Neurodiversity and Anti-Racism

 Cheerio! Let’s talk about Monday July 11.

We trekked to the University of East London for two workshops.

 

Our first workshop was presented by Not Your Circus Dog Collective, a group of neuro-divergent artists who make “radical, political, subversive &  shameless sexy punk queer crip cabaret-theatre.”

 

After an introduction from Liselle Terret, one of the co-founders of the NYCDC, who joined us by video, we moved upstairs to a large studio space. Our workshop was facilitated by two of the actors from the group, Emma Selwyn and Adam Smith (the two on the right in the photo above).

Emma talked about the social versus the medical model of disability. The medical model is the familiar one. It focuses on disability as a deficit that must be addressed to enable a disabled person to live a more “normal” life. The social model focuses instead upon society's failure to provide access. It is this lack of accessibility that must be addressed. An example of one way to improve accessibility is clear signage.

NYCDC are neurodivergent people writing about neurodivergent people. Their goal is to challenge the audience’s perception of people with learning disabilities. They wish to embrace their own learning differences and celebrate who they are. And make it sexy. 

We watched and discussed videos from NYCDC’s show, Not F**kin’ Sorry.

 

Not F**kin’ Sorry starts with a fun and entertaining style, but then progresses into something else. One of the presenters explained it this way: “It’s about the seduction… and then the slap.” In one impactful part of the show, the neurodivergent actors lip-synch over audio clips of standup comedians telling jokes that use a hurtful word to make fun of neurodivergent people.

We talked about how these videos made us feel and what theatrical styles the pieces employed. Then we broke into small groups and discussed how we might create pieces about the experience of discrimination, employing one of the theatrical styles from the clips.

 

Personal take-aways:

• It was great that they started the session by announcing that if anyone needed to lie down, perhaps due to chronic pain, or if anyone needed to take a break at any time for any reason, they should feel free. This created an environment of understanding and acceptance right of the bat. Later, they mentioned that they encourage their audience to move around during their shows. They don’t force people to sit still.
• NYCDC’s way of working with each other is not traditional or hierarchal, but fluid, experimental, collaborative, honest, and supportive.

Additional resources:

• Access All Areas (accessallareastheatre.org)
• Disability Arts Online - Sharing Disability Arts & Culture

After our lunch break, we met mezze eade, Talent Development Manager at the Donmar Warehouse and an Education Associate at The Old Vic.

We started with an exercise that involved passing three bean bags around the circle in different patterns. This game is sometimes called Group Juggling. I like how mezze took the time to get the group to understand the lessons this game can teach (something I’ll emulate in the future).

We did a few other warm-ups, including a fun name game, before diving into script work. The way mezze led us into what is often called the “Actor’s Neutral” stance was informed by the book Presence by Patsy Rodenburg.

In regards to anti-racism, we talked about becoming aware of thoughts, words, and behaviors that cause harm to others, interrupting these patterns, and changing the brain's wiring over time to adopt new patterns. We also talked about how to challenge other people, touching upon three types of challenging:

1. Calling Out
2. Calling In
3. Calling On

mezze made the point that we’re trying to prevent harm, and in order to do that we need to understand how discriminatory words and behaviors affect people – the physiological response, shutting down, compensating, etc.

And mezze also talked about the terminology of “Global Majority.”

So that's Monday for you, but to get the full flavor of the Drama & Youth program, a few words about Sunday are in order...

Sunday was a day off. Members of the cohort scattered around London to dine, to explore neighborhoods, to take in the sights, and to see shows. Well, actually there was a whole lot of washing of laundry. But also that other stuff.

 

In the Guilford House study room, there’s a “Never Have I Ever” poster. It mentions afternoon tea, and that was my adventure for Sunday. I tried out Indigo at One Aldwych.

Afternoon tea in Britain is all about deception. Do you see the egg I’m holding in this photo?

Ha! The jokes on you. That’s no egg. It’s rice pudding with mango in the middle. And take a close look at this taco.

Looks like a completely normal taco, right? Wrong! That’s a blackberry and apple parfait.

So much care is put into the crafting and presentation of the tiny sandwiches and sweets. And everything was delicious. A special (albeit pricey) experience.

It's great to be in London!

:)