Theater opportunities expanding for children with autism in Chicago
The Autism News | English
Fourteen years ago, Jacqui Russell was looking for a teacher to work in a local classroom with children who have autism. When she couldn’t find one, she decided to take the assignment herself. Out of that dilemma, Red Kite Round Up, a theater program specifically geared toward children with autism, was born.
After discovering a theater company in England created for children who are profoundly disabled, Russell, the artistic director and co-founder of the Chicago Children’s Theatre, which runs the Red Kite program, headed to England to train with the troupe Oily Cart.
“I asked Oily Cart to bring their show here,” she remembers. “But they said no, we’ll teach you how to do it yourself.”
Russell came back to the United States determined to create theater for the disabled; four years ago she started Red Kite Round Up. But rather than focus on all disabilities, like Oily Cart, she decided to focus primarily on children with autism.
“As a community, they have a hard time doing anything public,” she says. “Oftentimes these kids are high-functioning intellectually, but not socially.”
What Russell created was a theater experience where children are free to be who they are, and parents can sit back and enjoy a show where their child isn’t ostracized.
At a recent show, children from Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth District 38 joined the actors onstage, exploring their guitars and the stage props. The kids were encouraged to get up and touch lightning bugs (puppets) and lay on a blanket to search the night sky.
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