LIMITLESS - the pilot

PHASE ONE

**In 2016 we created Limitless, a pilot project that explored good practice in using drama and theatre methodologies with autistic children, teenagers and young adults.**

Through the project, we hoped participants could discover more about their potential within a creative process whilst also developing key social, connectivity and communication experiences. This programme allowed the partners to work collaboratively to begin shifting attitudes and opportunities for autistic individuals who are interested in theatre and drama as a social opportunity, one that is creative and that also might lead to training and employment.

The pilot supported three cohorts of artists to design, deliver and evaluate new drama based workshops for autistic participants.

We placed a call out for ideas for workshops to the relatively small community of drama practitioners with some experience in this type of work. The following proposals were selected for the pilot.

THE REASON I ...

Led by theatre director Graham Eatough with professional theatre practitioners Zoe Halliday (movement), Graeme Rodgers (video), Dave Martin (sound) and Frances Poet (playwright) with participants: Emma McCaffrey, Nicola Tuxworth, Calum Macritchie, Michael Dawson.

UNDER THE SEA

Led by theatre makers Zoe Halliday and Aby Watson with musician Kim Allan in partnership with Isobel Mair School in East Renfrewshire with twenty four participants aged 7 – 11 years from three different classrooms within the school.

THE ARRIVAL

Led by theatre makers Thom Scullion and Murray Wasson with theatre practitioner Sarah Galloway, working with five participants aged 14 -18 years in partnership with Hope for Autism in Airdrie.

The aim of the pilot was to:

• Build skills and confidence for artists/staff in the engagement of autistic individuals in creative workshops/development and delivery of professional drama productions and curriculum.

• Develop a range of methodologies to engage autistic individuals across a series of ages, with drama devising and text approaches: try, test and evaluate.

• Test interest in and approaches to engagement of autistic individuals in developing work that tells their stories through creative writing/performance/collaboration.

LIMITLESS WORKSHOPS

THE REASON I ...

The aim of the workshop was to develop approaches, expertise and performance ideas that will inform a future production of The Reason I Jump, a book by Japanese teenager Naoki Higashida on life with autism.

The workshop forged collaborative partnerships between individual participants with autism and individual artists to generate performance material, approaches to and confidence in working with people with autism.

The workshop addressed the following questions:

Do teenagers/young adults with autism want to explore autism as the subject of an artwork? What might the benefits of this be?
Who might this artwork be ‘for’? People with autism or a general public? Does this make a difference?
How might the experience of living with autism be communicated through different media/art forms?
How might this be presented to a general public?
In what ways would this be different for audience members with autism?

UNDER THE SEA

Led by theatre makers Zoe Halliday and Aby Watson with musician Kim Allan in partnership with Isobel Mair School in East Renfrewshire.

This three-day workshop involved twenty-four participants aged 7 – 11 years from three different classrooms within Isobel Mair School.

The workshop centred around an introduction to musical theatre through sensory exploration for children with autism and employing the theme ‘under the sea’.

The secondary theme was to create a safe and inspirational place for participants and staff to develop their relationship, including the relationship between carer and participant, participants with each other and finally the learning community as a whole.

The aim of this workshop was to develop and encourage the creative instincts of participants with the prospect of creating a sensory, autism-friendly performance at the end of the workshop.

Whilst a performance was the final goal, the journey of the participants was the most important factor. Throughout the three days participants were exposed to various drama exercises based around three senses: sight, sound and touch.

THE ARRIVAL

In order to root the drama workshop in an immersive, fictional world the workshop was based on ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan. This beautifully illustrated, wordless novel focuses on a man leaving his family to travel to a new, unfamiliar world.

The central character struggles to find his way in an unknown land. He meets interesting and exciting characters and creatures. He longs to be reunited with his family and has to find a way to be understood in this new place. The novel strikes a chord with current themes of migration and movement of people as well as historical events, notably immigration to America at the turn of the 20th Century.

The central themes: leaving home, arriving in a strange land, migration and being truly heard, had the potential to resonate with the real world experiences of the group and allowed the focus of the learning for the teenage participants to appeal to their lived experiences of being heard or misheard, understood or misunderstood.

The learning outcomes for the workshop were as follows:

‘When no-one understands you, how do you communicate?’

In line with this key question, by the end of the workshop it was hoped the participants would have:

Used drama to explore and enact a rich social and educational narrative.
Worked together as a member of the team in order to overcome challenges within the drama.