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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 25 March 2019

Sarbani Mukherjee Mallick Founder & Executive Director at Bubbles Centre for Autism in a detailed interview on the experience and learnings of putting together a full fledged stage production of Jungle Book with a cast of 50 children and young adults on the autism spectrum. Part 1 of a 2 part series.

Why theatre? How does theatre help children and adults on the autism spectrum?

One of the major challenges for children on the autism spectrum disorder is social skills. I use to always wonder, from the time I started two decades back, how could one develop social skills by sitting in the classroom within the four walls. Till one of my friends, Diana, a theatre person, who shares many of my views on special education and believing in human potential, suggested why not explore theatre? At that time it looked absolutely impossible, because these are children with such severe issues. How can someone ever put them on stage before an audience? But we said let’s start working, no matter how small. And that’s how the concept of theatre came up.

Why the move from doing theatre as a workshop or an in-class activity to a production for the public. What was the philosophy behind it.

Theatre was a completely new initiative. It began as an activity in class, but at the end of the year, we felt where does it lead to? We started out with a goal, a purpose where everybody pools in all the resources to be able to make things happen. We felt it needed to be showcased. It needed a culmination. We were also wanted to shatter a myth, a stereotype that it was impossible to bring children with autism on stage and make them perform. So we had to step up our activities of speech therapy, occupational therapy, etc. to train the children. We had to ensure there were no tantrums on stage. Everything had to be intensified to prove that this is another path that could yield results and be a milestone for children.

Describe the transition from Lion King to Aladdin to Jungle Book - the levels of difficulty.

Lion King was our first entry into high level production. The sets and sensory inputs were huge, like the bright lights, the smoke, etc. Then in Aladdin, the narrative was considerable. There was a lot of talking and characterization; intricacies of the character were brought in. In case of Jungle Book, lot of physicalities were introduced. We put in extensive effort for the physical fitness of the students. We had to identify each child’s physical ability and assign them roles accordingly. For instance, there was a rope ladder on stage and Bagheera, Mowgli and nine other children were taught how to climb up and down the ladder. The hyper energetic children at the high end of the spectrum were put on skates. So, there were all these adaptations, but the focus was mainly on their physical abilities.

Besides the main characters, we had a pack of wolves that had to crawl out from inside a cave. They had to remain inside the cave in the dark till the lights and music came on. Now to expect young ones on the spectrum, to sit in the dark for some time and then react appropriately to music and lights can be difficult. That itself was a big achievement for us, I would say.

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 think the little ones, the pack of wolves, in the age of in the age group of 5-8, that was definitely one of the most challenging. And then there was issue of managing the meltdown of individuals. I remember a funny instance, when Kaa, the snake would roll his eyes at Shere Khan, the child playing Shere Khan would get extremely agitated. He would take the whole act very personally. Then we had to stop and pacify the child. From time to time, such situations would erupt which had to tactfully addressed.

Your wow moment/ memorable moment 

The whole thing was mesmerising for me – from the time the curtains went up to till the play got over. There was an audience of 1200 people, cheering, laughing, and clapping. I have seen many theatres, but I have never seen such participation. There was so much involvement and engagement. That was big ‘high’ for us.

What next?

Right now, we are looking at a different ways of moving forward. We feel we have made a significant breakthrough with theatre. We want to continue developing their social skills. Children on the ASD don’t communicate on their own. They need to be closely trained. We feel we need to do a similar kind of effort as far as the communication is concerned.

How did the children benefit?

There is greater understanding among the "higher functioning" children. They love the stage. They love rehearsing their lines, playing the character, costumes, the face paint, etc. But the little ones had to be conditioned to a great detail. Waiting and remaining still was most difficult for them. But once you tell them to do something, they do it, no matter what. So one of the kids, who was playing an elephant, when he found the music to be too loud, he just covered his ears with one hand and continued to sway his other arm like the trunk of an elephant; he did not stop. So I would say, the theatre has taught them to adapt more, be more focussed, attentive, develop their tolerance and endurance level, keep emotions in control and work in group.

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