When Autism: The Musical aired on HBO this year, it showed the range of autistic behavior like no other project had. For six months, kids all over the autism spectrum worked with the Miracle Project, a non-profit theater group in Los Angeles County, to write and produce a live musical.

Elaine Hall, the mother of cast-member Neal, was the director of the musical. She spoke to us about destigmatizing spectrum disorders, busting myths and how the Miracle Project will spread to Orange County.

(Photos are of Hall and local children performing onstage at the Talk About Curing Autism picnic in June.)

Q: How did you get all the families involved to agree to be in the project? Did any of them see autism as a stigma?

Elaine Hall: One of the main reasons I did the movie and a number of the parents volunteered to be subjects of the film was because autism gets such a bad rap. Some of the kids couldn’t even say the word — some of their parents had never even told the kid they had autism.

I think it’s sometimes more challenging when you have a kid like Henry or Wyatt (two high-functioning participants in the musical), who sort of fit in. There’s sometimes more compassion for a kid like Neal than someone on the cusp like Wyatt or Henry.

We wanted to change the way the world perceived our kids, change the way the world perceived autism. Like 10 years ago with ADHD, we wanted to make autism a household name. The more visible it becomes, the more people realize these kids aren’t some alien from another planet. They have a neurological challenge and their brains function differently, but they’re kids first.

Q: Did it work?

EH: After the HBO airing, I received over 2,000 emails, and one of the things people say is “I never understood autism until now.” One woman said, “I’ve been working in the field for 22 years, and my husband finally gets what I’m doing.” Or “My grandchild has autism and now I have so much more compassion for my daughter.” (Director) Tricia Regan is so brilliant. She said she wasn’t doing a film about autism, she was doing a film about love.

Q: You say in the film that you want to crush myths about autistic children. What myths in particular?

EH: One is that children who have autism don’t want to be around people. That’s so not true. They don’t want to be around people who are judging them all the time. But in our class everyone is hugging each other. It’s fabulously chaotic. Also, this is kind of a strange thing, but my son was diagnosed severely mentally retarded, and he’s super smart. Just because a child doesn’t speak doesn’t mean, you know, he doesn’t know and listen and understand.
Q: I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to see the kids bond with each other. Did you find they have the same social needs as a typical kid?

EH: They may not be able to articulate it the same way, but every kid needs to be accepted and loved. They’re just kids.

Q: Are schools and service providers contacting you to mimic what you did a bit?

EH: I’m being asked to speak at conferences around the country. I was in Canada a few weeks ago, I’ve been invited to Israel. Professionals, hospitals, schools — people want to be trained to do a Miracle Project. We’re having our first training in July, actually, and we have someone from Orange County coming.

It can definitely be replicated. There is a real methodology. Everything we’re doing is a really solid structure, and the Miracle Project includes all the protocols that we’re trying to do. We have sensory processing games, voice output — it just really puts all the protocols together. Diane Isaacs, Wyatt’s mom, said she quit going to therapies once she started Miracle Project because Wyatt was getting everything in one place.

Q: Are you concerned parents will see the documentary and think this is a magic bullet for their child? Are there kids it won’t work for?

EH: It’s not a magic bullet. It isn’t therapy, it’s therapeutic, and it’s community and relationship building and joy building. But I’d never say I have the latest greatest cure for autism. We’re not about curing autism; there are people out there spending millions of dollars on that, I hope. We’re about this: Our kids have autism, so what are we going to do to make their lives beautiful right now? There may not be a cure in the next 20 years, but there are thousands of children that want what every child is entitled to, to be loved and accepted the way they are. That doesn’t cost a penny, and that’s what the Miracle Project is all about.

Who would it not work for? Kids who don’t want to sing or dance or act. The compelling component of the Miracle Project is that what we’re doing in the circle is more exciting than them being in their own world. So if they have no interest in singing, dancing and acting, this is not going to be exciting for them. But I’ve been hired to create Miracle Project-like experiences for children who have no interest in theater, like sports.

Posted in: Autism: The Musical |

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