Staging the upturned world: A Midsummer Night's Dream for autistic children

In June, I broke the news - here - that myself and colleagues had been successful in our application to host events for the 2018 Being Human Festival. I included the following piece of information:

"With the most explicit fit with my autism and classical mythology project...we will be working with the Flute Theatre, who will stage an immersive performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for children on the autistic spectrum. I’ll say more on this in due course, including where I write about who the Flute are and about the work they do."

Here - now - I'll say some more as promised. The Flute Theatre is a troupe of actors who, led by the Kelly Hunter, stage productions of Shakespeare for autistic audiences. We'll be collaborating with them during their run of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, London, from (and whence the photo at the head of this posting) 5-24 November 2018.

The collaboration will be as follows - along with two colleagues, Drs Helen Slaney and Susanne Greenhalgh, I'll be taking part in a participatory workshop at the Orange Tree in the morning before one of the performances -  on 23 November. Kelly Hunter will introduce the techniques she uses with her audiences - and she will show how and why they've been such a success.

To quote from the blurb on our booking site (link below):
 

Shakespeare is often regarded as linguistically challenging and culturally elitist, but this does not have to be the case when the plays are performed. Approaching "A Midsummer Night's Dream" from a non-neurotypical perspective gives an extra dimension to its upturned world of magic, mischief, delusions, and desires. Flute Theatre's approach taps into the multisensory undercurrents of dramatic literature, making this workshop at the same time a fascinating exploration of theatrical practice.

If you'll be in or near London in November and would like to join us, there's more information here, including on how to book. I'll be blogging on it as well...