Flute Theatre will celebrate World Autism Awareness Week with five days of online international performances linking autistic individuals and their families from across the world.
Running from 29 March until 2 April 2021, the specially adapted performances have been created in response to Covid-19 with the aim of alleviating anxieties and offering unique opportunities for artistic participation. The programme will also include the launch of The Tempest Project, a new collaboration with the Peru-based Teatro La Plaza to create an online adapted production of The Tempest tailor-made for autistic individuals and their families.
The events will follow on from the company’s successful lockdown activities which have included a special version of Pericles and an online series of interactive performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream tailor-made for autistic individuals and their families.
During Autism Awareness Week, Flute Theatre will perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream with one autistic individual which audiences can watch as silent observers. Audience members will then be invited to take part in an Open House session connecting families from around the world.
Announcing Flute’s latest project to help and support one of the groups hardest hit by the Covid lockdown, artistic director Kelly Hunter said: “Since the pandemic began a year ago we have adapted our unique productions of Shakespeare for autistic individuals to be accessible online. We have given over 700 online performances and created a worldwide community of individuals and families who we may not have otherwise met.
“Our ambition for this week is to bring these families together to consolidate a community network of strength and hope allowing this marginalised population to feel connected, known and loved. As we emerge from the pandemic, no one should return to the isolationism and bigotry that has been shown so clearly to besiege autistic people. We are using theatre to bring about social change that can empower the autistic community to feel resilient and respected.”
The special performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will begin on 29 March in India, followed by the UK on 30 March, the USA on 31 March, and Barcelona in Spain on 1 April. The final performance on April 2 will be accompanied by the launch of The Tempest Project with Teatro La Plaza in Lima, Peru.
During April actors and directors from Flute and La Plaza will work together in a four-week digital theatre laboratory to create The Tempest. Researchers from the Peoples Palace Project, Queen Mary University of London in the UK and Cronicos in Peru will use the project to investigate how innovative theatre-based methodologies can be adapted to enable resilience and inclusive recovery from Covid-19 by autistic individuals.
The full project is a six-month research case study run by People’s Palace Project which will analyse the transfer of knowledge between Flute and Teatro La Plaza and will share the experience with other arts organisations in Peru and across Latin American. The project known as Heartbeat, Creating Recovery is one of seven projects in the UK to receive urgent funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to address the international impact of Covid-19 on Persons with Disabilities.
On 2 April Flute Theatre will also be hosting 24-hour Live Heartbeats for autistic individuals and their families on social media shared by Flute’s international company across the UK, US, Peru, Spain, India and Japan. The Heartbeats are devised to provide a safe womb-like environment to help calm nerves, anxiety and panic attacks.
Angela Thomas
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