Theatre and Autism: How do you present a sensory friendly performance?

Episode 176: Theatre and Autism: How do you present a sensory friendly performance? How do Theatre and Autism fit together? Do you have students on the spectrum in your classrooms? Have you ever put on a sensory friendly performance? All of these questions and more are answered in this week’s podcast with James Lekatz, program director of the CAST program (Creative, Accepting, Sensory-Friendly, Theatre) at the Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins, MN. Show Notes Stages Theatre Company - C.A.S.T Program National Autism Resources Autism Resources Autism Resource Kit School Community Toolkit Jacques Lecoq Drama Teacher Academy Episode Transcript UPDATE FALL 2018: James Lekatz is now the Artistic Associate at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. The mission of Interact is to create art that challenges the perception of disability. Welcome to the Drama Teacher Podcast brought to you by Theatrefolk – the Drama teacher resource company. I’m Lindsay Price. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 176 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode176. Okay. Everyone, hands up. All of you, put your hands up – no, no, no. So, I have a question. How many of you have students on the autism spectrum in your classrooms? And, another, how do these students react to theatre? Do you believe it can impact them? Have you ever been to a sensory-friendly performance? Have you ever planned one? Okay, that was more than one question; that was a lot of questions and I’ll bet that there is a lot more hands up to the answer to that first question than anybody thinks. And, yes, I can see you; I can see all of you. So, we’re talking theatre and autism today. We are going to get some answers to those questions and more with today’s guest. A very interesting conversation. I learned a lot. Let’s get to it! LINDSAY: Hello everybody! I am speaking with James Lekatz. Hello, James! JAMES: Hello! LINDSAY: Awesome. Tell everybody where in the world you are. JAMES: Yes, I am coming to you today from Hopkins, Minnesota, which is kind of like a first-ranked suburb of Minneapolis. LINDSAY: Ah, perfect! Sometimes, I ask where people are and then they say and I’m like, “Well, I don’t know where that is,” but this is good. Excellent! This is going to be such an interesting conversation on so many levels, I think. Let’s start off, please, tell us what your job is. JAMES: Sure. I work for a theatre company called the Stages Theatre Company located in Hopkins, Minnesota. My job is twofold; one, I’m an education association, so I’m a theatre teacher and I work at many different schools in the west metro of the twin cities, and I also am in-charge of our access programming. And so,