Tarah Lynne Schaeffer

Tarah Lynne Schaeffer (born July 4, 1984) is a former American child actress. She is known for her role as Tarah on Sesame Street.[1]

Tarah Schaeffer
Born	Tarah Lynne Schaeffer 4 July 1984 Waterbury, Connecticut
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1993–2001

She was cast in 1993 as the first Sesame Street cast member with disabilities – she was born with a disorder called osteogenesis imperfecta. She remained on the show for eight seasons.

Personal life

Schaeffer was raised in Plainville, Connecticut where she was discovered by Sesame Street talent scouts searching for a child actors that would add diversity to the street. Schaeffer had been on the Newington Children's Hospital's award-winning Cruisers wheelchair athletic team and impressed the show's producers with her wheelchair racing skills and other modified track and field talents.[2]

Schaeffer appeared on Sesame Street for eight seasons. She became more and more featured in the scripts, and at times would travel two or three times a week from Connecticut to the studio in New York City. However when her family moved to Reading, Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, the trip to New York became more difficult, and both Tarah and her family felt it was time to move on[2]

Sesame Street gave Tarah a lot of self-confidence, and we approached it as a family adventure as we did everything...We would do it as long as it was fun, and when it wasn't fun anymore that would be it.

–Scott G. Schaeffer (father)[2]

Schaeffer graduated from Daniel Boone High School in 2002, and as of February 2007, she is a fifth-year student of professional writing with a minor in women's studies at a school near her home. She plans to pursue a job as a book critic or in publishing.[2]

Career

A 2000 Sesame Workshop newsletter mentioned Tarah's inclusion in the cast as one of the top ten significant ways Sesame Street has encouraged diversity:

1994 - Tarah Lynne Schaeffer joins the cast. Wheelchair-bound Tarah proves over and over again that all kids like to play, laugh, learn, and have fun! Her spunky presence has helped children learn about the needs (and strengths!) of children with disabilities.

Sesame Workshop Newsletter[3]

Sesame Street writer Emily Perl Kingsley was a strong supporter of Schaeffer's inclusion in the cast. Kingsley's episode "Tarah's Ballet," which features a wheelchair dance, gained her a Grand EDI. Kingsley also drafted many guests with disabilities, such as Itzhak Perlman and the Little Theater of the Deaf. The integration of Schaeffer exemplified Kingsley's views:

We include kids with disabilities just as part of the gang. Children in the audience get validation when they see others like themselves. Their siblings receive gratifying reinforcement seeing kids like those in their own families. We take the strangeness out of it. Why should difference be equated with fear?"

–Emily Perl Kingsley[4]

I had some bumps in my road and frustrations that I'd rather not have had, but they've all got me to where I wanted to be. I know I was lucky to have the parents I did I wouldn't be here without all the support they've given me...I still hope people can look at me if they have goals and say. "If she can do it, I can do it, too."

–Tarah Schaeffer[2]

References

1. Zurawik, David (November 18, 1996). "'Street' Wise For 27 years, there's been a warm place in the hearts of children and parents for "Seaame Street.' Let's take a sunny day stroll". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
2. "Life After 'Sesame Street'", Bruce R. Posten, The Reading Eagle, February 25, 2007.
3. "One Place for Different Faces", Elana Halberstadt, Sesame Workshop, January 18, 2000
4. "Emily Perl Kingsley, Sesame Street writer", Rosemarie Blitchington, Vault, 2000

External links

• Tarah Lynne Schaeffer at IMDb