Anna Hargadon and Professor Julia Ashworth, Department of Theatre and Media Arts
What started out as a research project turned into a delightful creative project. Because there weren’t any research professors on campus that specialized in the field of “Drama with People with Autism,” the research side of the project wasn’t able to move forward. My mentor professor was a theatre educator, but had no experience with research.
While I was in the midst of trying to figure out how to do the research mostly on my own, and week of the drama camp was closely coming upon me, I realized that the camp and the children were more important to me, even if I didn’t get the money from the ORCA Grant. I had to make a choice because I couldn’t focus on both at that time. I went ahead with the camp and was able to work with the ORCA people at BYU and turn it into a creative project.
The children had a wonderful time. I worked with them to creatively collaborate and make their own play. They came up with the story, the characters, the costumes, and the set. They learned and played drama games that helped them with social and emotional problems they face. They were flexible, artistic, creative, and confident. The volunteers grew as they were trained and put in situations that they had a desire to learn about but had never experienced before. I was able to see how my training in drama education prepared ME to be flexible, creative, confident, and prepared to meet the challenges I faced in the process of this project. I am currently editing the video of the performance and creating a drama pilot program with a charter school in the area that hopefully the children who were in the camp will attend.
This project helped propel me into my future. I have jobs now teaching drama to people of all ages who have autism. I am currently working with researchers who will aid me with a big project coming up to study drama and autism. There is much to be done, but I now know what I am willing to do to help these children and how to do it even better.