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From “Breaking Bad” to breaking barriers: RJ Mitte celebrates a theater redefining inclusion

The Prospector Theater has paid $26 million in wages to employees with disabilities—and sparked a movement.

Sarah Elizabeth Farrell

RJ Mitte at the Prospector's Gala, celebrating 10 years of changing the lives of those with disabilities.

RJ Mitte, best known for his portrayal of Walter White Jr. in Breaking Bad, has never shied away from using his platform to advocate for inclusion and opportunities for people with disabilities. Recently, he attended the Prospector Theater’s 10th anniversary gala in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where he celebrated the theater’s innovative approach to meaningful employment and shared how the arts can create transformative change.

The Prospector Theater celebrates 10 years of making a real difference. Sarah Elizabeth Farrell

The Prospector Theater, a nonprofit cinema, has a clear mission: to provide competitive and fulfilling jobs to people with disabilities. This "sparkly beacon of hope" stands as a testament to what’s possible when a community commits to inclusion. The theater was founded by Valerie Jensen, who drew inspiration from her sister, Hope, born with Down syndrome. Jensen’s determination to create opportunities for people with disabilities led to the transformation of a historic Ridgefield, Connecticut building into a state-of-the-art, inclusive workplace.

"Val really inspired me to continue to push forward and to continue my missions."

— RJ Mitte

A model for inclusion

In its first decade, the Prospector Theater has employed over 330 people, combining competitive wages with an empowering workplace culture. It’s not just a theater—it’s a symbol of what’s possible when businesses commit to inclusion.

Ryan Wenke, Valerie Jensen, and State Senator Julie Kushner pose for a photo.Sarah Elizabeth Farrell

“Everyone in this world deserves a job or a career that they feel passionate about, that they feel connected to, that they feel that they want to wake up and go to work in the morning,” Mitte said.

"When you enrich someone's life and you give that opportunity, it changes people—not just the individual that you're giving the job to, but everyone around that individual."

— RJ Mitte

He went on to note that while many jobs available to people with disabilities are isolated or low-visibility, the Prospector prioritizes customer-facing roles that showcase employees’ skills and talents.

"I think where the Prospector is today is 100 years past many organizations when it comes to this type of meaningful employment and business model."

— RJ Mitte

Representation in action

In the run-up to the gala, attendees celebrated the theater’s success with a screening of The Wizard of Oz, a film that resonates deeply with themes of courage, inclusion, and hope. The timing felt especially poignant, as it coincided with the release of Wicked, featuring Marissa Bode as Nessa Rose—the first authentically disabled actress to play the role and a major step for authentic casting in a major production.

Prospect Tom Gollogly and RJ Mitte pose for a photo together.Sarah Elizabeth Farrell

For Mitte, the connection between the Prospector Theater’s work and milestones like Bode’s casting couldn’t be clearer. “This is the kind of progress we’ve been working toward for years,” he said. “Representation matters—not just in the stories we tell, but in who gets to tell them.”


Mitte reflected on how far inclusion in entertainment has come and the work still left to do."Now that we've seen people with disabilities in film and television not just play characters but succeed in playing these characters... We do have a long way to go... We may mess up along the way... but that's part of finding and growing, especially in the entertainment business."

The ripple effect

For Mitte, the gala was also a reminder of how businesses like the Prospector Theater can create ripple effects in their communities.

“For me, seeing that outpour of support and community—and the Ridgefield community specifically—was really, really nice to see, " Mitte said. "It doesn't happen everywhere.”

Mitte pointed to broader research showing that companies employing people with disabilities often see improved morale, greater innovation, and even higher profitability. The Prospector Theater, with its thriving business model and growing popcorn line, exemplifies how inclusion is both socially and economically beneficial.

How others can help

For businesses inspired by the Prospector model, Mitte offered practical advice. “Start small,” he said. “You don't have to employ 150, 250 people, but employing one—getting that one—because it's going to make a difference in your business.”

Prospector Production member Gabe Kavookjian holds a camera as he looks over his shoulder.Sarah Elizabeth Farrell

He emphasized that inclusion is an investment, not just in employees but in the future of the business itself. He added that the talent pool among people with disabilities is enormous, and creating an inclusive workplace allows businesses to access new perspectives that can lead to transformation.

"The Prospector Theater is a sparkly beacon of hope for the millions of Americans who can work, want to work, yet struggle to find meaningful employment."

— Valerie Jensen

A legacy in the making

Through his own foundation and advocacy work, Mitte continues to push for greater inclusion in all areas of life. But the Prospector Theater holds a special place in his heart.

“I wish programs like the Prospector existed when I was growing up,” he said. “What they've built here is truly amazing.”

Want to support the Prospector Theater? Visit prospectortheater.org to learn more, or treat yourself to their signature popcorn at prospectorpopcorn.org. As Mitte suggested, even purchasing their signature popcorn can contribute to making a difference.

making a difference
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For struggling teens, the support they need can come unexpectedly — from drama teachers.

True
NBC's Rise

When Kevin Bohl started high school, he felt like an outsider.

He was the new kid in town, and he and his mother had just moved into a tightknit community.

“Everyone knew everyone else. Picture Bedford Falls from ‘It's a Wonderful Life,’” he says. “I knew no one. It seemed that all of the other freshmen had been going to school forever.”

To not feel invisible, he joined the football team — but he only showed up to one practice.

“I forgot to think about whether I wanted to play football,” he explains. “Turns out, I didn't.”

Back at square one, he could have easily felt discouraged — but that’s when he saw the drama club’s autumn production. He fell in love immediately.

The next semester, he signed up for drama, a decision that would not only change his high school experience, but introduce him to a teacher who he would never forget — Mr. K.

“He gave me my first lead role,” Bohl says. “His trust in me, an unknown kid, meant more to me than he will ever know.”

That role not only placed Bohl in the spotlight, it finally gave him the sense of community for which he was desperately looking.

Kevin Bohl, present day.  Image by Simone Scully/Upworthy.

“[Mr. K] was like no one I'd ever met. He spoke to all of his students like adults. We could curse in class, which was utterly scandalous,” Bohl remembers. “And he chose projects that challenged us. He wanted us to think and feel.”

Being given space to think and feel might seem simple — but it can have a profound effect on teens who are just coming into their own.

“High school students have such fraught emotional lives,” Bohl says. “I can't imagine a discipline better suited to [guiding] a teenager through that time than a drama teacher.”

That’s because drama teachers like Mr. K give students much more than stage directions.They provide a safe haven for teens to express themselves and heal.

Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, an associate professor in the UTeach Theater program at the University of Texas at Austin, knows this better than most. She’s an expert in preparing professionals to teach drama in high schools and knows just how important it is for teachers to empower the youth they work with.

Image via iStock.

“For marginalized youth in particular, theater can be a place where their voices matter,” she explains. “The best theater teachers engage students in the creative process, ask questions, make space for and amplify young people’s voices.”

A teacher who isn’t afraid to tackle the sometimes difficult material that speaks to the kids they’re teaching can have a profound impact on students. The benefits of doing so are undeniable.

With a good teacher, theater becomes more than a fun hobby for kids. It becomes the foundation for better mental health and academic outcomes.

According to the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, drama classes not only improve standardized test scores, they decrease dropout rates and improve self-esteem.

“[Drama teachers] can, and often do, provide empathy for [struggling] kids,” Bohl says. “They can focus students’ disabilities in productive directions.”

Image via iStock.

With this kind of support, students who participate in the arts are three times more likely to win an award for attendance, directly linking investment in the arts to increased engagement at school. In other words, when students are given a voice, they show up.

“[Theater teachers] encourage young people to think critically, consider their role in the world, how to empathize and engage with others,” Schroeder-Arce says. “[These are] skills that we all need to be effective in our work, in our homes, in our communities.”

Today, Bohl — now 51 — is a working actor in New York, and not once has he forgotten the impression that Mr. K left on him.

“To this very day, there is nowhere I feel safer than in a theater or rehearsal space working on a show,” he says. “[Mr. K was] instrumental in instilling my own belief in my abilities, challenging me to stretch them, and making it safe for me to fail.”

Kevin Bohl in a theater.  Image by Simone Scully/Upworthy.

For Bohl that sense of safety was invaluable. “[Drama teachers] are unsung heroes,” he says.

While Bohl began high school feeling invisible, it was teachers like Mr. K who made him feel seen. And while that might seem like a small gesture, it can make all the difference.

Based on a true story, NBC’s new drama "Rise" has inspired us to look for other real stories about the impact of great teachers and drama classes on high schoolers' lives. "Rise" premieres on March 13 after "This Is Us." Click here to see the trailer for this new show.

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How getting in trouble for skipping class may have saved this teen's life.

As a member of the Bloods, Trinidad Ramkissoon never expected to make it to Broadway.

Ramkissoon was the youngest of seven children, and while his immigrant parents worked hard to provide for them, the family still struggled, even enduring a bout of homelessness after their Cambridge, Massachusetts, apartment burned down.

With his father working 16-hour days and his only brother in prison for a violent crime, Ramkissoon was on the lookout for role models — and on the streets of Cambridge, gang life was the best option he could see.

“This was a family connection for me for a long time,” he told the Boston Globe in 2012. “Sometimes I [still] wear [the gang flag] just to own that — to, like, acknowledge it.”

[rebelmouse-image 19345920 dam="1" original_size="640x400" caption="Central Square, Cambridge, near where Ramkissoon grew up. Photo by Tony Webster/Flickr." expand=1]Central Square, Cambridge, near where Ramkissoon grew up. Photo by Tony Webster/Flickr.

By the age of 12, Ramkissoon had already been arrested, which led to a school suspension.

From the start, he wasn't set up for success.

[rebelmouse-image 19345921 dam="1" original_size="1240x769" caption="Trinidad Ramkissoon. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company/YouTube." expand=1]Trinidad Ramkissoon. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company/YouTube.

It comes as no surprise, then, that Ramkissoon would be caught skipping class as a high school freshman. But it was a mistake that would change everything.

He and his friends were reprimanded by Elaine Koury, the director of the arts program at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, who also worked with a local company called Underground Railway Theater. She was struck by how apologetic — and charismatic — Ramkissoon was and decided to recruit him into a youth theater program.

It was there that Ramkissoon began to learn how to let his guard down.

“It opened something up in me,” he says. “And even more it connected me with Vincent [Siders, one of the teaching artists], who took on a father role with me and started saying what I needed to hear — even when the words have been tough and I haven’t liked what he was saying.”

[rebelmouse-image 19345922 dam="1" original_size="1337x769" caption="Ramkissoon on stage. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company/YouTube." expand=1]Ramkissoon on stage. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company/YouTube.

High school theater programs are known to reduce dropout rates by giving students a shared sense of purpose and responsibility — and a reason to continue attending school.

Theater wouldn't stop Ramkissoon from dropping out at first, but it did help bring him back.

After about a year out of school, he enrolled in Boston Day and Evening Academy, a unique program that helps students re-engage in academics on a personalized education track.

As a student there, he also discovered the plays of August Wilson through a partnership with another local theater company.

[rebelmouse-image 19345923 dam="1" original_size="1024x809" caption="August Wilson. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company/Flickr." expand=1]August Wilson. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company/Flickr.

Wilson was an African-American renowned for “Century Cycle,” a series of 10 interconnected plays that explore the black experience in America, each across a different decade of the 21st century. Ramkissoon was particularly drawn to the character of Troy Maxson in the award-winning play (and now movie) “Fences.”

“I was a high school dropout. I know what it means to feel like you’re on first base,” Ramkissoon said, referring to one of Maxson’s monologues in the play. “I thought it was amazing that [the character] had the courage to want to make it to second base — not to get home, but just to go to second base.”

Ramkissoon got involved in the August Wilson Monologue Competition, a national theater contest organized by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon.

His performance of Troy Maxson’s moving monologue was good enough to earn him a spot in the national finals — on the set of Leon’s Broadway production of “A Raisin in the Sun,” where he got to perform for people like Denzel Washington.

"For many of our students through the city, being invisible is the way of safety and surviving," said one teacher from Boston Day and Evening Academy. "Yet these young people [like Trinidad] ... find their voices and courageously say, 'see me and hear the truth that I have to tell.'"

“The fact that my voice gets to be heard on this platform… These are all opportunities that kids like us don’t get,” he told the Boston Globe on the eve of the finals. “I already won.”

[rebelmouse-image 19345924 dam="1" original_size="500x509" caption="Trinidad Ramkissoon, in back, on his way to the August Wilson Monologue Competition. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company." expand=1]Trinidad Ramkissoon, in back, on his way to the August Wilson Monologue Competition. Photo via Huntington Theatre Company.

Ramkissoon didn’t end up winning the national competition  — but he did get to be the speaker when he graduated high school.

Students like Ramkissoon who come from lower socioeconomic statuses are more than 30% more likely to pursue a bachelor’s degree if they’ve experienced a high-arts education. They’re also twice as likely to choose a major that aligns them with a professional career, even if it’s not related to the theater.

But, perhaps most importantly, a theater education can mean the difference between a life on the streets and a life fulfilled, where talented people like Trinidad Ramkissoon can live up to their potential and become a part of something bigger than themselves.

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Customers demanded more women at Medieval Times. They got more than they bargained for.

Brave knights. Fair maidens. A damsel in distress. That is sooo 476 AD. At least, we'd like to think it is.

Let's face it: The Middle Ages is one of our favorite periods of history to relive. And what is it often chockfull of? Dudes with swords who kick butt and helpless princesses who need saving.

Out of date, right?

Unfortunately, the truth is that men in the "lead" and women in "supporting roles" is as present now as it's ever been. Many of us are still bafflingly uncomfortable with the idea of a female president, but totally fine with a president who belittles and objectifies women on a near-daily basis!

That presents a special challenge for modern day re-enactments like Medieval Times, an elaborate theme restaurant in the United States and Canada that entertains diners with a live-joust and other medieval performances.

Though its show is set in the Middle Ages, Medieval Times' audience lives in the year 2018. And, lately, the restaurant's owners were getting more and more feedback about their 30-some-year-old performance: It needed more women.

Early this year, Medieval Times decided to make a big change to some of its shows: They would now feature a queen in charge, instead of a king.

Who rules a kingdom? A king, of course!

Well, not so fast.

All photos by Medieval Times used with permission.

Sure, the Middle Ages were the heyday of the patriarchy in a lot of ways, but queens were powerful, too, and played important roles. They were often key strategic advisors to the king behind closed doors. (Catherine de Medici, one of the late queens of France, was known for being particularly conniving and ruthless, for example.)

So, yeah. Queens did more than just sit around and look pretty.

Yet, since Medieval Times first opened its doors in 1983,the company's restaurants typically feature a live scene starring a "king" hosting a jousting tournament for the viewing pleasure of himself and the audience while they down their supper.

Clearly, rewriting this script wouldn't exactly be a stretch of history.

Actress Erin Zapcic prepares for battle.

Fortunately, starting at the Lyndhurst, New Jersey location on Jan. 11 — and soon rolling out to all nine Medieval Times restaurants — "Queen Dona Maria Isabella" is taking over.

“Where previously our female characters played in more supportive roles, we are now showing a woman fully in charge, a woman whose authority is sometimes challenged, but she quickly rises to the occasion as a strong leader, squelching opposition,” says Ingrid Hunt, senior general manager at Medieval Times, in a press release.

The update might seem like a small tweak, but it's a big win for better representation.

Some data suggests that while roles for women (in Hollywood, for example) are on the rise, they still only make up about 32% of speaking parts. Female leads are even more rare.

Shows on broadway have a similar problem.

So a major rewrite to a decades-long show like Medieval Times — that brings in over 2.5 million audience members every year — is actually pretty awesome.

And the Chicago Times reports that the show's director, Leigh Cordner, took the gender-flip extremely seriously, spending well over a year rewriting the performance script to accommodate a matriarch in a powerful way.

We only hope that more and more shows follow suit and start to think outside the box about how women and people of color can be better represented in their performances.

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