncommon Sense, where he played the character of Moose and was a key part in the devising process and
trained in Tectonic’s Moment Work methodology. He has since taken on roles in television in
shows such as AppleTV’s Little Voice and Amazon’s As We See It.
Andrew is also involved in the non-profit world, working with such organizations as Kaiser’s Room, NYC Kids Project, Arts for Autism, and most recently, Trusty Sidekick, where he was one of the creative leads on Perfect Party for Trees and Frolic. It has been with Trusty Sidekick that Andrew truly leaned into the devising process from a leadership role, and was able to use his personal and professional experience to help create multisensory theater that truly puts the audience first. Andrew is thrilled to be reuniting with Leigh and Marty once again to share their experiences and tools in this workshop!
Marty Allen is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, musician, teacher, puppet-maker, and creative producer living in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for creating The Sock Puppet Portraits, writing the related book, Sock Puppet Madness, and for performing with rock band/art collective/giant monster/sock puppet, Uncle Monsterface.
His puppets and artwork as his company, Sock Puppet City, have sold to tens of thousands of people from across the world for nearly twenty years.
In addition to his work as the writer and co-creator of A Perfect Party for Trees, he has had six
books published internationally including the best-selling 50 Knots You Need To Know (Simon
& Schuster). Marty has worked as a creative consultant, producer, and collaborator for cool
folks like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Hasbro, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Society, Buzzfeed, Lemon Demon, Google, The Henson Foundation, Harry & The Potters, Trusty Sidekick, The All Stars Project, Leroy’s Place, Maker Faire,
and many others.
In addition to working as a practicing artist, Marty has over fifteen years of experience as a dedicated teaching artist.
He specializes in early childhood development and working with neurodiverse communities.
martystuff.com | sockpuppetcity.com