Ohio
Broadway’s “How to Dance in Ohio” shines a light on autistic stories
Clinical psychologist Emilio Amigo, who runs a counseling center for autistic people in Columbus, Ohio, had a big idea: “Many of my clients never went to their homecoming or prom because they weren’t welcomed,” he said. “I’m like, ‘How many of you guys would love to go to a big formal?’”
Putting on a prom involved teaching his clients new skills, like dancing or asking someone out. Their journey was the subject of a 2015 documentary called “How to Dance in Ohio.”
That story is now a Broadway musical.
“All of us who work on the show get messages from autistic individuals saying, ‘I’ve seen myself represented onstage.’ That’s what we do it for,” said Sammi Cannold, the show’s director. She was not, however, its first one. That was the legendary Hal Prince, director of shows like “Phantom of the Opera,” “Evita,” “Cabaret,” and many Sondheim musicals. He sadly passed away in 2019.
“Hal’s granddaughter is autistic; my brother is autistic,” said Cannold. “For him the show was very personal; for me the show is very personal.”
But “How to Dance in Ohio” isn’t just about autistic people. All of the autistic characters are played by autistic actors.
Cannold said feedback she got from people saying, “I don’t think you’re gonna find the actors that you’re looking for,” implied that there aren’t enough Broadway-caliber actors with autism. But, she said, “We could’ve cast the show three times over.”
Ashley Wool, Imani Russell and Liam Pearce are among the show’s autistic actors. “I think you’ve picked the perfect three people, because all three of us are so different,” said Pearce.
Pearce was diagnosed as being on the spectrum when he was age five; Wool was a junior in college. And Russell said it was May 2021 when she was diagnosed: “And I was really excited, ’cause I finally had a word for something that I think I knew about myself, internally, for a long time, but I didn’t have the language for.”
Autism comes in a huge variety of forms; it’s described as a spectrum for a reason.
Amigo said, “The great enemy of someone who’s autistic is social anxiety and anxiety. And that comes from, ‘I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, I don’t know what to say.’”
Wool said, “People like me are more sensitive to a lot of different things, like lights or sounds.”
“I think another thing, when it comes to being autistic, is the concept of masking,” said Russell, “which is sort of having to hide the movements that we do, or the sounds that we make, or having to speak at times that you don’t want to speak to make other people feel comfortable.”
The actors were encouraged to blend their own expressions of autism with their characters’. Pearce said, “Sammi Cannold, our director, was very open and supporting of being, like, ‘If you, onstage, feel the need to let out your energy or, like, show your excitement in your own, individual, physical ways that you do outside of this rehearsal space, feel free.’”
The rehearsal process offered unusual accommodations for the cast and crew, like someone saying they have a sensitivity to scented soap: “And then our company management team will say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna replace all the scented soap in the building with unscented soap,’” said Cannold. “And so, it’s hundreds of little things like that.”
For autistic showgoers with sensory sensitivities, the show offers cool-down areas, sunglasses, and headphones.
And for non-autistic audience members, there’s a message.
Do I only exist on this planet
to make somebody else feel inspired?
–”Nothing at All,” from “How to Dance In Ohio”
Pogue said, “While the characters explicitly sing, ‘We don’t want to be objects of pity, we don’t want to be inspiring,’ at the same time, there’s probably not an audience member who doesn’t say, ‘It’s about people with challenges succeeding,’ which is inspiring.”
Russell said, “I like to pose the question, is your feeling of inspiration just infantilization? They’re so inspiring because they’re autistic, but they did that? Autistic, but they did that? It’s not that our disabilities are the hurdles. It’s other people’s expectations for us that are the hurdles.”
Wool added, “The point that we’re making is, it’s not an ‘In spite of…’ It’s a ‘Yes, and…’”
“How to Dance in Ohio” has earned itself an army of fans. Wool recalled at the very first preview, “The seven of us came on stage to do the prologue — standing ovation, for like a minute-and-a-half. I was like, ‘Wait a minute. We haven’t done anything yet! We haven’t earned this!’”
“It’s so cool, at our stage door and stuff, like, young kids have come up to me like, ‘I’m autistic, too!’” said Pearce.
But some of the biggest fans are the real people from the documentary. Sammi Cannold introduced them on opening night, including the real-life Drew – Pearce’s character. “It was a really crazy, awesome, surreal experience to be able to, like, look at him and be like, ‘Hey, thank you for existing, because my entire life and what I do here every night, is because of you.’”
Dr. Amigo liked it, too. He said he’s seen it “a few times. if I’m counting right, it’s about 13.”
Do the show and the documentary help his clients in any way? “Every day,” he said. “Because it’s a story about them. It builds our self-esteem. It builds our sense of significance.”
When cast members were asked how they hope their show will be perceived in the future, Russell said, “Oh, ‘How to Dance in Ohio,’ that was one of the beginnings.”
“A turning point,” said Wool.
Amigo said, “I hope that in ten years, it’s no longer a big deal that there are seven autistic actors in a cast. Like, ‘Okay. So what? That’s great. Let’s go. Let’s start working on a play!’”
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Story produced by Wonbo Woo. Editor: Steven Tyler.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A critically acclaimed name in Cleveland’s food scene is making a comeback of sorts and entering a new era in the food and restaurant business.
After the official closure of Melt Bar and Grilled locations across the area in late 2024, founder Matt Fish is stepping back into the restaurant business with a brand-new concept in Ohio City.
More Melts close
Fish is preparing to open “Proof Public House” inside the former Proof BBQ space along Lorain Avenue.
The new restaurant and bar is expected to officially open in mid-June after recently obtaining its food service license.
The announcement was just made on the restaurant’s official Instagram page this week.
But Fish says this project is very different from Melt’s previous projects, with more than a dozen locations across Ohio.
“I’m starting from scratch. Brand new concept. Brand new feeling, brand new attitude,” Fish said. “I wanna get back to basics.”
Fish describes Proof Public House as a punk rock-inspired neighborhood bar and restaurant with elevated comfort food, craft drinks, and an evolving seasonal menu.
“I’ve always wanted to get back to my roots,” Fish said. “I’ve always wanted to get back to a small place and recapture that magic of what Melt Bar and Grilled was when it first opened up.”
The longtime chef and restaurateur says music and creativity will help define the atmosphere and capture the essence.
Fish grew up on punk rock music and is also a drummer.
He says Cleveland’s history and punk rock roots make this latest project feel even more special.
The menu, he says, will feature chef-driven comfort food with rotating seasonal dishes and a specialized beverage program.
“Just have fun with the menu,” Fish said. “The beverage program will be very seasonal. It’s gonna be very evolving.”
Although many fans still associate Fish with the iconic grilled cheese sandwiches that helped make Melt Bar and Grilled a Northeast Ohio staple after opening in 2006, he says this new chapter is about moving forward.
“That part of my life is over and gone, but it was something special to so many of us,” Fish said.
Still, longtime Melt fans may notice subtle nods to the past.
Fish hinted there would be occasional “odes to Melt” appearing on the menu in the future, in some capacity.
He also credits former Proof BBQ and current Visible Voice Books owner Dave Ferrante for encouraging him to jump back into the hospitality business.
Fish quietly consulted on projects behind the scenes after Melt’s closure, including work connected to Visible Voice.
“I want to do something for myself, do something for the City of Cleveland, do something for my family and friends,” Fish said.
Proof Public House is expected to announce an official opening date soon.
News 5 promises to Follow-Through.
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Ohio, one of the nation’s data center destination hot spots, is suspending a tax break that has been critical to its competition with other states to attract the massive new facilities that power and train artificial intelligence chatbots.
The move Wednesday by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine comes as tax breaks for energy-hungry AI data centers are increasingly playing a role in state budgets and the industry is under pressure to pay the full costs of the vast network of its computing warehouses needed to power AI.
The size of Ohio’s tax break skyrocketed, dwarfing previous projections, as opposition to data centers is sweeping through cities, suburbs and towns there and prompting lawmakers to form a committee to study the impact.
In the meantime, residents are trying to bypass the GOP-controlled Legislature and get a referendum on November’s midterm election ballot that’s designed to permanently ban hyperscale data centers, likely the strictest such statewide ban under consideration in the U.S.
DeWine’s office cited the rising utilization of the tax break and the state Legislature’s new research undertaking to declare a “pause” in granting it to new applicants.
“The governor felt it was the right time to let the citizens know, let businesses know that we’re going to pause on new offers of this tax incentive while that process plays out,” DeWine’s spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said Thursday.
DeWine has stressed that he supports data centers — calling them a critical component in today’s economy — and that the roughly $37 billion in data center-related investments in 2024 and 2025 in the state has been worthwhile.
The state, in 2024, had used previous history in projecting that the exemption would total $136 million in fiscal 2025 and $142 million in fiscal 2026. It was $554 million in 2024 and nearly $1.6 billion in 2025, the state reported.
The resumption of Ohio’s tax break — should it resume — could happen under a new governor: DeWine is term-limited and the race is on to replace him. The Republican nominee, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy — an Ivy League-educated biotech billionaire — likes to talk about turning the Ohio River Valley into the next Silicon Valley.
However, Ramaswamy and Democratic nominee Amy Acton could share the midterm ballot in November with the citizen-led drive to ban the construction of data centers across Ohio. It faces a July 1 deadline to gather more than 400,000 voter signatures.
State tax breaks for the massive data center industry are facing growing criticism by governors and lawmakers.
The cost is likely rising as data center and AI-related investments drive higher consumer spending in the U.S. and tech giants keep boosting their spending commitment to hyperscale data centers.
In Virginia, negotiations between the state House and Senate have been hung up for months on a bid by Senate Democrats to eliminate the roughly $1.6 billion annual tax break.
Thirty-eight states have some form of a sales tax break for data centers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Many were approved more than five years ago, when data centers were a small, but growing part of the economy, and well before the late 2022 debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched an intensifying buildout of increasingly large data centers.
Ohio’s exemption is fairly broad, applying not only to construction materials, but to the expensive equipment — such as server racks and cooling systems — used in data centers. Operators might buy new server racks every couple of years as the technology improves.
DeWine’s order was a surprise.
Dorsey Hager, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, where union members spend much of their time on data center projects, said he was upset with DeWine and trying to understand the governor’s reasons.
He worried, he said, that developers that were in the midst of trying to finalize plans or permits for a project might have second thoughts.
Lawmakers acknowledged the opposition in announcing their joint data center committee on May 13.
“We’re well aware of initiatives to limit Ohio data center development during this critical point in America’s history,” state Rep. Adam Holmes told a news conference. “This public concern has become a priority issue for us and could have dramatic impact on Ohio and American’s future.”
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Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter
Ohio
After months of traffic headaches, Ohio, Ontario bridges in and out of Chicago to finally reopen
After more than a year of major congestion, lane closures and traffic bottlenecks in and out of downtown Chicago from the Kennedy Expressway, two major connecting ramps from the Kennedy to River North are finally set to reopen.
Lanes on the Ohio and Ontario Street feeder bridges, which bring Kennedy drivers into the city at Ohio and out of the city at Ontario, started reopening with three lanes each Thursday morning, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. That’s up from the narrow two that has caused major traffic headaches since Nov. 2024.
As of 5:30 a.m. Thursday, IDOT was still working to finish its final overnight “punch list” for the Ohio Street bridge going east, NBC 5 traffic reporter Kye Martin said. By 6 a.m., things were clear, with new pavement markings set and traffic barricades removed.
“Haven’t been able to say that since November 2024,” Martin said.
Thursday night, Ontario street will be closed from Orleans to the Kennedy Expressway in order to finish final work westbound. By 5 a.m. Friday, the Ontario Street feeder to the outbound Kennedy was expected to fully reopen, IDOT said.
The end of the construction means drivers on Thursday will have three lanes eastbound on Ohio open from the Kennedy to Orleans. Friday morning, three lanes open westbound on Ontario between Orleans and the Kennedy.
“This will ease the bottleneck that was caused by having only 2 lanes and off-peak closures during the duration of this effort,” Martin said.
“The public can expect delays and should allow extra time for trips through this area,” IDOT said, as the closures come to an end and reopening begins. “Alternate routes are encouraged. Drivers are urged to pay close attention to flaggers and signs in the work zones, obey the posted speed limits and be on the alert for workers and equipment.”
The $15.4 million project “replaced bridge expansion joints, structural steel and deck repairs along with the installation of a new deck overlay and resurfacing on the elevated bridges,” IDOT said. It was a separate project from the three-year rehabilitation of the Kennedy Expressway that concluded last fall.
As the highly anticipated reopening comes, more work on the bridges is still needed, IDOT said, with concrete paving patching to repair both ramps to each bridge set to occur later this summer. That work will require a “full closure” over three weekends, alternating between Ohio and Ontario streets between the Kennedy and Orleans.
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