Theatre is for everyone

I started to describe theatre for people who are blind, over 30 years ago. The concept of audio description was brand new.  There were a lot of skeptics, and people made extremely insensitive remarks.  But we persevered, and today, Audio Description is not only in theatres, but movie theaters, museums, and national parks.

I have always believed that theatre should be inclusive, not exclusive.  After seeing that a theatre in northern New Jersey paired with a local children's theatre to perform an autism-friendly show, I decided that we needed to do an autism-friendly show at McCarter.

Last night, after months of hard work, involving a wonderful group of McCarter staffers, of making sure that we had everything necessary to ensure a great performance, the Fiasco Theater Company performed "Into the Woods" for an audience of children and young adults with autism, and their families.

A social book was constructed and sent to the various autism services to hand out to patrons prior to last evening's show.  The social book has pictures and descriptions of everything that the patron with autism will encounter at the theatre, so that it would seem familiar and not alien.  We had two rehearsal rooms set aside - a Quiet room, and an Activity room.  We had 10 volunteers from Eden Autism Services who wore blue tee-shirts to identify themselves and carried "goody bags," filled with fruit snacks, popcorn, and fidgets.  Two McCarter staffers stood upfront, one on either side of the stage, holding green glow sticks.  The audience knew from the social book that when the glow sticks were raised, a loud noise was coming.

There was a quite space in the lobby with two bean bags chairs and some more fidgets, and stress balls.  The women's restroom became a family restroom.  We had signs everywhere indicating where everything was.

There was continuous seating - we had people entering the theatre 45 minutes after the show had started, and for once, theatre patrons were allowed to bring food into the theatre.

We had countless meetings with autism groups and had been told that some people might only stay for 10 minutes, but that those 10 minutes were a victory. Two families left during Act I, one about 40 minutes in and another about 1 hour in... Act I is 1 1/2 hours long.  About 25 people left at intermission, but the bulk of the audience stayed through until the end.  Not bad when you realize we started with 145.

This is a pared down version of "Into the Woods." 10 actors play multiple roles.  One of the actors attended a meeting in February with us at the Theatre Development Fund, which has successfully had 6 autism-friendly productions of Broadway musicals.  This actor had worked with children with autism and he was every excited about last night's show.

I have had so many wonderful experiences in theatre.  But I have never experienced the sheer wonder, the joy, euphoria, the high, as I did last night.  I was truly humbled.  I was at the front of the stage during intermission, talking to the two women holding the glow sticks, when the actors came onstage in preparation for Act II.  A young girl, about 12 or 13, saw the actors and ran to the stage, yelling "Jack! Jack!  Where have you been?  Hi Jack, it's me, Annie!!"  And "Jack" said hi to her and said a few words.  Then she saw Cinderella, and said, "Ooh, ooh, look at you!"  And Cinderella spoke to her also.  It was a magical moment.

It is not hard to see how difficult a life this can be for families.  Over and over again, we heard that parents of autistic children cannot go to the theater, they can't go to the movies, because their children are noisy, prone to outbursts and behavior that annoys other people.  How unbelievably humbling it is to watch the parents and their children sit in the theatre, mesmerized by the musical, and know that they did not have to worry about other people complaining.  

The actors cried as they took their bows.  So did all of us who had worked to see this wonderful day come to fruition.

We have next season's play picked out and this one will also include people with developmental disabilities.

See?  Theatre really is for everyone.

Now it starts, Claire

Congratulations.  What a great shot we saw on Facebook of the graduate.  I lie; it wasn't great, it was SPECTACULAR!

We actually see quite a lot on Facebook.  Jeffrey and Melodie are in Texas, Annie ate a burger in Yunnan, and somebody shot themselves while bowling, but since they weren't members of the family, I'll leave that to your Google searches.

We had a short visit south this week, but special.  Hard to believe we were only gone two nights.  First we headed to New Jersey where we joined Peter and Janet at a concert by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin.  All these years, and we've never seen Mary Chapin play live.  It was wonderful, especially the concept of the two singers on stage exchanging songs and conversation topics as if they were in their living room.  We had a nice dinner a Thai restaurant and a chance to catch up on all matters, that night and at breakfast the next day.  We heard that Johanna is spending a week at Martha's Vineyard and Sean was heading into his last exam.  He has landed a summer job in northern NJ.  Peter and Janet are planning a trip out to Seattle this summer.

We got up the next morning and went to DC, where we had a great barbecue with Joe, Margaret, Andrew and Joe's housemate Greg.  Mary's friend, Gerry, at whose house we were staying joined us for a locavore sausage meal, where guess who ate too much?  Just one person.  Margaret made brownies with home-made caramel.  Guess who had two?  What's ll this talk about a cleansing diet?  Joe had just returned from an extended trip to India, filled us in on what he did there.  Margaret and Andrew recounted their hair-raising story of an intruder.  Everyone's busy at work.  

We had planned to spend the weekend there, but headed home on Friday as one of Mary's cousins passed away and the funeral was Saturday.  Patrick Hayes, who at 62, died of a heart attack.  In his service the priest noted that "out of weakness comes strength, and strength helps to deal with weakness."  Pat had been struck with a debilitating illness for the last several years, but he has a large and close family whose strength was everywhere evident.

Danny had come up for the funeral, and we saw John and Marilyn there as well.  They went from the church right to Lowell, as Colleen graduated, with a Masters in nursing, on Saturday,  Congratulations Colleen.  What a long haul, of work and study and showing dogs!  

Mary is at a yoga class right now; I walked five miles today with a pack on my back to get ready for the great Scotland adventure, which starts in a little more than a month.  I have to be in better shape.  This week, I go to a training for volunteer guides at the Herman Melville home in Pittsfield.  Hmm.  When I read Moby Dick, in September 1976, waiting for school to start in Lastourville Gabon, I never thought I'd a) be serving as a guide at his home, where that was and b) have finished that book.  Uggh.

Such are the twists and turns.  You got some?  

Love from up here.   

Green (almost)

No, not the color of money, but the yellow-fresh green on the trees, in the woods, in the lawn that's growing too fast.  I've already mowed.  And it's ready for another cutting now.  Too early to say uggh.

It's a travel month.  We had a surprise phone call today from New Delhi.  Joe called.  His meetings are over, and he's staying a little but longer for a little tourism.  Yesterday he went to the Taj Mahal, which he said he went to with high expectations, but even those were exceeded.  He also spent $40 for two drinks.  Lots of contrasts, but he says he's really enjoying it.  He'll be back on Monday morning.  He seems to have forgotten his nightmarish travel over.  Hope it's better coming back.

Annie is back in Yunnan, after a week-plus in Malaysia renewing her visa.  She sent us some photos; this one here is of a very ornate temple from a town outside Kuala Lumpur called Melaka.  Margaret is heading to Boston this weekend for her first ever visit to Fenway.  A pilgrimage!

And, we have a nice account from Peter and Janet about their spring trip to Texas.  Sounds great.  We think David and Paul are in New York city right now, taking in a play among other delights.   We had hoped maybe we had a reason to go there, but nothing came of it, so we stayed home.  Happily.  All this travel by you all is wearing us out.  

John and Marilyn are back from Florida, pretty excited by their new digs in Daytona.  Something to look forward to during the blah months in late fall and early spring up here.  Looks like a lot of fun.

Last weekend, Marj and Lew came up for Saturday night.  We had a nice dinner out with Mary's high school friends, one of whom was celebrating her 60th.  Looks like I am the last one to fall.  While the "girls" were up at MassMoca, Lew and I went to a talk by a historic restoration contractor and architect, who are piecing together what they think is the oldest barn in the country, dating back to 1697.  Pretty amazing.  This guy has a workshop in which he is putting back together two barns, the other one checks in in the 1790s. 

Mary is taking a couple of courses at the local community college, one of which is called "Flora and Fauna in the Berkshires."  She has been out taking hikes and is ready to be a tour guide for anyone coming up.  Today we did a little bit of the Appalachian Trail, and looked at the new growth in the woods.

She also had her swim team over for a potluck supper on Sunday evening, a cinco de mayo festival of sorts.  Well, we had margaritas, and while they may not have met Peter's Texas standards, it's hard not to enjoy one of those.  

Looking ahead, we see Sean's birthday and Claire's high school graduation!  And a very happy day to all the mothers! Yippee.

Love from up here.