Curious Incident
Welcome to the world of my undergrad capstone!
Things went in directions we didn’t expect them to, hence these updates, but I will keep the rest intact for people to learn about us and about what we did
Also, if you like what you see here, I can be hired to give workshops on accessible education (in general) or psychology and/or arts & theater education in particular! Feel free to email me at disabled.autistic.lesbian@gmail.com if you’re interested
Our feature-length documentary about the project
This isn’t the post I expected to have to make, but I am sorry to announce that the world’s first all-neurodivergent cast and crew production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is no longer happening.
I have not been quiet about the fact that this project has been a continuous struggle this year. A lot of it stemmed from the structural ableism imbedded in academic institutions and a general lack of preparation and support. All of which forced me and my team to divert most of our creative time into putting out unnecessary fires that we were not prepared to handle. Not just in creating an all-accessible production, but in creating any production to begin with. Unfortunately the recent fire came too late in the process for us to be able to fully recover from it.
This is not the end of our story. It has proved to me and my team that there is so much systemically broken in how academic institutions as a whole function. And that we are in a unique position to not only point that out, but teach people how to fix it. I am also pleased to say that, in recent conversations with various members of my college administration, they seem very interested in learning from us and trying to make changes in the school going forward. I hope this continues to be the case.
The original point of this production was to show the world that things need to change in theater in regards to accessibility and how to do it. And not only have we done that, but we have also shown how they need to change in so many other ways as well.
Thank you to my cast and crew for your talent and dedication to this cursed little project of ours. Sure, we never got the traditional audience we’d imagined, but in a sad way this feels like a fitting ending. And, more importantly, one that will make more waves in the world than our unequivocal success ever could.
While the show may be done, we are not, our story is not, and the fight for what is right is not. We are just getting started.
In solidarity,
-S
The “why”
I’ve been through several iterations of professional theatre/acting education at this point in my life and every one of them has been unpleasant at best and traumatizing at worst. As a queer, autistic, trans, and multiply disabled person, I’ve been told several times over that the theatre is not where I should be. I, however, don’t necessarily like being told what I can and cannot do, especially by the people who supposedly hold the power in order to teach me the skills I need to do said thing. After one particularly horrid experience where I had to miss a significant amount of class because the lack of accommodations made me ill for weeks on end, I decided to combine my skills as a psychologist and teacher with my knowledge of disability and theatre and I wrote the person in charge of my… let’s say unsavory… situation… a 30 page paper explaining what my legal rights are as a student, how denying students of their civil rights can and will lead to trauma, chronic illness, and suicidal ideation, and how the program could change to be made accessible for people like me in the future.
That was the moment I decided to turn the initial production idea for my capstone into a full year long project, giving me the chance to create a resource guide for every other theatre teacher and practitioner to use going forward to make sure that people like me never have to go through what I did again. (Hopefully. I’m acknowledging that this won’t reach as far and wide as I would like it to)
Anyway, after being called a burden several times over and told “the theatre isn’t made for people like you”, not only am I going to make the theatre for people like me, but I’m going to figure out how to package that experience in a way that other people can work off of too - and by putting it all into practice while making some history to make sure the world knows about it.
I am not the first person to create accessible theatre education - the field of disability studies is very young, but there are already a lot of resources out there. I’m simply compiling things, adding my own experience, and putting it into a more digestible format for the wider community that is definitely not going to sit down and read about 60 textbooks to get this information :)
IMPORTANT NOTE:
By nature of my college’s student body and what types of neurodiversity are deemed “palatable” to the mainstream, a large swath of neurodiversity is not represented in this show or on my campus. Our team is predominantly white low-support needs autistics. We acknowledge that we are missing large portions of the neurodivergent community, that many people see the term “neurodiversity” as a way to describe autism & ADHD as a collective and nothing else and that the demographics of our team on some level reflect that, and that we are privileged and do not speak for the entire neurodivergent community.
What we are doing with this show is a big deal. But it’s also simply a first step. We have not fixed the problem and the theater and wider world has a long way to go from here. We’re just starting a conversation.
If you want to learn more about our activism, discussions of privilege, and the wider team, you can find all of that on our instagram!
The “what”
My project is divided up into two major sections:
The Resource
All of my research will be compiled into a series of videos discussing the importance of accessibility, what accessible theatre education can and should look like, and discussions of the history of disability in theatre - how we perceive madness and crip narratives, who is missing from the picture, how those pictures are written, freak shows, the tortured artist trope, and so many more things in the category of “what your teachers forgot”. Regardless of what subject you teach or field you are in, these tips on accessibility are useful in any educational space!
The Production
Welcome to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a play written by and for non-autistic people. The text is full of flaws and stereotypes, and most stagings of it are too. That being said, this story means a lot to the autistic community - for many of us, it’s the first time we saw someone even somewhat like us. I plan to rework the show in a fully accessible manner and make history with a cast and crew entirely made up of neurodivergent people, interworking disabled arts history with the flawed present and hopes for a more inclusive future.
Here’s the Deal -
This is, technically, “my” project. That being said, it’s only “mine” because it needs to be for me to get credit and graduate and all of that fun stuff. In reality, it’s a community project - I’m doing this because it’s what my community feels like it needs. And that, therefore, makes me feel a very strong need to get everything right. And that’s why I want this to be more than just a small college production - I want to know what YOU think about this, how YOU want Christopher to be portrayed, what YOU want to and need to learn about. I want all of your voices in there as much as those of my team on the ground. That’s why I’m documenting this whole process, that’s why I’m being honest about where I’m at with this. Please share your ideas and opinions (kindly, of course!) because we want to hear them and we want people all over the world to feel like their voices are heard in this production. So don’t hesitate to reach out! Send me an email, send me a DM, comment on our videos, we want your thoughts too. That’s how we do it right :)
The goal of this project is to unite the community on a big platform and try to spark some structural change.
Even if it’s only better for 5 or 6 people, I’ve made a difference.
And that’s what matters to me.
So thanks for being a part of this little project of mine in whatever way feels most natural and true to you! I’m excited to have you along for the ride :)