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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Mint-on-sunday/  All the world's a stage: Teaching autistic children through theatre
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All the world's a stage: Teaching autistic children through theatre

Children at a centre for autism in Bengaluru show what they can do when given the chance

Photo: Shweta SharanPremium
Photo: Shweta Sharan

Last year in February, the Bubbles Centre for Autism in Bengaluru staged The Lion King to a packed auditorium of more than a thousand people—one of the few large-scale productions in the world to be helmed by autistic children. 

This year in March, the school staged an even bigger production to a larger audience—The Enchanted Lamp, a 120-minute adaptation of Disney's Aladdin. 

The script was more layered, the characters more complex and the performances required more nuance and physicality. These are tremendous demands on autistic children, who have problems with coordination and find it hard to display their emotions. They are, on the other hand, absolute savants at memorizing their lines, and often end up memorizing their friends’ lines as well. 

Putting up a play with autistics is an enormously difficult task. In some countries, autism-friendly theatre makes the playhouse more accessible to neuro-diverse people, but productions by autistics themselves are few. 

Autism-friendly theatre is a tempered down affair that subdues lights and sounds so that autistics can enjoy the play. Information about the play is given well in advance, so that nothing will upset them and they see only what they can expect.

For Diana Tholoor, founder of the Chrysallis Performance Arts Centre for the Challenged, these problems are in fact opportunities. She previously directed The Lion King and The Little Elf with spastics and children on wheelchairs. They were so excited to be on stage that they forgot their limitations and played their roles to the hilt.

Tholoor directs all the plays at Bubbles, and when she worked with the children on The Enchanted Lamp, she was stunned by the changes she saw. The previous year’s production had greatly nurtured their personalities, to the point where this year, the behaviour in the green room was impeccable. From smoke and strobe lights to loud sounds, they had trained themselves to understand and accept every form of potential sensory overload.

Role play

Rehearsals at the Bubbles Centre in Hennur are great fun to watch. All the props and sets, made in-house by the teachers, are scattered all over the outdoor play area, and the loudspeakers carry forth thrilling sound effects from the play. The children, normally withdrawn or in their own worlds, flock to the rehearsal area like moths to a flame. 

Mohammad Abbas, the boy who played the sultan in the centre’s adaptation of Aladdin, greets the school’s visitors with a cheerful handshake and a youthful swagger. About four years ago, when he first enrolled in the centre, he had experienced such severe social anxiety that he would not even enter the classroom and would refuse to take his hands off his mouth. 

Hiya Bannerjee and Mohammad Abbas.
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Hiya Bannerjee and Mohammad Abbas.

Last year, when they staged The Lion King to a packed audience, Abbas stood on stage and played Scar, the delightfully evil villain who usurps his brother’s throne. He was given a simple stage direction that he should stand not like Abbas but like a king.

This little cue triggered something in the boy, who immersed himself into his character and played the role with such malice and fervour that Jeremy Irons would have been proud. 

Numbers and theatre

Sarbani Mukherjee Mallick, director of the Bubbles Centre for Autism, says, “One in every 78 children in India is autistic and it is estimated that around 10 million children in India have autism to some degree." In fact, the first-ever survey conducted in India shows that 1 in 66 children have autism.

The Bubbles Centre for Autism provides educational and developmental programmes for children in the autism spectrum. Established in 2003, Bubbles has more than 40 students across different grades. Apart from a core curriculum, the school also offers occupational therapy, art therapy, speech, movement, theatre, cooking and sports. 

For Bubbles, the annual theatre production is at the core of its curriculum. When theatre is woven into the classwork with the goal of a year-end performance, it packs in life skills that these children will use extensively when they leave the school and face a world that demands more compliance and focus. 

“With other activities in our curriculum, we tend to give up and move on to another task, if something doesn’t work out," says Mallick. “We cannot afford to do this with a stage production. The kind of focus that it brings is missing in a regular curriculum for autistics. “There is a show to stage and you have to follow instructions, work out the scene and respond to cues. These are not things we can teach autistics in a classroom set-up. These skills are required to get them into the world. There is a therapeutic goal woven into the script, and we worked towards this goal systematically." 

Sushama Nagarkar, a psychologist and managing trustee of the Yash Charitable Trust, teaches undergraduate and graduate level classes in special education, working with families in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. She says, “Autistics are deficient in language and communication, interpersonal skills and sensory issues. They also display repetitive behaviour and need structure. Theatre addresses these deficits and prepares them for the world." 

Towards the end of the performance, Nagarkar noticed something remarkable happening with Prajwal Nagarajan, who played Aladdin. “He connected more to the character, started making eye contact, was smiling and the process was transformative. Autistics struggle with relationships and a process like theatre can help them connect better with other people." 

Prajwal Nagarajan and Mikayeel Shah.
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Prajwal Nagarajan and Mikayeel Shah.

The theatre productions helmed by the Bubbles Centre have produced definite results, they believe. Children who had trouble speaking now deliver their lines perfectly. They act their parts independently, without the help of adults and prompters. They also display focus on stage and are able to deal with the sound and light assaulting their senses. They can handle heavy props with ease and elegance. 

“They have problems with executive functions like taking cues, blocking or waiting for their turn and theatre helps them with these skills," Nagarkar says.

Backstage stories

One is always enthralled by stories of actors and how they play their characters. Autistic actors are no different and they have some fascinating ways to approach their character. 

In fact, plays staged by Bubbles are collaborative affairs. “We talk to the children and teachers about how things should be and how they should handle their roles," says Tholoor. 

From beginning of the year, Tholoor, who serves as a visiting faculty member at Bubbles, comes to the centre once a week and gives the children a small piece of the script to work on. They continue to add to the script, until the end when it coalesces into a big production.

Mikayeel Shah, the boy who played the genie, is great friends with Aditya Gaur, who played the villain Jafar. Mikayeel was clear about the distinction though. 

“I do not like Jafar. I like only Aditya," he said.

One of the by-products of collaborative theatre is the ability to distinguish between the actor and the character, and this sense of intuition will help autistics in real-life scenarios. 

Prajwal (Aladdin) was battling with problems of his own at home and rehearsals were ways to deal with the tough times. 

Says Mallick, “Prajwal cannot communicate his emotions directly and he uses a multiple-choice format to tell us what he feels. He cannot answer on his own but immediately circles the answer when presented to him. Something like theatre can help him see beyond this coping mechanism." 

Prajwal Nagarajan, Aleena Mathew and Mikayeel Shah.
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Prajwal Nagarajan, Aleena Mathew and Mikayeel Shah.

This year, Abbas played the sultan and had interesting ways to understand the character he plays. Last year, he used the story of the Incredible Hulk as a way to understand how his emotions get the better of him. 

This year, he used The Beauty and the Beast to regulate his emotions. Role play brings out subtle shifts in Abbas, reducing his emotional outbursts considerably and helping him become a totally different person on stage. 

Faiyaz Shubhro is from Dhaka and is new to the centre. His problem was social anxiety but even he could not resist the lure of the stage. He finally ended up playing a small role and managed to do it perfectly. 

Liz Albuquerque, a parent whose daughter was part of the production, says, “This was my daughter's first time on stage. From the practice and the rehearsals to taking direction and participating on stage, she loved the entire experience and cannot wait for the next one." 

The Enchanted Lamp had all the thrills and surprises that make theatre so memorable. The genie, played with devious charm by Mikayeel, came out of the large handmade lamp to whoops of delight and surprise from the audience. 

In another scene, Aleena Mathew, the little actor who played Abu, Aladdin’s monkey, piggybacked on Aladdin and accidentally fell with a thud. There was a collective gasp of fear and concern from the audience. Aleena got back up with an uncertain look on her face and everyone wondered if she would burst into tears. 

Instead, she picked up Aladdin’s cap, put it on and bowed. The applause was deafening.

Shweta Sharan writes on education for Buzzing Bubs. In 2012, she started a Facebook community called Bangalore Schools, which has now grown to include more parents, teachers, education reporters, journalists, educationists and policymakers in the city.

Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com

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Published: 08 Apr 2017, 11:29 PM IST
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