Giving Back To The Place That Gave It All

Lauren Whittingham discovered herself and her love for the arts through Fairmount’s theatre program. Her experience was so impactful that it carried her into her professional career as a special education teacher. Now retired and enjoying life as a stay-at-home grandma, she has decided to give back to Fairmount by joining Ghost Lighters, Fairmount’s monthly giving program.

In 1971, Lauren was a high schooler living on the east side of Cleveland. Her interest in theatre led her to the then newly opened Fairmount Center where she quickly became pals with the other theatre troupe members.

“It was such a wonderful experience. We were doing productions together in the little theatre with the little stage and the coffee can lights… It was just an absolutely wonderful time and a great group of people to be with.”

Lauren compares experiences in the performing arts to be equal to or even greater than experiences on sports teams. “When you get a part, you get a part. You may only be on stage for 60 seconds of that production, but you are guaranteed that time on stage. In sports, you might try as hard as you can, but still be on the bench and not have that opportunity,” she said.

While at Fairmount, Lauren had the opportunity to assist the then-theatre director, Annie Hall, on producing Hansel and Gretel, which sparked her desire to one day sit in the director’s chair herself. “We had a dance scene and that was a lot of fun to watch from the audience and learn what [Annie] was looking at,” she explained. 

“It was just a magical time - I don’t think we knew it at the time. But we knew we were having fun.”

Lauren (4th from the left) with Fairmount’s mime troupe in Washington D.C. circa 1973.

On August 15, 1974, Lauren found herself getting off a bus in central Illinois. She had applied to the University of Illinois and arrived with three checks for tuition and a suitcase of belongings. “I only had academically been accepted. I wasn’t yet accepted to the theatre department, but I got on the bus,” she said. “I was all alone.” She laughs as she recalls asking her mother years later how she let her young daughter do such a thing. Her mother’s response was, “How was I going to stop you?”

Once there, she managed to talk herself into the theatre department and began earning her degree in stage design. She realized then how special her Fairmount experiences were. Although her heart was in theatre, she had participated in dance classes (never surpassing Ballet I, but trying nonetheless) and posed for drawing classes downstairs in the art room. “At university when I went on to take drawing classes as a part of my design degree, I had an appreciation for it.”

After graduating, she decided to apply for graduate school, this time pivoting to Special Education focusing on the Deaf and hard-of-hearing. Growing up in a household with both parents pursuing careers in education, she joked, “My parents were right, I needed to be a teacher.” She applied for her masters degree at Illinois State and was immediately accepted based on her theatre background.

“When I went to get my masters, I called up the head of the department and he asked me about my bachelors degree. I told him it was in theatre, and he said, ‘You’re in the program’. I was shocked and he told me, ‘I will take any person with a theatre background because they are much better signers,’” Lauren explained.

She humbly admits that she wasn’t the most skilled signer and would often forget signs for certain words and need to finger spell, but she was sought out by the Deaf and hard-of-hearing students on campus because of her ability to express emotion.

“One student in grad school who was Deaf picked me out of a group of grad students, all who knew how to sign much better than me, and asked me to sign for her while having a conversation with a professor who had a mustache. After the conversation I asked her, ‘Why did you pick me?’

“She said, ‘Because with you I know what he means. You give me all the background.’ She could see through my signs whether he was being serious, or sarcastic, or funny. And that is important in conversation.”

When she finally had a classroom of her own, she continued to implement her passion and training for theatre, and saw tremendous benefits. One of her first productions she directed was a rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs put on by a combined classroom of neurotypical and neurodivergent students.

The experience had lasting impacts, particularly on a neurodivergent student named Michael. Michael’s mother told her that because he had that performance experience, he would sit through his sister’s show choir performances. “The experience obviously meant a lot to him, and that motivated me to put on theatre productions with my students for the next ten years,” she said.

This fulfilled Lauren’s teenage desires to direct a children’s theater. “I ultimately did it, just not in the way I thought I was going to!” The impact she witnessed through every production made it all worth it.

“I saw my students thrive on stage. I saw them learn new skills on stage. They were the stars of the production, and they knew it.”

Lauren has reconnected with Fairmount by becoming a monthly donor. “I am at a point now in my life where I can and want to give back to Fairmount",” she said. “As I look at that period in my life of discovering who I was, I was so fortunate to be able to do it in a place where everybody was supportive of everybody. Where nobody was looked down upon… I want other children to have that.”

Since her Fairmount experiences, Lauren has been an enthusiastic advocate for the arts. “I think a background in the arts makes you so much more flexible. Your brain is stretched in a different way. You’re so much more accepting of everybody. As my kids were growing up I wish I had had a Fairmount Center to send them to.”

By joining Ghost Lighters, Lauren is making experiences like hers possible for children entering Fairmount’s doors today. Join her and others in this movement to keep the arts at Fairmount thriving for children.