Mike Shugrue
After high school in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and a
brief stint at nearby Worcester State College, Mike Shugrue hit the
road and hitchhiked around the country for five years. Afterwards, he
returned to Boston and worked as a travel counselor at AAA. "I went to
open mic nights and did comedy," he says. "It was an early experience
that led to what I'm doing now." Shugrue first visited Eugene in 1996,
a year before he married his wife Patricia, a North Eugene grad. "We
thought about moving," he says, "but we stayed 18 more years in North
Smithfield, Rhode Island." When he was laid off from his financial
services job in 2002, the firm paid for college. "I got a psychology
degree from Worcester State," he says. "I started working in human
services in my late 40s." He first worked with disabled adults in
independent living, but soon was working with kids. In 2010, he began a
collaboration with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, involving
kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities in theatrical
productions. "It was eight years ago," he notes, "that I finally found
a passion." He and Patricia moved west in 2014. A year later, he found
work as a program supervisor with Full Access, an agency that supports
people with disabilities who live independently or with their families.
In the past two years, he has launched an improv theater group called
Stray Cast, for adults with disabilities, that meets twice a month at
the Oregon Contemporary Theatre, and a similar group for high school
age kids that meets weekly at C-Space in Springfield. "Improv helps
with social skill building and peer interactions," he says, "in a safe,
respectful area."
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 18 October 2018
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