the Shakespearean autism project at Ohio
State is a collaboration between the
Department of Theatre and the nice
Sanger Center which studies
developmental disabilities art and
science coming together to see just how
effective Shakespeare games can be in
helping children with autism and it all
starts with a heartbeat a group of
children with autism and a group of
actors sit around in a circle and we
make a heartbeat together now when we do
actual performances of The Tempest with
the children the audience joins in the
and we’ll add hello hello hello hello
hello hello hello hello
go ahead hello hello hello hello hello
hello hello and then we’ll rest our
hands give ourselves a little round of
applause yeah so right about now I’m
sure some of you are wondering all right
what’s up with the heartbeat
well the heartbeat is arguably the first
sound we experience before we’re even
born right our mother’s heartbeat so
it’s organically so nurturing and
familiar and the children are able to
really connect with that very
successfully and very quickly it also
happens to be the rhythm of
Shakespeare’s language I am back
pentameter
yeah baboom baboom baboom baboom baboom
but soft what light through yonder
window breaks
or through the tempest Oh brave new
world that has such people int now using
that rhythm of language and incredibly
vivid characters and storytelling
Shakespeare maybe better than anyone
else has expressed what it feels like to
be fully alive and that full expression
that putting words to feelings and and
getting it out is what so many children
with autism crave but they find
extremely challenging so this heart beat
becomes the place where the students the
children and the actors can come
together to meet to play and that’s what
we do we play sensory drama games based
on Shakespeare these games were created
by Kelly hunter an amazing British
actress and director who brought this
work to OSU in 2011 as part of our
partnership with the Royal Shakespeare
Company her approach is called the
hunter heartbeat method and she takes
Shakespeare’s rhythm of language and
then she’s constructed these games to
focus on the themes of the eyes the mind
and the heart all in service of finding
now these games are they’re just they’re
simple in their nature but what we do is
we’re able to challenge the child’s
autism through play right and above all
the kids have fun they are having fun
they’re exploring imitation
improvisation language different
physicalities characters humor but
embedded in each of these games is a
challenge to their autism through play
we are asking them to do something
difficult maintain eye contact develop
spatial awareness recognize and then
replicate facial expressions that are
connected to specific emotions take
turns have social give-and-take be part
of an ensemble now I got involved in
this work in 2012 as a grad student as
part of a team of actors led by Robin
post who was the original director of
the Shakespearean autism project and on
the heels and of 11-week pilot project
we spent two years playing these games
weekly with two different groups of kids
from Columbus schools and the nice
sauger Center the science part of it led
by the director Mark toss a and PhD
student Maggie Melling they tested the
children all throughout the process they
now the initial feedback from parents
and teachers and from the actors
ourselves was that the hunter heartbeat
method was having this amazing effect on
the children the anecdotes were coming
from all over the place I’ve never seen
my child
behave this way I didn’t know they had
that side to their personality my
daughter’s never sat and focused for
that long and now she’s trying harder to
make friends at school I’ve never seen
my son speak this clearly in public and
it was tremendous but there was the
science as well right what did the
science say the nice angers initial
research revealed that the children were
making statistically significant
progress in recognizing facial emotions
I totally just said that like a
non-scientist
like an actor they also were making
statistically significant progress in
their social use of language and social
relationship skills it was working this
thing we were doing was working art and
science supporting each other and the
nice honors next phase of research is
this incredible thing where they have
this imaging where they can take
pictures of that part of your brain that
recognizes faces and see if the hunter
heart beat method spikes the activity in
that part of the brain sort of like this
is your brain on Shakespeare and fun and
we are really eager to see what the
results of that are brilliant ideas now
when you submit a TED talk proposal your
urge to explain you know why is your
idea worth spreading well none of this
is my idea it’s Kelly hunters idea it’s
Maggie melling’s idea marked assays idea
my big idea was saying yes to people
smarter than me that that was my big
idea Kelly asked me to join her in 2012
and later on she revealed to me that she
was convinced that I would say no that
somehow from her point of view I was
busy doing other things that I was
pursuing my acting career doing my thing
I was beyond this but what Kelly didn’t
understand and what the truth of it was
was I had become that guy that actor
sitting around waiting for the phone to
ring in the hopes of maybe getting an
audition for FBI agent number two on the
next episode of Criminal Minds which I’m
totally available for by the way in case
the casting director is here or tuning
in why wouldn’t they
but I had to decide which kind of actor
I wanted to be or why am I still acting
why is this the thing that I am devoting
devoting my entire adult life to kind of
artist do I want to be what kind of
person do I want to be and the answer
was in saying yes to people smarter than
me
my wife Lisa urged me to go to grad
school 2009
I said no she urged me again I said yes
and it was there the first time in
20-some years as an actor for the first
time I performed Shakespeare 2010 first
time I ever did Shakespeare and I met
Kelly hunter and I arrived on the
precipice of this work and I was
terrified I didn’t know if I had the
goods I wasn’t a Shakespeare expert I
certainly wasn’t an autism expert was I
able to go in and help these children
did I have the goods did I have the
right
and then I walked in to the first
workshop I sat in a circle
I made the heartbeat with the children
and something released and by the end of
that first workshop I remembered why I
loved acting why I love actors why I
love theater and why I love the arts
children were changing right in front of
my eyes they were transforming I was
moved my fellow actors were moved the
teaching aides were moved the bus driver
taking the kids home he was moved and
the kids were having a blast a pretty
this way since this is our moment
right this is our moment March 25th
2017 and we again find ourselves on the
precipice of having to fight for the
Arts in our country having to fight to
prove that the arts are vital to our
nation’s health identity spirit soul
it’s okay we’ve been there before we’ll
be there again but maybe if we in this
moment can all agree that the benchmark
of art the standard and that from which
it derives its power the benchmark is
that we all leave better for having the
experience than when we arrived better
for being there if we can all agree that
that’s the standard the benchmark the
Shakespearean autism is easily the most
pure form of art that I have ever come
across because every time everyone
leaves better than when they arrived
every time and as an actor what a gift
for me to relearn two things that I’d
forgotten as an actor I knew him as a
parent I for some reason forgot him as
an actor the first one was that I had to
choose to care about something outside
of myself and if any of you have an
actor in the family good luck with that
I’d choose to care about that and second
I just show up I mean show up ready to
give the best of myself to someone else
all the time choose to care and show up
so many people have shown up in the six
years we’ve been doing this I wish I
could name them all but the organizers
would probably just start to stroke out
if I named them all for all this success
that we’ve had there was one thing that
was nagging at us that didn’t didn’t
compute but we didn’t have the answer to
there was no research for it and that
was did this last was there a lasting
effect on the children this work because
at the end of those two years that last
workshop we did it and then it was over
right and we need the emotional actors
we needed closure the children just
needed to catch their bus or go to class
and we were left with you know are they
going to remember this what was it that
we just did to what end and then eight
months later I was at the playground
with my son calf he was four and there
was an after-school occupational therapy
group there as well and I recognized one
of the boys from the Shakespeare
workshops I said well here’s my chance I
could maybe get the answer to this I
said cath let’s go over and we’ll meet
somebody and I was nervous all over
again
and I go hey man do you remember me and
he looks at me he goes Shakespeare
we played Shakespeare hello-hello-hello
and calves my son says dad what’s wrong
that’s a good nothing’s wrong man
no things nothing’s wrong at all I was a
mess it’s a total mess so I like pull
myself together and calves and I go to
play tag but this boy he’s heard rips
over he’s interested in us right because
I’d gone over and every time calves and
I would zoom past him he would do
another line and gesture from the games
we played like zoom hell is empty and
all the Devils are here zoom salt water
shall you drink zoom
oh you wonder I love you and then Kevin
I had to leave and as we were walking
away I was like hey man see later good
to see you again
and I was texting his fast as I could
sparks were flying off the keypad of my
phone texting everybody involved in
Shakespeare in autism it works he
remembered he remembered I turned around
and I said see ya and he was on top of
the slide at the apex of the playground
and there was this burnt orange sunset
behind him it was epic terrence malick
couldn’t have done any better and he
responded in the way that we close every
workshop in every performance of The Tempest goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye