Due to the time of year, I’ve slacked off a bit this week. I am back to blogging next week when I should have a piece for you on diversity in film, focusing on black people in cinema. I hope you’ve all had a great time over the holiday period. I would love to know what you’ve been up to; feel free to comment down below.
Finding your niche Autism and Employment-English phrases
Martina says:
When I speak, I can’t organise my thoughts; I keep losing the thread and kind of going in circles.
Losing the thread means she says something and can’t remember what she was going to say next.
Going in circles in this context means that because its difficult to organise her thoughts that they aren’t communicated to whoever is listening or at least not communicated in a way that the full message is delivered to the listener.
In this job, I was really pushed, and I think eventually, I just had burnout.
Burnout in the work context is exhaustion on a physical and mental level, which is caused by overwork or from work which is overly taxing.
It’s very much about the kind of chit chat and the jokes and how you bond with your colleagues.
Chit chat is just informal chat, e.g. about what you did at the weekend.
But there were things I couldn’t manage, like the admin part of it, I would leave it until my husband would get pissed off and do my tax return as I’d leave it to the last minute as I can’t face the paperwork.
Pissed off can mean angry or annoyed.
You have to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but you have to find the balance where you push yourself but don’t feel ill because of how much you’ve pushed yourself.
To push oneself out of ones’ comfort zone means to do a task that one hasn’t done before or which ones feels is difficult. An example would be someone who doesn’t like public speaking going to a public speaking group would be pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.
We can be innovative, creative, seeing things outside of the box.
The phrase thinking outside of the box is related to finding novel solutions to solve a problem or coming up with novel ideas about how to investigate a certain topic.
I hope that I’ve managed to provide an explanation for the more problematic phrases. If you struggled with other words or phrases would be interested to hear from you, you can comment down below.
Autism and finding your employment niche (level B1)
Continuation of the series on Autism and employment. Here I interview Martina about how experience of work.
Me: I didn’t do that well at school. I was diagnosed late, so I didn’t have much support at school. Part of the problem was due to socializing issues, and I wonder how much that impacts other people with autism. I wonder how often problems in the education setting impact an individual with autism obtaining qualifications.
Martina: Absolutely, I think help is something that’s lacking. I was reading about this girl with Down Syndrome, the first to get a university degree in Italy; she had support put in place that was for students with learning difficulties. It sounds brilliant. I went through university, but it’s frustrating because I didn’t do as well as I could because my condition always stops me. I always wanted to keep studying, as long as I could really, but I couldn’t manage; I was just burnt out, it’s a massive shame. There needs to be much more support at school and work as well.
Me: I got help at university, but I got a diagnosis of dyspraxia before I got a diagnosis of autism. They misdiagnosed me as being mildly dyslexic. Apparently, people with autism can have spelling and grammar problems in part because of problems with executive functioning. I saw a psychiatrist, and he said I possibly have mild ADHD, so that might be another explanation for spelling and grammar problems. Due to having a diagnosis, even though it wasn’t for Autism, I got some measured put in place at university.
Martina: I was just left to struggle. I also have ADHD, but I’m a strange case as I’m actually into writing, spelling, and grammar. It’s like my special interest, and I’m a perfectionist at it. I feel like I express myself much better in writing than in speaking. When I speak, I can’t organise my thoughts; I keep losing the thread and kind of go in circles. What’s hard for me, aside from finding the motivation to study and be consistent with it, is the admin, tying it all together and knowing what’s going on, managing my time, really staying on top of things. I was lucky to have friends who were like my support; they were like, “oy Martina, you know we are doing this today, and you know that we had to do homework”, they reminded me of the stuff because I couldn’t manage, the kind of organisation of the things. You think what’s wrong with me, I am intelligent, but I can’t remember things, how do I miss all these things? I’m always kind of behind in life.
Me: With me, because I got diagnosed with something, I got extra time and the extra time helped me to organise myself, to do the assignments. It was advantageous. What happened for you after university?
Martina: I came here (to the UK). I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t choose what I wanted, because I wanted to do psychology and then my parents weren’t super supportive anyway, and you know it’s a long study with quite a big expense. I backtracked and went into language and literature, which I did in high school. I was offered a job here, and I took it as a chance to come over here; and some of my friends were over here, and they suggested flexible study (completing my masters part-time while I worked). Then I started working, and it never happened, you know you start working full time, and that’s it. Then I just had different corporate jobs, office jobs. Then we moved to Spain, then I started my own business with the cooking then I had {KARL}, and then we came back, so really my career was kind of chopped. I did lots of different things. I worked during uni. I always worked every summer. I was working all the time as my parents weren’t helping me. I got busy trying to pay the rent, really, not following my dreams. It all got kind of a bit lost.
Now that Karl is older and he’s in school, I thought about going back to uni. I’ve always been into psychology and things like wellbeing and yoga, and I think it goes well together. When you learn philosophy in depth its very similar and complementary to modern psychology as it’s all about controlling your mind. I think that helped me to manage, to some extent, my condition. It’s not a cure; it doesn’t treat, but it helped me manage the anxiety that goes with it, rather than the condition because you know it never goes away. I have lots of knowledge here and there, but it’s not a degree. I want to give scientific credibility to my knowledge. There’s a blonde girl, and she talks about Autism in girls, and someone posted it on a science page on Facebook; she states facts about how women are underdiagnosed and our symptoms are quite different to men. Even people on the page were posting asking about whether this was true, which I thought was interesting as even those who are part of the scientific community don’t know that there’s a difference.
Me: You talked to me before about being late to receive an autism diagnosis. Do you think not having an autism diagnosis affected how difficult work was for you? Your experience of the work environment?
Martina: I think that it affected how I looked to my managers in my job at Corel with software for video, photography, and illustration. I started as a support person and then started work as a marketing assistant. In one way, I enjoyed it as they gave you projects and left you to work on them; it was quite stimulating and creative, but the social aspect that you were expected to connect the salespeople and connect to the marketing people and with the whole team. Most of them were lovely, so it was fine, but I just found it overwhelming. It was overwhelming to be always connecting with people and multitasking, and having colleagues internationally from different offices pressuring you over whether you’ve completed tasks. In this job, I was really pushed, and I think eventually, I just had burnout. I needed to take days off here and there, and obviously, they didn’t get it; they just thought I was making it up that I was ill. I couldn’t wake up in the morning; I couldn’t go, and I couldn’t explain this to myself back then because I didn’t know either I just had this exhaustion; I thought it was my chronic illness maybe as well. There was just too much talking I don’t want to talk too much it was just tiring. I would sit there being blank because my brain needs to reload, basically. Even though I’d done well and I’d done everything they asked me, maybe the way I came across was that I was a bit all over the place and struggling, and it just doesn’t make you look in a good light with the manager as I couldn’t smooth talk my way through the office. It’s very much about the kind of chit chat and the jokes and how you bond with your colleagues. I was a bit weird in that situation, and I think I was definitely misunderstood, and they didn’t appreciate the amount of work I had done because I couldn’t sell it. So, I think it impacted me, and obviously, in turn, it impacted my self-esteem probably because I thought, why couldn’t I be like everyone else. I couldn’t understand it myself. I wanted this job. I am enjoying it, but some how I don’t seem to perform.
Me: You said you were diagnosed later on in life. Were problems at work the thing that led to your diagnosis?
Martina: No, it was problems with organising things with family life, such as organising the home when my child came along (I hope to follow up this and talk about being a mother and Autism-this will be a later blog post). My work was making people redundant, and as I was one of the last people to be employed, I was made redundant. After the redundancy, we moved to Spain, and I started my own business, which was hard at the beginning; I did ok however it was a struggle, but I somehow managed because I liked it. But there were things I couldn’t manage, like the admin part of it, I would leave it until my husband would get pissed off and do my tax return as I’d leave it to the last minute as I can’t face the paperwork.
My parents forced me to work as a waitress when I was in school. It’s the worst thing that you can ask an Autistic person to do, go to tables and talk to groups of people, and then you can’t remember what they ordered. I really hated it, but I didn’t have a good argument for my parents about why I shouldn’t do it as I didn’t understand my issues. I couldn’t stand it; there were periods when I was crying every day after work because it was just too much.
I think that slowly during the years, because I was doing something that was hard for people like us to do that I just ran out of energy. I literally feel that my brain has given up on me.
Me: I get what you say about interaction being draining. I sometimes feel that I have to make more effort than the average person to appear bubbly.
Martina: It’s an effort, its not that I hate socialising; everyone was lovely on my team, but it’s still an effort to be with people. I feel I have to make extra effort to be a little bit expressive and present and reply to things, especially in groups of people. The social aspect of work is something I find challenging.
Me: You said you had trouble organising things, so how did you find things such as deadlines?
Martina: I was kind of ok if I had one project and I could immerse myself in it. However, they wanted me to do admin on the side or send you orders to process. If I get interrupted when I was immersed in a task, I find it hard to go back to it and focus on it. I feel that I did the worse things for me, work-wise. I think that maybe I need to be a solitary writer or researcher who does their own thing.
Me: I find I have to have a balance in terms of the amount of people contact I have. If I have too much, I shutdown, but I also suffer if I have too little. I feel I need more downtime than most people.
Martina: It has to be a controlled flow of people, but people coming and going in an open office, it feels like it’s an environment where I have to use all my strength to function. I wondered why I couldn’t just socialise in the way that other people did in the office. You see others, and it just seems so easy. Why couldn’t I walk up to the person and chat with them? I don’t understand how to make conversation like other people.
Me: I did improvisation, and I did find that helpful to some extent. I think that improvisation gives you the message that it’s about how you make people feel, not what you say. You feel less apprehensive about what you say during interactions.
Martina: I had to teach myself by looking at my friends that you have to ask people questions and let them reply, rather than getting carried away about your interests. It’s good to just leave space for others and ask them about themselves. It is always a conscious effort, and I learnt to be kind of acceptable, which is why it didn’t get picked up. People tell me to be myself, and I can’t be myself in public; I wouldn’t talk to anyone, and I’d be sitting in a corner reading a book.
Me: Do you think there is anything that could have helped you?
Martina: I think I couldn’t articulate my difficulties and advocate for myself. At work, I would get stressed, and I ended up apologising for things and taking the blame for everything, as I didn’t remember things and felt that I didn’t do enough. I felt that what I did went unnoticed as I didn’t draw attention to what I had contributed. I don’t think it’s about adaptation I don’t think office work is my kind of job.
Me: I sometimes think that I should be doing something doesn’t involve too much socialising. Maybe I’d feel less overloaded.
Martina: I get that. I think that in my opinion we just don’t fit in many typical jobs. There comes a point where the employer might not feel its worth it if they have to make too many adaptions or have to minimise what you are doing in terms of the actual role. In the office, in customer service or a restaurant, you can’t sustain yourself as you have to present yourself in a certain way and I think it’s just against our nature, you can force yourself for a bit, especially if you need the money, but long term I don’t think its healthy. I think Autistic men are better off as they don’t care as much and perhaps because they often have more of a specialisation such as IT. They’re also not made to feel as bad about their interaction.
Me: I think women are often viewed as being better socially. By that, I mean we’re supposed to be better socially. I think guys are viewed differently, I think if a man is considered to be standoffish, he’s not seen in such a bad light as a woman who’s seen to be standoffish.
Martina: People have told me so many times that you’re standoffish, rude, you’re aloof.
Me: Some people tend to think that I am snobby rather than rude. Snobby isn’t good, though.
Martina: Sometimes its hard when people view you in these ways you start doubting yourself, it’s hard, so I think this is why we mask because we worry about how we’re coming across. The social interaction aspects stopped me from talking to people and promoting myself.
Me: I suppose it impacts on things like networking. I’ve tried to network, but if you’re in a room full of people you feel self-conscious.
Martina: It’s tough. I’ve been to this business seminar, and they got us to move and speak to new people, it’s quite cool and interesting to find out about what they do. However, it’s an effort and exhausting.
Me: I find it less hard to move around the room and talk to people one to one. I find it challenging to make my way through a room and start a conversation with people. Things such as breaking into a group are scary for me. Sometimes when I break into a group, I’ll start chatting to someone, and then I get nervous, and I’ll become inarticulate, and they’ll go back to speaking to the person next to them.
Martina: It will always be difficult; I think we have to find our niche. You have to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but you have to find the balance where you push yourself but don’t feel ill because of how much you’ve pushed yourself. I liked it when I was working on my own thing in Spain, and I could manage my time do yoga, doing healthy cooking, putting things about my cooking online, and have people like it. Working on the café and people really enjoyed the food and coming back regularly, which gave me confidence and was pleasant doing all the creative things surrounding food, e.g., the cooking, the food photography, and creating the blog. I was passionate about it, so I was doing well, and then Karl came, and that was it. I think finding your own thing is the only way, although it’s not easy as we also need to pay the bills. We have only been talking about our difficulties as we try to fit into the neurotypical world. Everything has to work a certain way; it has to be productive have profit, and I think maybe its time to have more space for the things that we bring as well.
We as autistics tend to focus on our difficulties and what we are lacking when we try to go along with this system.
But maybe we can create a new system that’s more sustainable, both for our specific sensitivities, for people’s mental health in general and the environment too.
I think it’s about time that we shift the focus from economic growth at all costs to a healthier way of life for us and the planet. It’s less about being productive all the time and more about actually living well, having a quality of life, and sustainable, fulfilling relationships and activities. Maybe us autistic people can lead the way in this, as we need lots of our own space and time to recharge our energies. But we have lots of strengths as well. We can be innovative, creative, seeing things outside of the box. We tend to have our own viewpoint. We are not so keen to conform. We can be seen as problematic or stubborn by others, but if we don’t think that things are working, maybe we are supposed to change the rules instead of just going with it.
Look at Greta. She’s the perfect example of what a neurodivergent person can do with the right support. A single girl now started a massive movement for the environment. What she’s doing could be seen as idealistic or radical, but it’s just common sense, wanting to preserve our planet.
Me: I agree with respect to changes in the system. However Autistic people will have a hard time in terms of helping with change unless they’re allowed to be part of that system. Which means Autistic people need to be able to get into and stay in work. Which kind of leads on to my next question. So you had issues within the system in terms of the actual job but did you have any problems with the recruitment process?
Martina: Not really; I tend to do quite well in interviews. I give it my all, but then it’s hard to maintain that level of energy and confidence on an everyday basis.
English phrases from all blogs (excluding the theatre ones)
A gap in the market-was from the interview with a Deaf activist
She was commenting on how YouTubers should look for a gap in the market. This means YouTubers should look for something that hasn’t been done before or a different way of doing something so that they can attract people to their channel.
The word arm was used in the COVID interview in the following context:
- There are three arms to how we tackle the disease…
- …significant arm of any country’s response…
An arm, in this instance, means a way of responding. So, three arms means three ways of responding to something, in this case, tackling COVID. ‘A significant arm of any country’s response’ means that using a certain strategy is a major part of the country’s response.
I tried hard to fit in-used in Neurodiversity and work interviews. Fit in is a phrasal verb. It means to belong to a group, in this case to have a sense of belonging and to get along with her peers (people in her year group) at school.
Companies like to pay lip service to diversity. Companies like to say that they support diversity, but they put nothing in place for neurodiverse individuals.
I’d spurt out anything that came to mind. To quickly say a thought that comes into your head. In this case, the woman was nervous, so she couldn’t process the situation and just said whatever came into her head.
I made small talk-casual/informal conversation to break the ice (make yourself and those you’re talking to feel more comfortable)
Play it safe; plain office wear is usually best. Play it safe in this context means don’t be risky and choose clothing that would be deemed inappropriate because it might not be formal enough for the office environment.
The next lot of words and phrases will be from the follow-up to the COVID interview. Earmarked-I initially had the interview earmarked for another blog. I was going to use it on another blog.
Stay tuned for an update. Keep an eye on the blog to see when information on the previous post is updated.
The last blog for which I will examine English phrases is the interview about the play an instinct for kindness.
The play ‘An instinct for kindness’ was shortlisted for the ‘what’s on stage award.’ To shortlist in this case means choosing the better ones from a long list of candidates and forming a shorter list of names.
What checks and balances did the Swiss have? Checks and balance means regulations that prevent abuses of the system and ensures that the person choosing the option is taking the best option for them.
Putting a human face on what can be a very dry..subject. A dry subject is something hard to connect to or uninteresting. In this case, putting a human face means giving the example of someone who went through a certain situation to make it something people connect with more easily/find more interesting.
I’ve read you were going to put a political standpoint…In this context, you were going to talk about policymaking on this subject.
…it’s such a typical English law…and they muddle along. In this sense, it means to proceed so that it is confusing and makes it difficult to plan using the existing laws.
English phrases from Prospero theatre piece
A theatre company called Prospero (level B1) – Rachel Does Interviews
I did some videos for a theatre company called Prospero Theatre; they are an inclusive theatre company that helps individuals with learning disabilities, autism, and/or mental health issues.
In this part of the blog, I highlight phrases that people learning English might find problematic and explain what they mean. I’d be interested in having people comment and tell me if any phrases were new to them and/or that they had trouble with within the following blog posts:
Transcript for short Prospero piece (level A2) – Rachel Does Interviews
A theatre company called Prospero (level B1) – Rachel Does Interviews
Clips from COMA (level A1) – Rachel Does Interviews
Relationship building-learning to relate to people in a team/build a social network.
To pull together-in this case, when elements of the drama session and the art session we’re brought together, it created a sense of well-being. Elements brought together to create something or some benefit.
To shelve something-you stop working on something, and return to it at a later date. Bex’s shelved her drama but returned to it later in her work with Prospero Theatre.
Carry me through- Tina had people thinking about her ‘carried her through’ the marathon meaning that it sustained her as it gave her the motivation to continue.
Rooting for me-Tina knew that Prospero Theatre members were ‘rooting for her’, meaning that they wanted her to do well and complete the marathon.
To push someone to do something- to encourage them in an endeavour. So Michael ‘pushed members of the Friday Club beyond what they thought they were capable of’ he encouraged them to challenge themselves and go further than they thought they could.
What not-in the case of voodoo shrunken heads and what not it means etc.
Downward spiral-to continue on a downward spiral in thinking means thinking the worse, awfulizing, or catastrophising when considering a situation.
Getting on a bit-getting on a little bit in age means getting older.
Please comment and tell me if there is anything else in the Prospero Theatre blog posts that you’d like explained.
Neurodiversity and work (level B2)
I sent some interview questions about neurodiversity and work to anon in the publishing industry; here are her answers:
Since graduating from university, I have been fortunate enough to have been in constant full-time employment. This is very unusual for a person with autism, but there are several reasons for this. From the time I started university to the end, I suffered from severe depression. The university was worse than useless; they just told me to drop out. I had always struggled socially, but university was too much. The focus was on partying and sports, two things I struggle with and dislike. After a year at university, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia. This explained why I could never throw a ball and struggled to ride a bicycle or use a skipping rope. No one ever made the connection to autism, even though many autistic people also show signs of dyspraxia. I never made the connection myself. I wasn’t like the autistic (always boys at school) people I knew. I was quiet and always polite; I wasn’t brilliant at physics. I tried very hard to fit in. Somehow I managed to graduate but with a lower grade than I wanted. Months later, I managed to get my first job in legal publishing.
Before this, I spent several months applying for various graduate schemes. The application process was tough. It included online tests: aptitude tests, verbal reasoning, situational judgement, logical reasoning, and inductive reasoning, among others. I needed extra time to complete these tests, but I was reluctant to let them know I have dyspraxia. Companies like to pay lip service to diversity, but I wonder if that is to just keep the newspapers and shareholders happy.
Verbal and numerical testing is something that an autistic person can do. After all, it’s something that can be studied for, and the autistic mind is determined and logical. However, situational or personality type tests are another problem. They are all based on the premise that there is only one correct way to respond to a situation. That only the gregarious need to apply. Naturally, this shuts out all autistics who approach problems differently from NTs.
Then there are the video interviews, phone interviews, assessment days comprised of tests, group scenarios, and one on one interviews. Video interviews were terrible. I hate watching myself on screen and feel very self-conscious. These interviews are timed and involve answering questions that you are presented with only a minute before. This would make me flustered and spurt out anything that came to mind. I would focus too much on how I looked and sound. As someone who always hated their appearance, it was awful. I also found it very distracting to be able to see and hear myself.
Phone interviews often went better as I didn’t have to see and hear myself, which I find unnerving. Only once did I manage to get through to the group interview stage. I was in a room with 30 others all day. It was exhausting, like a more civilized version of The Hunger Games. It relied entirely on the ‘winner’ having a loud and dominant personality, a person who can charm strangers and inveigle their way into a job. I am the opposite of that; I am entirely guileless and quiet, I can’t charm anyone, and I blend into the background. I’m too blunt and honest to ever succeed in a scenario like this. Being in a large group of strangers is very difficult for me. Add to this the need to act normal and somehow charm myself into getting a job, and I felt like I had run a marathon.
I eventually managed to get a job after graduating. Unusually enough, it matched my qualifications. During my interview, I mentioned that I had dyspraxia, but I said that it didn’t affect my work. In my first job, I had not been diagnosed with autism. Yet, in some ways, my differences helped me in this job. As it involved hours of repetitive and dull work, where I could listen to music and enter a working trance.
One issue I have found is that success in the workplace depends largely on being sociable and making friends, or at least being friendly, with everyone. I’m a very shy individual and find conversing with others difficult. Sometimes when my colleagues spoke about others in the company, I didn’t know who they were speaking about. I also think that my struggles with eye contact meant that I appeared aloof and snobbish when the opposite is true. During my time in this job, I tried to find another job. Eventually, the other members of the team left until only I was left. I found that my qualifications didn’t matter in interviews. What mattered was how well I sold myself. In all of the interviews, the feedback was that I didn’t have the right experience and seemed uncertain.
Eventually, my contract ran out and wasn’t renewed due to lack of money. I entered the new year unemployed and anxious, worrying that I would be forever single and unemployed. My only comfort growing up was that I did well at school. My poor university grade and inability to find a job made me feel very low. I realised that to find a job; I needed to change my approach. I researched the most likely interview questions and used the STAR (situation, task, action, and result) technique to plan my questions. I practiced looking people in the eye and looking to the side every minute so that I didn’t stare too much. I even practiced how I sat, with my hands on my knees and my feet flat on the floor so that I couldn’t fidget as I normally do. I spent three months applying for jobs and spoke to several recruiters. Most were very unhelpful and patronizing if they ever took notice of me. I refused to apply for jobs that I felt were below my qualification and experience level. My personal situation meant that I had somewhere to live and food to eat, so I could afford to be picky. I knew that once I was underemployed, it would be nearly impossible to reach the appropriate level again. If you can be stubborn, know that your qualifications and experience are worth more than what recruiters are telling you.
I was very lucky that I stumbled upon the best recruiter for my industry in the area. She persuaded me to apply for a position that matched my qualifications and experience. I found that preparation was key to my interview success. I even planned my exact route and got to the interview early. This gave me time to calm down and prepare in a coffee shop. The interview involved a test beforehand. Later I was told that I had the best result. It helps to apply for positions that require specialist skills, which really allow you to shine. I made sure that I shook the interviewer’s hand, maintained eye contact, and didn’t fidget. I used my prepared questions. I researched the company beforehand and prepared three questions I would ask them at the end. I made sure that I didn’t ramble or go off on a tangent. When the interview ended, I shook their hands and ‘made small talk’ in the lift to the entrance. I even said goodbye to the receptionist and the security person at the reception desk.
Most jobs these days require multiple interviews. It’s important to prepare for all of them and think of new questions to ask for each. Also, wear different clothes for each interview.
I’ve found that competency in your job isn’t enough. You also need to engage with your colleagues. Whether through luck, the industry I’m in, or a general change in social attitudes, I have found that colleagues are accepting of my quirks. One manager praised my ‘quiet determination,’ and others find my blunt witticisms amusing. It may be that the publishing industry attracts quiet types. One reason I chose to go into publishing and not law, despite having a law degree, was that I didn’t have the personality for law. I looked at my lecturers and those on my course who were trying to get into the industry and realised that I wasn’t loud, argumentative, or connected enough to go into law. I have been told over and over again since school that connections are everything. But when you struggle to talk to strangers and connect with them, how can you make connections? Socializing after work is important. I force myself to go. I find that by joining in with a small talkative group, I can inject the occasional comment without the pressure of maintaining a one on one conversation. I also use my commute as an excuse to leave earlier than others. Yet, even during these situations, my differences show. One colleague noted that I am more engaged but still struggle with eye contact. This was a surprised, I thought I was getting better!
So, why haven’t I told my colleagues about my autism? I started seeing a psychologist who specializes in autistic women several months after starting. By then, my colleagues had accepted me and praised my work. It is the same reason that I didn’t tell recruiters I had dyspraxia when searching for a graduate role. There is a small but fearful part of me that says people are still wary of differences and will treat me differently, whether they intend to or not. I’m also aware that without an official assessment, some may not believe me. I know that I don’t fit in with the stereotypical perception of autism. I’m a woman who likes to take care of their appearance and has an interest in fashion and culture, not astrophysics. I understand sarcasm and can tell if people are genuine, an ability I have gained through years of subtle bullying and also due to how autism manifests differently in each person. I would like to put aside my reticence and tell them. I struggle with depression and have missed a few days of work, blaming it on the flu. Being open about my mental health and diagnoses will help my colleagues understand and make arrangements for me.
Fortunately, due to the nature of editorial work, I and others in my team can work from home or in a meeting room during big projects. I can work from home one day a week. I can work without the distractions in the office and take a break from my commute. The office can be loud, but I can listen to music, which helps me to focus. When my headphones are on, others have learned that it is difficult to get my attention and just leave me alone. Modern open-plan offices are noisy. I know that I am not alone in finding it challenging to work in these types of offices. The high rents in London mean that companies are reluctant to change from this, so headphones are the way forward for me.
If I did tell my current and future colleagues about my autism, I wouldn’t request many adjustments, just to be able to listen to music and to occasionally work from home, something that is already becoming increasingly acceptable. As I am on the milder end, I don’t require many adjustments; however, I want more understanding. I want people to understand that if I say something that offends them, it’s not meant in that way. That loud pubs and parties are overwhelming, and I find it difficult to follow a conversation when there is background noise. That new tasks terrify me, but I still want to do them and push myself.
I have a few suggestions for autistics in regards to employment. If you can, don’t settle for a role you are overqualified for. It will bore you and ruin your confidence. However, I know that for many, this just isn’t possible. So I ask that employers look past the label and see the person in front of them. If possible, try to take part in social activities; attend after-work drinks for five minutes, and when things become overwhelming, blame your commute or cat and leave. If you have understanding colleagues be honest and say that it is too much and you need to leave. Just trying can help you and your colleagues understand each other better. I’ve found that jokes can help, but keep them clean and safe! Though it’s easy to say, stand up for yourself, show, and tell others what a good worker you are.
You can succeed by putting forward and occasionally embellishing your achievements, whether through your CV, cover letters, or internal reviews. Take any new opportunities, whether they are tasks or training, and note them down in your CV, LinkedIn, and internal reviews. Also, have a LinkedIn account where you can add anyone you meet through work. Research and preparation are key for interviews. Practice maintaining eye contact and shaking someone’s hand. Choose appropriate clothes; a trusted person can help with this but play it safe; plain office wear is usually best. Most of all, just try. Hopefully, society is learning that different does not mean defective.
Follow-up to the COVID interview (level C1)
I initially had the interview with the scientist earmarked for another blog. The original interview was conducted in March, you can read it here:
https://racheldoesinterviews.com/2020/09/04/coronavirus-some-of-the-science-behind-it/
I moved the interview to this blog because it is more accessible and I wanted to update the science to show how the scientific process works. I hope to interview the virologist again to give readers an update on the COVID situation wrt science.
This blog post will be dedicated to my personal update regarding the situation.
As stated in the previous interview, certain drugs were trialled for COVID-19.
The first drug mentioned in my previous post was hydroxychloroquine. The initial stages of an investigation into a drug look at what is known as in vitro testing, which is a Latin expression meaning “in the glass”; this stage of the testing tests the medication being trialed by using cells in a test tube. Sometimes, a procedure that works in vitro does not work in vivo (in the body); this is because the body is complex, and what works at the cellular level in a test tube does not necessarily work when it is tried in living humans.
Hydroxychloroquine was tested in multiple trials and showed no benefit when it came to post-exposure prophylaxis* or in treating COVID-19.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(20)30390-8/fulltext
Trials of Remdesivir were conducted as a medication to treat COVID 19 because it is a general anti-viral medication. Remdesivir blocks the activity of an enzyme that is needed for viral replication. In vitro, Remdesivir, and Interferon-beta had an effect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Results for Remdesivir have been mixed. To find out more, follow this link:
https://acpinternist.org/weekly/archives/2020/10/20/2.htm
Factors that can lead to mixed results in clinical trials include:
- how long the individual has been ill
- their age
- issues with statistical power (i.e., whether there are enough individuals in the trial to make the results meaningful), among other things.
Interferon-beta was trialed for COVID-19 since it worked against hepatitis C which is in some ways similar. Interferon-beta worked against hepatitis C by stimulating the activity of immune cells and resulting in virus-infected cells being more susceptible to the immune response.
The findings for Interferon-beta-1a are promising, and further trials would help determine how effective it is in terms of COVID 19 treatment. See the following link for more details:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30523-3/fulltext
If I am able to arrange a second interview with the virologist, I hope to look at the following:
- Human trials and how they are used to test certain medications.
- What we now know about the immune response to COVID-19
- What the science says about herd immunity (I personally feel that letting a virus run unchecked through the population is a bad idea and that genuine herd immunity achieved through vaccination) and what the stance of the scientific community is in general regarding this question
- Why the vaccine is fine even though it’s been developed in a faster time frame than is normally the case
Stay tuned for a possible update..
*post-exposure prophylaxis is a preventative medical treatment that needs to be taken in a specific time frame in order to prevent an infection from occurring
An Instinct for Kindness: An Interview with Chris Larner (level B1)
R=Rachel or boldness = myself the interviewer and CL=Chris Larner or regular font (no bolded) the interviewee
R [intro]: So in November 2010, Chris Larner took his ex-wife Alison who was suffering from multiple sclerosis to Dignitas in Switzerland. The play an instinct for kindness has been shortlisted for the whatsonstage award. I am now interviewing the actor Chris Larner.
How did you feel about assisted dying before you accompanied your ex-wife Alison to Dignitas?
CL: How did I feel about it? I hadn’t really thought about it, precisely, philosophical. Had you asked me I would have always been of the position that we control our own lives, that we control our own destinies; that my life is mine and that no one else has the right to tell me what to do with it. That would have been philosophically my position. Specifically, I hadn’t worried about the legality of it, cause I’d never come across it; it had never come my way until Alison got very, very ill and asked me to go, and then, you know, you have to start thinking about it.
What checks and balances did the Swiss have in terms of the initial application?
What checks and balances do they have? It’s quite a rigorous process. I think it may be changing now, but I think when Alison and I went to Switzerland there was a popular myth around in this country that you just got on a plane and went, it was easy, an easy process. It isn’t; it’s expensive and its quite laborious and lengthy and exhausting actually. The process with Dignitas is that you have to become a member. You have to get your membership card and you get a yearly newsletter, and you have to write quite a lot you know a detailed letter as to why want to be a member of the organisation. And only once you are a member can you then apply if you get ill or if you want to end your life. And then they are fairly rigorous, it seemed to me about checking medical records and medical details; they won’t just accept you, in fact most people are not accepted if they apply to Dignitas.
So, there was an awful lot of medical documentation and affidavits that Alison had to send off to Switzerland. And then, once we got to Switzerland, she was interviewed by a doctor, who had been reviewing her case all along the way. So, there are people who say that it’s not rigorous enough. It’s the Swiss; you know, our law here [IN THE UK] doesn’t allow for anything. That’s up to us if we change the law here, that’s up to this country to make sure that procedures are in place.
What kind of response have you got from the audience? Do you think there is a taboo around this subject anymore than around death generally?
When I started writing An Instinct For Kindness which is my play about the experience of taking Alison to Switzerland, I really had no idea what would come out of it as a theatre piece at the end of it. I just knew I had this story to tell. I didn’t know whether people would find it prurient or exploitative or just bad taste to be telling a story which was personal and indeed true. But if anyone has found it prurient or in bad taste, they haven’t told me about it.
The response I’ve had from it has been fantastic. And yes, it does break a taboo in talking about this. But people who come to see the show are ready to break that taboo anyway. “I have met people who have said I can’t come and see your show because I would find it too upsetting” or “I don’t want to think about these things” or “I just don’t agree with what you’re saying” and that’s fine. From my point of view, putting a human face on what can be a very dry, high moralistic subject was important.
So, the response I’ve had from people who’ve come to see the show has been overwhelmingly positive. People have been very moved by it because you get to meet Alison, because I play Alison as well as myself. You know so you get to meet her and go through the horrible pain that she went through and the decision that she came to which was very difficult.
So, it’s not an easy watch as a piece of theatre; I can say that. But people have been very kind about it.
What campaigning have you done around assisted dying? I’ve read you were going to put a political standpoint in your play but you decided against it. What sort of things were you going to say?
What campaigning have I done? Well, since doing the play, I have become more a patron of Dignity in Dying, which is the British charity which campaigns for a change in the law, and they asked me to become a patron and I broadly agree with what they’re trying to do. So, that was a good thing, but other than doing the play I am not really suited to political campaigning. This play is political enough, I think, because it is breaking a slight taboo in talking about the “untalkable”.
As I said earlier, when I started writing it and rehearsing it and I didn’t write a complete script then I was rehearsing it; it was all mixed in. I didn’t quite know what kind of show it was going to be. The experience that I found, and that Alison certainly found in getting to Dignitas was that it was impossibly hard, very, very strenuous, and expensive and exhausting for her. So, when I started writing and rehearsing, as I dwelt on that and dwelt on what she went through not just her illness, her MS, which can be a terrible disease just fighting for that last bit of dignity was just a terrible kind of burden on her. And thinking about it and dwelling on it made me angrier and angrier and angrier.
You know, it’s such a typically English law that we’ve got, with a bit of fudge here, a bit of obfuscation there, bit of cowardice, here and they muddle along because people who are desperate to end their own lives for good reason go to Switzerland and they spend a lot of money if they’ve got it. And if they’re coherent enough to get there and well enough to get there that’s what they do. So, the problem is exported.
So as I was writing the play, I got angrier and angrier about that situation, and I think, quite rightly so. But myself and H.I, the director, we quickly realised, that actually, that anger in the play, me standing up and ranting and going. “Ooh, we must change the law,” was not appropriate to the play. The play is Alison’s story and it’s about as much her as a person and me as a person and our relationship as it is about her; the way her life ended. And really, it’s a much better piece, I think, because the politics has taken a backseat. It speaks for itself; it’s obvious, you know Alison was very poorly and should have had the right to die in her own bed, at her own time, instead of you know having to fly a 1000 miles away and spend a lot of money and a lot of stress but anyway.
So, I think it’s obvious the politics in the play so we cut out a lot of the more explicit ranting politically cause I don’t think I am best at that; I think I’m best at summoning up an emotional story and let people do their own judgment. After all, the best political theatre is the one not where people are being political on the stage but where the audience become political after they leave the theatre.
Transcript for short Prospero piece (level A2)
Intro: beeps (signifying hospital sound)
Bex/Becca:
When we bring together the creative self-expression of performing, the ownership of creating props. All of those things pulled together there’s a huge amount of benefit, to mental health and to our emotional well-being and a lot of relationship building goes on as well.
Beth:
One of the most important things that we work towards with the guys is independence so its all about resilience rather than reliance. One of the things that we encourage people to be, I guess train people to be is flexible and adaptable and actually that’s an incredibly key transferable skill, because we have an awful lot of people here with autism.
Michael:
I like to push the guys in this group beyond what they are capable of doing, well, what they think they are capable of doing, actually I encourage gruesome details. So, for example the voodoo shrunken heads and door knobs made out of knee caps and also curtains made out of, made out of human skin.
Dan:
How has Prospero helped you?
It’s helped me more, acting-wise, and its now steering me on a path towards caring for other people.
Three words to describe Prospero?
It’s an absolutely brilliant group.
Beth:
The production that we’re working on at the moment is The Wizard of Oz so we’re creating our own sort of storyline and making it very ensemble in feel, so we have a whole field of scarecrows and lots of additional characters, that don’t come into the text, for example Spellacus which is the spell book that gives their spells to the witches, and we have a really lovely forgetful witch.
[piece from play]
“I was totally lost, until I heard you laughing and talking”
“Ancient Eta and I will get the spell to poison the poppies”
“Spellacus give us the spell for sleep”
“Now Bandora wants the deepest possible sleep but which is the highest number 5 or 10. 5.”
“Now give that to me, I’ll run it across to the poppies”
“Oh, I am ever so grateful Shadow, it will be a different story once I get my new hip”
She was getting on a little bit in age and she’d getting most of her spells wrong by this point.
Each of those characters will be explored within the context of our cast, so as an example, you know, we might have a wicked witch who wants as a person, who wants to really think about what it is to empathise. We have quite a lot of guys with Autism and Aspergers and the whole empathy question, is quite important for a lot of them so we can do that within the play.
Friday club members
My name is James.
Most exciting moment in The Wizard Oz?
Going down the yellow brick road and meeting all the characters.
Three words to describe Friday club
Good, magical, and intriguing
What do you like about Friday Club?
Anna: I like being with Beth, working with the acting, mostly working in groups. Coming together and working like with friendship.
Three words to describe Friday club?
Happy, joyful, and jolly.
Michael:
I find that acting as a whole, for people on the autism spectrum such as myself it really helps them with learning about body language.
The Monday night group, we’re the ones that are far more outgoing; we’re the ones that do the more outlandish stories and at the moment we are working on a play called COMA. Its all about a woman who in her 60s meets her long-lost daughter and suffers a heart attack. Through the heart attack she faints and knocks herself out.
[Piece from the play]
“Are you Alisa Johnson?”
“Yes”
“Oh, I’ve been looking for you”
“You see the thing is, I think you might be my mother”
“I am so sorry”
“I didn’t mean to…do you want to sit down”
“She’s having one of her fainting attacks”
“I am calling an ambulance”
When she wakes up in hospital she finds..well.. she thinks that she’s 16 years old and thinks its all the way back to the 1970s.
“Mum I can’t tell you how good it is to see you awake. It’s good to see you sitting up”
“Don’t touch me, don’t touch me”
“Sometimes it takes a while for memories to come back”
“When someone’s been in a coma. It’s me your daughter Brooke”
We start in 1973 and finish up in well 2019 and I play the role of Eden and I violate the main character.
“I don’t remember getting home. I was in shock. Which roads did I take? None”
Beth:
So, it’s obviously also about achieving the best that we can in terms of the artistic pursuits. When we went to Edinburgh with ‘Red and the Wolf’ we got 4/5 star reviews.
A theatre company called Prospero (level B1)
Transcript for Prospero piece
Intro: [beep] (signifying hospital)
Beth:
We have quite a high ratio of staff to guys and everyone really works together. So, although all of the people that are participants do have a disability, it feels much more inclusive than exclusive and we have Bex who does the art. So, she leads the art and I just help. I lead the drama and then we have, so Tina “To Kansas” and Michael, “Could we just ask that the small yappy person stays here with us?” “He’ll be safe here.” who are, our sort of assistants in terms of the drama; they’re both professional practitioners and then April is a member of the Heart of the South care agency and she does all the more difficult stuff in terms of the care, but she also does the drama, and we’re all trained in terms of the care but that’s not our specialism; that’s hers. And actually, quite a lot of the helpers that we have here also have special needs of some kind.
Bex/Becca:
The therapeutic benefits being creative are pretty well known these days, thankfully, and it’s an absolute joy to put them into action every Friday. When we bring together the creative self-expression of performing, the ownership of creating props, through the artistic session in the afternoon, all of those things pulled together, you know there’s a huge amount of benefit to mental health and to our emotional well-being and a lot of relationship building goes on as well throughout all of those processes.
Many years ago, I was involved in performing and studying acting. I did my exams at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and I did some amateur dramatics, a bit of panto, and its something I’d shelved for a long time. So the opportunity to get back in to that from a personal point of view, combined with the creative aspects of running the art sessions and all of the benefits from all of those things, and bringing that to others, was a winning combination.
Tina:
My assistants are my trainers and I go at the speed of light, so I can sort of change time; speed things up. “It’s the first marathon I’ve run for Prospero, this year I was really, really lucky to get a place in the ballot so I could choose who I wanted to raise funds for, so I chose to raise funds for Prospero because it is so close to my heart. The last 11 miles, I was on my own in a sea of people and I kept thinking back to all the guys at Friday Club and that they might be watching and they were rooting for me, and it just carried me through, just thinking of them.
Michael:
I like to push the guys in this group beyond what they are capable of doing, well, what they think they are capable of doing, actually. I like to push quite a few of the others, quite a few of the members of the group, to come out of their shell and I like to make sure that when we are devising, when they’re in my groups, that they are in roles that they enjoy.
For this play, The Wizard of Oz, with the wicked witches I’ve been pushing the guys to go beyond what they normally would see as horror and what not. I like to get them to think of great detail, and in this case very gruesome details as well. I encourage gruesome details. Say, for example, the voodoo shrunken heads and door knobs made out of knee caps and also curtains made out of, made out of human skin.
Beth:
One of the really important things, are that everybody here has goals that they aim for and it’s about moving people out of their comfort zone and challenging them. But not obviously taking them so far that they hit the panic zone. Or if they are in the panic zone to bring them back into the stretch zone or the zone of proximal development where we all learn the best. So, within that framework everyone has goals both artistic goals and social goals and one of the most important things that we work towards with the guys is independence. So, it’s all about resilience rather than reliance.
Daniel:
Hi, I am Daniel. I am an actor/volunteer for the Friday group and I enjoy it. I’ve been with the Friday club now for a year plus.
How has Prospero helped you?
Daniel: It’s helped me more, acting wise, and it’s now steering me on a path towards caring for other people.
Can you tell me a bit about Monday club?
Daniel: Monday Club is the exclusive adult group which is a few adults that get together and they make a show because it’s all part of the “mindfitness”. So, we base all our plays around that, with how to cope; with anxiety and depression, all that, it all comes under mindfitness with the “fox hole”. Yeah, it’s a thing where you go into your mind; it sort of takes you somewhere in your mind where you trap yourself and it puts you on a downward spiral and it put you into this state where you can’t get out of, like a deep well that you’re trying to climb out of and you can’t.
How does what you gain from Friday and Monday club differ?
Daniel: I think there is a variety of difference between Friday Club and Monday Club. Friday Club, I’ve got a bit of both acting and helping. But Monday, it’s more focused on the acting. It’s focusing on all the strong points what I need, in order to push myself forward to be a better actor. So, it’s what gradually that Beth does it’s a step-by-step process of pushing me to do different things. Then learning all the points where…, all the areas where I am blank and then kind of feeling in them spaces of the blankness, then just progressing forwards.
Three words to describe Prospero?
Daniel: It’s an absolutely brilliant group
Beth:
We give a huge amount of support in the way that it’s most needed, so for example we have one person who’s with us at the moment who’s been with us for a few years now, and when he first came, he came with a carer for the whole day. And then he came with a carer up to lunchtime, this was after a term. And then he came with his carer just up to the coffee break. And then just in the morning for morning coffee before we start. Now he not only comes on his own but he leaves on his own, and that was again a staggered process; first lamppost, second lamppost until he’d got all the way home and his sense of achievement is extraordinary. And it’s the same in terms of the artistic challenges that we do.
So, everyone has things within each play that we work on, they want to accomplish, so it could be something as simple as managing a co-ordinated movement. We have someone who has severe co-ordination problems who did a very simple stage fight and we worked on that step by step-by-step until they could do it. And it’s transferable skills, so it’s also about getting the guys to understand that everything they learn here can be transferred to other parts of their life, and that the achievements that they find here and that the sense of confidence that they gain is really important. And I suppose that alongside that is one of the main principles or, kind of ethos, of Friday club is ownership. At the moment, what we’ve been doing is improvising around the story, giving it our own kind of twist and making it as original as we can.
Improvisation: character traits of main characters in Wizard of Oz
“You there”
“Me?”
“Scarecrow, step forward.”
“You believe yourself to have no brain. Let us see how smart you really are.”
“Answer this for entry. Tell him the question.”
“Answer me this riddle: what walks with four legs at dawn, two at meridian and three at dusk?”
“Is it a human?”
“Correct, for a man walks on all fours at dawn when he is an infant, at meridian he is in the prime of his life and stands tall and proud and at dusk is but a weak and feeble old man aided by a stick. You may pass.”
Beth:
From that improving, essentially a devising process, I’ll script and then we’ll come in and rehearse the play and the wonderful Bex who runs our art therapy is in charge of… then at that point they’ll build the set and make the props. It’s very much about the whole process that belongs to them and they’re challenged every step of the way. But they work incredibly as a team, really; they are a company. It’s absolutely brilliant to see, the level of support for each other as well as from us is extraordinary.
The production that we’re working on at the moment is The Wizard of Oz. So we’re creating our own storyline and making it very ensemble in feel, so we have a whole field of scarecrows and lots of additional characters that don’t come into the text, for example Spellacus, which is the spell book that gives their spells, to the witches and we have a really lovely forgetful witch.
“I was totally lost, until I heard you laughing and talking.”
“Ancient Eta and I will get the spell to poison the poppies.”
“Spellacus.”
“Give us the spell for sleep.”
“Now Pandora wants the deepest possible sleep, but I’ve forgotten which is the highest number 5 or 10. 5.”
“Here give that to me, I’ll run it across to the poppies”
“I am ever so grateful, Shadow. It will be a different story once I get my new hip”
Beth: She was getting on a little bit in age, and she’s getting most of her spells wrong by this point. So whatever production we’re doing, that’s a really key and important thing to make it as ensemble as we can. So, our last production was The Lion King, so one of the things that we did with that is as characters were killed because that happens during the story they came back on stage and became the ancestors; the stars that in the book and in the film are referred to but we don’t normally see them carry on and participate in the story.
So, in terms of The Wizard of Oz, as well as our wonderful Friday Club guys, we always link with two schools. That’s one of our strongest sort of partnership link. So, we work with Hillcroft School and Sunnydown School on every Friday Club production. This year the Hillcroft primaries are going to be the munchkins and the Sunnydown secondary lads at the special school are going to be the flying monkeys. So, we’ve been kind of thinking about how that storyline can be developed and how the flying monkeys came to be subservient to the witch so that they have a little bit more of a story rather than just transporting Dorothy from here to there.
Each of those characters would be explored within the context of our cast, so as an example, you know, we might have a wicked witch who wants as a person, wants to really think about what it is to empathise. We have quite a lot of guys with autism and asperger’s, and the whole empathy question is quite important for a lot of them, so we can do that sort of within the play.
One of the things that we encourage people to be and I guess train people to be is flexible and adaptable and actually that’s an incredibly key transferable skill because we have an awful lot of people here with autism, some quite high-level autism so coping with that kind of change is a really important part of the process and as you’re coming into performance, you know that has to carry on right until the last minute.
We’ve had instances where, you know, one of the fairly main characters was not well on one of the days of performance, so we had to kind of divide up the lines in the corridor which was an interesting experience. And being able to cover lines so we don’t work with a prompt; everyone is trained to be able to cover each-others lines and that’s, again a really important skill to learn so for the last time in ‘Lion King’ when we gave out the challenges our goals, for the first time we had two people with high level autism in a scene on their own, so they had to be able to get themselves out of trouble and cover each other’s lines and improvise out of it if there was a problem and they did absolutely brilliantly. So, it’s trusting both yourself and the others in the team.
We had one lad from one of the schools last year who got as far as the backstage bit and then never actually made it on the stage and another one who came on in the wrong scene so we had to make him into a different character at that point so flexibility, being able to adapt is a really key part of the process. You know we always say that a company is a group that accepts each-others, otherness and is prepared to work as a collective and let the individual and all of their worries and anxieties move to the side and that in itself is a really positive experience.
So, the whole group are very much part of the devising process. So, we first look thematically about what the play needs to mean to us and to the audience that will come to see it. So, looking at the moment at The Wizard of Oz and our most important theme, everyone collectively decided is that we have the power within us and it’s what we do with our lives is so important both in helping us finding it for ourselves and finding it for other people.
Friday club members
James: My name is James
Most exciting moment in The Wizard of Oz?
James: Going down the yellow brick road and meeting all the characters
Three words to describe Friday Club?
James: Good, magical, and intriguing
What do you like about Friday club?
Anna: I like being with Beth, working with the acting, mostly working in groups, coming together and working like with friendship.
Three words to describe Friday Club?
Anna: Happy, joyful and jolly
Michael:
I find that acting, as a whole, for people on the autism spectrum such as myself, really helps them with learning about body language.
Well, both the Friday Club and the Monday night adult’s drama are inclusive drama groups, although Friday Club is more aimed towards people with serious physical and mental disabilities, so some of the things that we do with the Monday night group would actually be physically impossible to do in Friday Club.
But the Monday night group we’re the ones that are the far more outgoing; we’re the ones that do the more outlandish stories. And we’re also the ones that don’t just focus on doing stories for children; we also do stories strictly for adults and at the moment we are working on a play called COMA, which is an adults-only play and it’s all about a woman who in her 60s meets her long lost daughter and suffers a heart attack, and through the heart attack she faints and knocks herself out
“Are you Alisa Johnson?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“You see the thing is. I think you might be my mother.”
“I am so sorry.”
“No, I didn’t mean to. Do you want to sit down?”
“She’s having one of her fainting attacks.”
“I am calling an ambulance.”
Michael: And then when she wakes up in hospital she finds, well, she thinks that she’s 16 years old and thinks its all the way back to the 1970s.
[clip from play]
“Mum, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you awake, to see you sitting up.”
“Don’t touch me, don’t touch me.”
“What’s happening?”
“Sometimes it takes a while for memories to come back.”
“When someone’s been in a coma. It’s me your daughter Brooke.”
“I haven’t..leave me..nurse, nurse!”
Michael: We start in 1973 and finish up, in well, 2019. And I play the role of Eden and I violate the main character.
[Clip from play]
“I don’t remember getting home. I was in shock. Which roads did I take? None. Which paths? Marie. I was sick in the garden. She was asleep on the sofa when I went in. I didn’t tell her anything, I didn’t know how”
Michael: I am the man who is basically the cause of the events of the story. Because the long-lost daughter is my child as well; I am the father.
[Tina and Dan discussing dance]
Ours is like an interpretive dance on an attack which the two characters, Alisa and Eden, are part of, and what we are doing is we are mimicking and shadowing. We’re doing it in a more positive way. So, everything that’s negative in their dance we’re doing in a more positive and sensual way. It gives the audience to believe that while something bad is happening in one place, in another place its happening, its happening good and its happening between two hospital beds.
[Dance piece with sound of silence continues till 20.45 when narrative about the piece starts up.]
The flashback to the party. Its right at the end of the play. Where Eden meets Alisa and Alisa meets Eden and asks her to dance and it goes smoothly and it goes really wrong. It goes not the way Alisa expects it to go and Eden takes advantage of it all.
Beth:
Monday evening drama is inclusive for adults, Its 50% people with disabilities and 50% not. We look at the needs of each and every person and think about how we can encourage and support. So, obviously, it’s also about achieving the best that we can in terms of the artistic pursuits, when we went to Edinburgh with ‘Red and the wolf’ we got 4/5 stars
Credit:
Beth:
In February we lost our longest-standing-member, 13-years and so everyone wanted to dedicate this show to Howard.
Howard, he would cry a lot just because he was so overwhelmed with joy and so grateful for everything in his life and I just think we have an awful lot to learn from Howard. You know, most of us have probably never been as happy as Howard was pretty nearly all the time. So that’s how we ought to remember Howard just smiling. Thank you.
Rachel Does Interviews 