How to use the arts to raise awareness of Autism Nicky Priest, 12 January 2016 Ding ding! Round 3 of my sessions from the D & D 11 convention! The last of my 3 sessions, this one relating to said report title (cliché saying that I know…), with people who attended the session writing down what they think can be done, the answers that were written down on the notes by them are as follows (like before), brace yourselves for more “We can”s… again…: - We can try to get an Autistic actor/play-writer, ask him/her to come up with an idea/ideas for a play centred around Autism, the decide which is best, ask him/her to write a script, and then get it finalised, then ask theatres to showcase the play, and have the performers be either Autistic people or relatives of Autistic people. (1. The play needs to be a type of play that can be easy for Autistic people to process as they may be amongst both the performers & the audience. 2. This play can be used to show that Autistic people do have emotion, especially as the cast would be emotionally invested in the characters. - We can have a street theatre piece (cast could be either Autistic people or relatives of Autistic people), and have the audience interact (asking questions, giving compliments, pointing things out, etc) with the cast whilst they are in character as Autistic people. - We can utilise mask work, it would work very well, as the Autistic people taking part would not speak, but instead use physical theatre to communicate, this would prove to be a very good method of acting training. - We can utilise structure & predicability, as they are both very vital in making rehearsals for plays involving Autistic people feel more comfortable with performing as they don't have to process as much information, thus making the rehearsal more enjoyable & productive. Tags: Autistic Artists, Processing, Theatre, autism, artists, Process, Communication, process, Autism, THEATRE, communication, actors, Artists, Actors, Autistic Actors, theatre