This morning, I got into a long discussion with an Artistic Director here in New York over the goal of this production, who want we to come, and how we are marketing it.
The simplest answer is that just like any show, we want anyone and everyone to come!
However, unlike most theater productions we actually mean EVERYONE. We are trying to reach across the traditional theater audience and begun to pull in audience members with disabilities who are often excluded from being able to see theater (because of, mainly in this case, behavioral issues).
Our goal is integrate traditional and non-traditional audiences.
The hope of this show is to create a "safe" theater experience for individuals with Autism. This will be the first non-childrens show adapted for Autistic individuals in the country and we have been hard at work to not only create a cohesive and honest production of this piece, but to also make it accesible for this audience. But we dont feel that any added elements (symbols, smaller audience size, removal of certain design elements) will take anything away from the traditional theater goers experience.
We are focusing on the words in the piece, we are acting(directing,desiging) it with honesty, and we are working fueled by passion. This is how all pieces should be treated.
Our end goal is that our efforts will inspire awareness of Autism (and the challenges it presents to typical outings), discussion about who theater should be for (and whether is should be exclusive at all) in our audience, and perhaps lead other theater artists to think about how they can make their own work more "friendly" to other audiences.
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