Acting, and all things theatre

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Recently I was able to join the school drama club (the few, the proud... all fifteen (or so) of us.)

I remember the first time I stepped out onto the stage. It felt... right somehow. Like I was meant to be there.

And I must have been, because on my first audition I got four (four!) roles in our production of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: Mr. Willis, Lt. Rollins, Capt. Black, and Fr. Peregrine. I was really not that bad, for a raw recruit. In short, the production went beautifully, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then, for the Maryland High School Theater Festival, we put on Louder, I Can't Hear You by William Gleason. I played the role of Oscar, the ass of a husband (who happens to be the polar opposite of me as a person.) I apparently did really well... well enough to win a medal for Excellence in Acting for it!

I absolutely love theatre. If I weren't interested in majoring in electrical engineering, I would more than likely major in theater or photography.

And the best part about theater is the people! They are the nicest people I have ever met. Easy to get along with and very kind.

I've definitely discovered another passion of mine. Who here shares it?

Good for you! I majored in theatre in uni and it's currently not on my agenda (I've got a lot of other things going on at the moment) but I hope to get back into it in the next few years. You're right about the people. It's such a mix of diverse people and it's tons of fun! The great thing is that even if you're not majoring in it, you can still do community theatre and work a 9-5 job. Most of the people in our theatre company had a daytime job doing other things and kept theatre as their hobby.

be careful, Theatre can be full of the nicest people, but as you go more towards the professional side of it, the more backstabbing, self centered and egotistical people can get.

They don't call them drama queens for nothing

Theatre is what keeps me going. I'm always in some sort of show. I'm actually in two shows at the moment. I know what you mean about how it just feels right. When I'm up on stage, that's one of the only times I actually feel like I belong. Like it's what I was meant to do. Theatre people for the most part are the most welcoming accepting people too. Of course there are diva's as someone else pointed out, but for the most part they're extremely easy to talk to, and don't take themselves too seriously. I'm planning on double majoring in theatre and veterinary technology.

Before I found out I had AS, and began to meet other people on the spectrum, theater people were some of the only people who would tolerate me. They were "weird" enough that my "weirdness" didn't seem so extreme.

I majored in theater in college, which I wouldn't recommend for people on the spectrum, since getting employed in theater is difficult enough without the added challenges of autism. Professional theater companies are much harder to get into than college theater companies, and the workload and emotional stress tend to be much greater, especially if you are trying to work one or several day jobs to support your career.

For aspies/auties in college, I would recommend majoring in something with a more solid career path (like engineering, for instance), and taking classes in the drama department and/or doing community theater. I highly recommend doing theater, just not as a major.

I currently teach theater and music outreach part-time for kids and teens with Asperger's and other autism spectrum conditions, and I love my work (it makes my low-paying day job of editorial assistant much more tolerable). Unfortunately, there is not enough demand in my area for me to teach full-time.

I think one of the reasons why theater is so good for us autistics is that it is a social construct that allows us to interact with other people within a (relatively) closed system. Unlike "real life," where there is an ill-defined set of social rules that are as likely ignored as followed, theater has a set of clearly defined rules that guide the interactions of the actors. Moreover, not only are the rules known, but a script is typically provided, meaning that the outcome of every interaction is known. Even improv has a clear set of rules that the actors adhere to. Theater allows people create a set of social interactions that are relatively safe, and acts as a form of social therapy, especially for people like us that find social interchanges difficult to manage.

For me, doing theater was one of the few respites I had from the difficulty and stress of the neurotypical world. The social interactions I engaged in on stage were the closest things to "friendships" that I had growing up, and I think to a large part they contributed to me not killing myself due to the rejection and cruelty I experienced from the majority of people I interacted with. Doing theater likely saved my life.

The downside of doing theater is that since I majored in theater in college, there are very few jobs that I qualify for. Although I graduated at the top of my class from Sarah Lawrence College in 2002, I am marginally employed, working as a virtual assistant to a local editor. I have recently started completing the undergraduate prerequisites to a degree in psychology so that I can get a graduate degree working with kids on the spectrum. However, this process of retooling is slow, and it would have been easier had I simply majored in psychology in college, and done theater as a hobby.

In closing, as I state above, I highly recommend that we on the spectrum do theater, with the one caveat that we pursue a degree at college with a career track.

My $0.02.

~ Caterina

I fully concur.

When I was younger, one of my teachers said, alongside straight As, "Heidi will go far in her chosen career of acting".

I hadn't even chosen my career at that point; but apparently the writing was on the wall.

I have always acted, and, like others, have found it a portal for my quirks and oddities. Whilst others found me strange, the drama community to a large extent embraced me - and consequently I felt like I fitted in. I could memorise scripts, and enjoyed the truly unmatachable buzz from being on stage.

Currently I'm attempting to get work in the field, but, like others have said, it's not easy.

I intend to major in electrical engineering... I'm not worried about being employable! But a double major in theater is REALLY appealing to me at the moment.

+1 on the stage buzz, coppeliaflower... there's just something about being on the stage, in front of an audience, under those hot lights that's just incredibly fun and energizing. And there have been two places where I've ever felt that I've really belonged: the science and math magnet school that I'm fortunate to go to, and the drama club, which I'm fortunate to be a part of.

I worked in a theatre for four years, I met a lot of professional, even famous actors. Some of them were lovely, some, but not all, Treated the staff like dirt.
When I was studying performing arts, we had one or two real nasty pieces of work. One of them even stole my wallet so he could buy more pot. My experiences with Drama school students was just as bad.
I only speak from my personal experiences, yours may be different, but that doesn't mean either of us are wrong.

thanks for understanding

I think that the surest way to be able to have a career in the theater is to work as a "techie". You might not be treated very well by some of the actors but, hey, at least you would be consistantly employed and you'll probably make more money than some of the actors.