The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Podcast with Kevin Schaefer · SMA News Today

#141: Quinn Bucher, Theater Student With SMA

·51 min·3 clips

Quinn is taking a class called “Disability Justice and Theatrical Design.”

1. The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Podcast with Kevin Schaefer features Quinn Bucher, a theater student with SMA at Earlham College. 2. Kevin Schaefer hosts, and Quinn Bucher speaks as a rising junior from Athens, Ohio, whose father Brian appeared on the show in early 2018. 3. The episode asks how Quinn moves through college, music, theater, disability access, and gender transition while living with type 2 SMA. 4. Quinn says he was diagnosed at about 18 months old in Columbus, Ohio, and got his first wheelchair at age 2. 5. He describes being a kid in a family that went to a music festival when he was 9 months old and hauled him around in a wagon. 6. Quinn says he listens to music to fall asleep, sings in choir, plays percussion, and spent six and a half years in band. 7. He names folk, folk-pop, folk-rock, and Broadway as the styles he returns to most often. 8. Marching band became a flashpoint in eighth grade when the trip to Disney World made him want to join. 9. He says the accessibility and inaccessibility of marching band eventually pushed him toward pep band, where he could play suspended cymbal while staying stationary. 10. Quinn says junior year of high school became his COVID year, and by senior year he was taking college classes instead of staying in the building. 11. At Earlham College, he says the campus culture is warm and welcoming, but he still felt scared enough to skip choir his first year. 12. He took private voice lessons first, then joined choir after working on his voice and his boundaries. 13. Quinn also talks about theater, including two years in high school and a backstage area that was too small to be very accessible. 14. He recounts getting stuck in a lift while trying to reach the stage for Alice in Wonderland and worrying more about missing his cue than the lift itself. 15. He says his current theater department at Earlham is welcoming, and he names a disabled alum who is an accessibility coordinator and sound designer. 16. That alum’s class, Disability Justice and Theatrical Design, is part of his Epic Advantage project and includes work on set, lighting, sound, and costumes. 17. Quinn says he wants to bring that work to USITT in Columbus and talk to people who can change theater design practices. 18. He explains that choosing college meant checking disability services by Zoom, then confirming the details in person, because campus terrain and dorm access matter. 19. The conversation also covers his gender identity, testosterone, changing legal documents, and the challenge of getting top surgery through Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. 20. The tone is conversational and practical, with long first-person examples, direct advice, and frequent references to school, family, and access planning.

As heard by us

A grounded look at SMA, theater arts, and the practical work of making space onstage.

Quinn Bucher’s conversation with Kevin Schaefer offers a steady account of growing up with SMA and studying theater arts without glossing over how access actually works.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a theater-student SMA conversation that stays personal and practical, close to home.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Podcast with Kevin Schaefer