Diana Tholoor, a Movement and Theatre trainer and Director of Plays recently worked with a cast of 50 children and young adults on the autism spectrum to mount a production of Jungle Book on stage. She shares her perspective in the second part of this interview series.
1. Why theatre? How does theatre help children and adults on the autism spectrum?
Theatre is an integrated art form that produces simultaneous results through a single production.
Amongst the many alternate forms of therapy available today, theatre produces a totality of results in the children – speech improvement, following of direction and instructions, immediate responses to change (even I do this on the mainstage rehearsal), mobility and flexibity of movement, improved comprehension, decreased or ‘no’ reaction to loud sounds, bright lights, dark spaces, increased memory capacity and responses. Confidence building, supporting one another (I am talking about the kids), enhanced social interactions and skills, Discipline and Co-ordination.
2. Why the move from doing theatre as a workshop or an in-class activity to a production for the public. The philosophy behind it
Every assignment that I have taken on has always been with a goal towards producing a script on stage. This goal that will refine the learning into a level of excellence, instil and produce the results already mentioned in my response to the question above.
From experience of the last 19 years, I worked with across different abilities (some mentioned here)
- Ode to a Banyan – Sheila Kotwal Institute for the Deaf (164 deaf students performing
- Somewhere over the Rainbow – Cheshire Home (60 Physically Challenged Children and deaf children performing)
- The story of Hellen Keller – Samarathnam Trust for the Blind (70 blind students performing)
- Hellen Keller – Asha Kiran Special School (100 children from the MR, Dyslexic and Autism Spectrum performing)
- Love changes everything – Shristhi Special School (over 80 children from the intellectually challenged and Autism Spectrum)
- Lion King – Spastics Society of Karnataka (220 children from the physically, mentally, visually and hearing challenged and the Autism Spectrum)
This is to name, but, a few. Every one of these has had a minimum of 4-6 months training with the production on Main Stage.
3. Describe the transition from Lion King to Aladdin to Jungle Book - the levels of difficulty
- Script increment moving from 50 pages to 100 pages
- Lion King saw the children moving independently, understanding for the first time entry and exits on main stage, sensitization to very bright lights and smoke, familiarization with stage levels, initiation of main stage blocking without any teacher support, getting accustomed to face painting, costume and props
- Aladdin saw the children taking more complex stage direction, singing live on stage, moving on skates, taking audience entrances, use of bigger props, more scene changes and costume changes, longer scenes on stage with larger group entrances, very loud live sounds and co-ordinated movements, getting accustomed to waiting for lengths of time in the wings
- Jungle book saw the children using ropes and ladders, greater number of lighting changes, more smoke and haze, more interaction on the stage, more dancing, singing, and script lines especially for those who have never spoken on stage before, extremely disciplined movement choreography, sharper entrances and exits, split second changes.
Every year, the teachers are back stage with the children. This year, I brought all teachers on stage as separate characters to perform different roles. This meant that the number of volunteers backstage was to the minimum – and, this was the true test of how much the children have grown as they waited patiently for their turns to enter. Also, it was so good to see them enter and exit independently on music, lights and sound cues,
The idea is to escalate the complexity in all areas of stage work and produce a result on par with any regular theatre production
4. 50 members in the cast. How do you work with each person given their individual needs and challenges to prepare them for stage. Describe some of the challenges that the actors overcame
I am answering this from the perspective being Hands-on in the process of instructing, training and developing techniques to enable the children to perform.
Read Part 1 of the interview on Jungle Book Production
Almost 70% of the children have already been a part of Lion King and Aladdin. These children have already undergone exposure and training to stage work and all that this entails.
There are actually 3 main areas to look at
- Resistance / Stubborness
One is unable to ascertain the mood the child will come to school in. Depending on the mood, we could be dealing with Resistance or Stubbornness in the rehearsal. Non-compliance at that point in time is one of the things we deal with.
It is interesting to note that regardless, they want to act in the role assigned. By merely asking whether they would like to continue to be in that role or we should get someone else – will bring a quick response and after a little comforting, they are back on stage at rehearsal
- Melt-downs
Sometimes, when the mood is on the more aggressive side, there could be a melt-down and, that requires teacher intervention in a more defined manner. The last resort would be to ask Sarbani to talk to them.
- Repetitive Movements and recitation
Sometimes the child will repeat a word or a movement several times and it requires a variety of instructions to help them to understand that the action or the word(s) are not to be repeated
The balance 30% are the smaller children who would have enrolled in the last academic year or more recently. Getting the children to become disciplined on stage is a challenge. For these children, I start with movement work and use music and sound to build focus, concentration and discipline. Blocking the stage, moving towards a focussed point, staying still on stage, and getting them accustomed to loud sounds and other disctractions.
5. Your wow moment/ memorable moment
To watch the boy who acted as Bhageera climb up and down the rope ladder, to watch the video of the girl who has an amazing singing voice perform on the video for the first time, to see all the children sit silently and patiently for nearly 20 minutes while the speeches were going on, to hear every word come out so audibly, to hear the audience catch the funny lines and laugh aloud.
I am unable to measure which moment was ‘wow’. For me, every accomplishment is ‘wow’.
Diana Tholoor founded the Chrysallis Performance Arts Centre for the Challenged on 14th February 1999. She has worked with over 1,00,000 children with and without challenges integrating them in various programmes and on stage through inspirational scripts across India and Asia.
She has done ground-breaking work in Theatre for Children with Autism and is accredited with many firsts on the Platform of Integration and Awareness for people with disabilitie in Bangalore. She is a Movement, Dance and Drama Therapist who works through Movement, Dance, Drama for children and adults with physical, mental and social challenges.
