Playing Their Roles
December 6, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Emmett Doyle and Michael Wesely are students—a senior and a junior, respectively— at Apollo High School in Minnesota and are both acting in a school production of A Christmas Carol. Doyle is playing Scrooge and Wesely is playing Marley, who visit Scrooge in ghostly form. As noted in the December 6th St. Cloud Times, both have Asperger’s Syndrome and have found acting a way to work on their social and communication skills.
Elements of theater such as following a script (which enforces turn-taking in conversation), interpreting body language, developing empathy for their characters and working as a team all help with their everyday lives.
Through acting, they are memorizing social cues, which can in turn become more instinctive to them offstage.
“One of the cool things about theater is it’s easier to talk to people. You don’t feel so isolated,” said Wesely, a freshman. “When you get up on stage, you’re not you. Even though you’re not you, you can express yourself as that character.”
“It’s a lot easier to read these lines and think about what you’re doing.”
Theater, the St. Cloud Times notes, is potentially a “legitimate form of autism therapy.” As the article also notes:
Acting is something [Doyle and Wesely] do almost every day.
“We basically spend our entire time acting like we’re not autistic,” said Doyle.
Acting can be seen as sustained role playing, perhaps……….
Hello. Just happened to stumble upon this. well done. only, i’m a junior. well the times didn’t get it right either. thanks!
I just fixed it—-sorry about that! Hope the production goes well——
I’m not sure I’d want to have drama as a therapy. I took part in school plays because I enjoyed it (and knew what to do, thanks to the script), and though it probably did help with my social and communication skills, that wasn’t the aim of taking part- it was to have fun.
I hope the performance goes well
I love acting, but I prefer “radio drama” to stage or screen. I write stage plays, but am uncomfortable appearing myself.
People with ASDs, including myself, can definitely learn from the mimicry and appreciation of audience required by creative pursuits. I am hoping to present on creative writing, including dramatic writing / acting, at the AuSM conference this year. I know I am presenting at U.C. Davis this summer on issues of “audience” as they relate to autism and writing.
If anyone cares to contact me, I’d love to have some examples of how creative expression can help us appreciate “the other” by learning about audience. Acting certainly demands an awareness of expectations.
I admit… I’m returning to more and more creative pursuits to recharge after so many years of “serious” education and research. Of course, whatever I do leads right back to teaching somehow.