Uniquely Us: Not Your Garden Variety Theater: A Summer Program for Children and Teens on the Autism Spectrum

For many individuals with special needs, skills such as learning to express and interpret basic emotions, making new friends and working with a group can be challenging at best. For parents, it can be difficult to find fun and fulfilling summer programs to accommodate their children’s needs. For the past five years, the Not Your Garden Variety (NYGV) Theater in Chico, CA has been a welcome option for children and teens on the autism spectrum.

In partnership with Far Northern Regional Center, the theater program takes place at Little Red Hen’s Lifespan Center. The Lifespan Center is the home for Little Red Hen’s programs for children, teenagers and young adults.

The summer theater program averages about 20 participants a year and runs three days a week for six weeks in July and August. The young actors learn the play, “The Wizard of Oz,” and the program culminates with a live performance for family and friends.

According to Brooke Burrows, Supervisor of Children’s’ Productions for NYGV, the play was chosen because it is well known and easy to understand. “The children in the program can also easily relate to the plot and the characters,” explained Brooke. As Dorothy finds herself unexpectedly in the Land of Oz, the kids in the program also find themselves in a new place, with new obstacles to overcome, and must learn to work together to achieve their goals.

Even though the program sticks with the same play each summer, it is performed differently from year to year to bring out the strengths of each participant. It is a collaborative effort, with input from the young actors as well as those organizing the performance. “We rewrite the script to fit the kids,” Brooke explains.

Theater arts are becoming more and more integrated for children with special needs. Research has shown that participating in theater productions can encourage communication, teach turn-taking and strengthen interactions with the environment. It also helps tremendously with skills such as eye contact, recognizing the emotions of others as well as one’s own and interpreting body language. For the young actors of NYGV, Brooke says, “they learn to connect with their emotions through pretend play.”

For more information about the Not Your Garden Variety Theater program, please contact Little Red Hen Lifespan Center at (530) 897-0300 or visit littleredhen.org/pages/lifespan-center.

Uniquely Us is a unique opportunity to address special needs issues and concerns and to celebrate life. If you have something in particular you would like to read about, please write to pn@northstateparent.com (please include UU in the subject line).