By Olivia Minnier

A Delaware man beams with excitement as he tries on his costume for an upcoming play performance. The joy is contagious and obvious on his face as he steps into his griffin costume and receives help putting on the bird head and mechanical wings.

Matthew Wingert, a 25-year-old resident of Delaware County, has found an outlet for his creative ideas through the theater program at Open Door Adult Day Program, which he can attend as part of waiver services provided by DCBDD.

Open Door is a Columbus-based adult day program with a functional gallery and art space in Grandview Heights, offering community and in-house exhibitions for artists to showcase their work.

The drama and theater program at Open Door, called Open Door Stage and Screen, is run, and managed, by Program Director Cary Johnston. Cary has a background in the theatrical arts and approached Open Door Columbus about creating this program, because of the huge need for the collaborative, peer-supportive, and democratizing arts experience that theater provides.

She said the performances are incredibly unique and started with just family members of participants in the audiences and have grown to sell out larger venues.

“We sell out hundred-seat houses now. They’re just all beaming because of the honesty on stage and the joy. I’ve seen Broadway, I’ve seen everything, but this is different. This is not trying to be Broadway. This is a different genre. It’s about love, truth, honesty, commitment, and vulnerability. It’s different. It’s cool to see the transformation,” she said.

For actors in the program like Matt, these opportunities at Open Door Stage and Screen are paramount in providing resources to explore creative passions.

Matt helped Open Door prepare their Grimm Fairy Tale play that was put on at the end of April. This play included retellings of The Frog Prince, Snow White, and The Griffin, in which Matt starred as the titular character. The play premiered on April 19.

“Working on the costumes for this one has been fun,” he said.

In addition to acting, Matt has written and directed his play with the program, a spy-themed Christmas play called The Claus Who Loved Me.

“It’s basically like if Santa were a secret agent,” he said. “I got to invite some people I knew (to the performance) as well,” he said.

However, Matt’s ability to collaborate with the other actors at Open Door has not always been so easy, especially when he first started attending.

“Matt is someone with a point of view that’s very specific and he guards that very much. That’s his artistic identity,” Cary said.

Sean Moore, Community Relations Manager at Open Door, said Matt has very specific ideals which have at times created a barrier to being collaborative with others.

“Matt holds his artistic ideals as truths, and they’re ultimate truths, anyone who challenges that is not his truth so, therefore, is probably inaccurate,” he said.

Cary said when Matt decided to start coming three days a week instead of just two, a change occurred.

“That extra day seems to have softened him somehow to be more of a team player, to be more of a leader,” she said.

Cary said having Matt take charge and create The Claus Who Loved Me was a game changer in his attitude because he was making something for the good of the group for the first time.

“He started to trust us,” she said.

Sean said Matt’s attitude has changed for the positive in the three years he’s been a part of the program.

“I think he’s really grown to be more collaborative in his understanding of the arts, in his understanding of teamwork as a company of actors. It takes a village,” he said.

Cary and Sean both said the program equips their actors to be able to take community jobs, work as a team, and develop life skills that make them great community members. They said Matt is a great representation of how the program can transform someone’s social skills and outlook.

“One thing we have always discussed is art as a job, what does that mean? How do we justify it? How do we say this is something vocational when the benchmarks of vocation don’t necessarily exist in the arts? One of the amazing things about Cary’s program is that these skills (they develop here) are easily translatable to the world of straight-up vocation,” Sean said.

Going forward, Matt is excited to re-enter the workforce at Ohio Living Sarah Moore starting in July. He wants to start creating animated movies and expand his director abilities into the world of filmmaking.

“I am pretty good at art, so it wouldn’t be too complicated,” he said.