Despite a sudden downpour and high winds that threatened to take down an outdoor tent, Evergreen Park Public Library’s Friendly Reader’s Theatre yielded frighteningly good performances.

Volunteers and participants worked together to quickly move props and staging for the recent performance to one of the basement meeting rooms at the library, 9400 S. Troy Ave.

The fun and Halloween-themed performances that followed all came about, thanks to an $890 “Autism Welcome Here” grant, which paved the way for the library to begin offering recreational activities serving teens and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and other disabilities

The library used the grant to pay for training supplied by Saint Xavier University to equip staff members with skills for interacting successfully with people with autism. The grant was issued based on needs revealed by library-conducted surveys with area families.

“When you do this kind of outreach, you go beyond library boundaries,” said Mary Black, young adult services coordinator for Evergreen Park Public Library. “We welcome all neighbors, and you don’t have to have a library card here or live in Evergreen Park.”

Beverly resident Mitchell Moody, 19, was among the first to take advantage of the library’s new autism-friendly programming.

After parts were announced for the Friendly Reader’s Theatre event, Moody raised his hand and said, “I’ll be the vampire. Vampires

are one of my favorites.”

Moody is a 2020 graduate of the Chicago High School for the Agricultural Sciences and an adult transition student at the Southside Occupational Academy. After just a couple of quick readings and rehearsals, he became Count Dracula, wearing a black cape and gown, sequined mask and royal medallion.

In keeping with the script, this monster’s favorite scare tactic was terrifying monster contest emcees with a bat hanging from a string.

Moody and others may not have realized it, but they were working with some of the best theatre coaches in the south suburbs.

Volunteers Bob Beland and Mike Olsson, drama coaches at Oak Lawn Community High School, helped their school win drama and group interpretation championships this year in Illinois High School Association competition.

For the library event, the educators employed a few tricks to help everyone read and learn their lines quickly.

Olsson used orange markers to highlight lines spoken by individual characters. For saying the vampire’s lines, this seemed to help Moody.

“It was so good to see him do this so easily because he struggles with reading,” his mother, Jennifer Moody, said.

Evergreen Park resident Alanna Flaherty, an adult transition student at UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago in Tinley Park, also quickly got the hang of reading and acting in front of an audience.

In real life, Flaherty frequently visits the library with her mother to check out books and DVDs. For the Friendly Reader’s Theatre performance, her zombie character chanted, “Me want brains!” and carried a plastic bag stuffed with pink yarn to suggest brain matter.

The zombie also delivered a classic Halloween gag by “giving a hand” to a contest judge that was really a plastic model of a detached forearm.

Besides Moody and Flaherty, other volunteers of varying ages joined in the fun.

As a witch, 8-year-old Madelyn Remegi seemed to delight in setting the audience on edge saying, “My favorite meal is stuffed child with a side of frog legs and a Diet Coke.” She also tossed giant spiders and snakes out of her witch’s cauldron.

While volunteering and earning community service hours, Danny Goyke, a seventh grader at Central Middle School in Evergreen Park, played the role of mall manager. Wearing a gray wig and flashy shirt, he discussed what promised to be a “dead” Halloween night with information booth operators played by volunteer drama coach Beland and Emma Mathews, a senior at Oak Lawn Community High School.

Monica Munoz-Lewis, a master’s candidate studying special education at Saint Xavier, mustered a booming voice for a scary ghost.

Adam Kirschner, of Mount Greenwood, another graduate student studying special education at Saint Xavier, played the part of a contest judge.

At the start of the event, Kirshner had predicted for all who participated, “This is good because I know they’ll get involved and have fun with it.”

He was right.

The monster contest skit ended with judges Kirschner and Arika Hampton, also a Saint Xavier master’s candidate, deliberating and finally saying to the monsters, “We couldn’t make up our minds. You all win!”

After the cast took a bow, everyone in the room, including parents and library staff, danced to a recording of “The Monster Mash.”

“This was an awesome way to get people with disabilities to come out to the community and be involved,” Hampton said. “I love that the high school was able to provide volunteers. I really enjoyed being a part of this!”

While packing up, theatre coach Olsson said Moody’s performance as a vampire: “was definitely a good first performance. He crushed it!”

“It was fun stuff,” Moody said.

Beyond the Friendly Reader’s Theatre event, the library is planning additional autism-friendly events and establishing Stacks Social Club, which will meet once a month on Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon, starting in January. The club is intended to provide games, activities and opportunities to socialize with peers in a safe, socially supportive environment.

Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.