Acting

[Christian T]

Do we have any aspie actors out there? I really enjoy it, have been in a few school productions and drama groups, and am told I have a natural flair for it.

I feel that, as an aspie, I'm always drawn to those zany outsider characters, like the ones Johnny Depp brings to life for Tim Burton. I find it fantastic for self-expression, and a good place to sprinkle in a few of my aspie traits without making it autobiographical.

Does anyone else have this fondness for acting?

 

[buckyboy14]

OH YES! I have been in 12 plays in my life, occasionally as the lead. My dad is the drama teacher at my high school, and his fianc? is the drama teacher at another high school, so I'm around theatre-related things ALL THE TIME. I've been doing plays at his high school with high-school age kids since I was in kindergarten, and I'm currently in my high school's theatre troupe.

 

[Loomis]

No thanks. Not me.

 

[buckyboy14]

Being on stage is like second nature to me. Of course, there was one time I had an absence seizure during The Miracle Worker and couldn't say my line...

 

[consultingrodent]

i was in drama in middle school and at the end of the semester, we had to put on a play for the school. i didn't know it, but the teacher didn't hold auditions, just randomly selected people from the class to play different roles. i got a role in the play and i could not function. i couldn't say any of my lines on stage. it was horrible and embarrassing and the teacher refused to let me have a different, minor part, or even take part in the background aspects like lighting or sound. but then i got a horrid case of mono and missed the play anyway haha. it's scared me away from the stage, definitely. i think i might have been more interested had i not been forced into it. i really do enjoy the background aspects though!

 

[Spinning Compass]

I am involved in community theater. Right now we are rehearsing "Annie" to be put on at the end of the month. Since we are a no-budget theater group (and I mean that literally) putting together a show can be a challenge. We have to make our own sets and supply our own costumes and props. The sad thing about all our hard work is that so few seem to appreciate it. It is very discouraging to play to an almost-empty house, although the director has assured us that won't be the case with "Annie".

I really encourage people to go out and support their local community theater. I think they'd be pleasantly surprised at the quality of acting. And you are supporting something local.

 

[earthsteward70]

My AS son really loves performing. Dancing, singing and acting. He writes and draws creatively as well. It seems he needs a lot of ways to express himself. He's already got a science career in mind, yet I wonder if some day he might write, and act in a play.

 

[Kelly]

I love to act but not in public, I don't have the confidence for that. I'm very good at accents and completely immersing myself in a role, something my daughter absolutely loves seeing me do. She loves acting, singing and dancing, unfortunately her performing arts club stopped because the teacher had a baby and never came back and we can't really afford the hundreds of pounds a term for the professional school. So we do what we can with her, keeping an eye out for cheaper performances etc and the two of us together make up little plays and things or when she does have a role etc I help her prepare for it.

Earthsteward - My daughter loves to draw and write and make things, she's very creative and always has several projects on the go. At the moment she's making a monster high comic, some abstract thing in which she is drawing everything using only squares, a papier mache car for her teddies, an olympic torch out of recycled bits and a cross stitched monster high logo and she's always doing random drawings.

 

[Christian T]

i was in drama in middle school and at the end of the semester, we had to put on a play for the school. i didn't know it, but the teacher didn't hold auditions, just randomly selected people from the class to play different roles. i got a role in the play and i could not function. i couldn't say any of my lines on stage. it was horrible and embarrassing and the teacher refused to let me have a different, minor part, or even take part in the background aspects like lighting or sound. but then i got a horrid case of mono and missed the play anyway haha. it's scared me away from the stage, definitely. i think i might have been more interested had i not been forced into it. i really do enjoy the background aspects though!

That teacher's methods are seriously flawed - you don't just chuck someone into a tsunami to teach them how to swim!

Still, I hope this hasn't discouraged you too much from getting involved in stagecraft - they work just as hard as the actors, so they really should be considered as an equal part of stage productions.

 

[Christian T]

I really encourage people to go out and support their local community theater. I think they'd be pleasantly surprised at the quality of acting. And you are supporting something local.

I wholeheartedly second that recommendation to everyone, and don't worry about Annie - musicals always draw in big crowds. Last year I was involved in a similarly zero-budget school production of a Brechtian play which displayed huge amounts of creativity, ingenuity and resourcefulness - as I'm sure yours will - but it was a very dispiriting to get much of an audience. On the other hand, the feel-good crowd-pleaser Grease, which was performed later in the year at our school, sold out in barely the space of a day.

So, good luck with Annie, and good luck also to the development of your community theatre.

 

[Christian T]

My AS son really loves performing. Dancing, singing and acting. He writes and draws creatively as well. It seems he needs a lot of ways to express himself. He's already got a science career in mind, yet I wonder if some day he might write, and act in a play.

Wow, what a wonderful son you have. It's fantastic that he has so many different interests, and I also hope that he pursues those creative ones. How old is he?

And of course, Kelly, it's lovely to hear how incredible creative and inventive your daughter is, and it's fantastic that you encourage her.

My first drama club ended for the same reason, and when I was really little I also used to love doing little plays at home using every possible prop I could find and my sister as the all-purpose co-star. How old is your daughter now?

Oh, and respect to you Kelly for entertaining your daughter with your own talents. Have you ever considered going into film and television, since I imagine that's not as confronting as theatre? What is the work that you do now?

 

[Christian T]

OH YES! I have been in 12 plays in my life, occasionally as the lead. My dad is the drama teacher at my high school, and his fianc? is the drama teacher at another high school, so I'm around theatre-related things ALL THE TIME. I've been doing plays at his high school with high-school age kids since I was in kindergarten, and I'm currently in my high school's theatre troupe.

Oh cool, what plays, might I ask? My highlight has been playing Fagin in Oliver!. It sounds wondrous to be so surrounded by theatre.

 

[consultingrodent]

That teacher's methods are seriously flawed - you don't just chuck someone into a tsunami to teach them how to swim!

Still, I hope this hasn't discouraged you too much from getting involved in stagecraft - they work just as hard as the actors, so they really should be considered as an equal part of stage productions.

i agree so much. i took drama so i could learn about theater, not so i would be forced into something that made me physically ill.

however! i did take two stagecraft classes in high school and i absolutely loved it. i loved the creativity that came with actually building and creating the sets.

 

[rolo]

My step mother always said i was an actor-unfortunately my first foray as a little boy did not go as planned-i walked on stage, saw all these eyes looking at me, big and scary and ran out!
I found that I preferred smaller audiences who were not looking at me. I can get up and speak in an auditorium but when singing and acting i tend to become a gibbering nerveball- if I were to act I always wanted to be the lunatic or quasimodo but my all time favouite would be dracula-i especially liked Gary Oldmans version- i drove my ex mad suddenly morphing into the count! she especially didn't like it in bed.

 

[buckyboy14]

Oh cool, what plays, might I ask? My highlight has been playing Fagin in Oliver!. It sounds wondrous to be so surrounded by theatre.

I have been in, in order:

School House Rock Live!
Cinderella
Elfis Goes West with Lewis and Clark (put on by my history-obsessed music teacher in 3rd grade. I got the lead, Elfis)
Check, Please
The Foreigner
It's a Wonderful Life
Four Little Words
Lotto Date
How to Succeed in High School Without Really Trying
The Miracle Worker
This is a Test
Almost, Maine

 

[Christian T]

My step mother always said i was an actor-unfortunately my first foray as a little boy did not go as planned-i walked on stage, saw all these eyes looking at me, big and scary and ran out!
I found that I preferred smaller audiences who were not looking at me. I can get up and speak in an auditorium but when singing and acting i tend to become a gibbering nerveball- if I were to act I always wanted to be the lunatic or quasimodo but my all time favouite would be dracula-i especially liked Gary Oldmans version- i drove my ex mad suddenly morphing into the count! she especially didn't like it in bed.

It's easier to act in front of a bigger audience in some ways, because it's less intimate and exposed, and if you have the lights on you sometimes you can't even see them because they vanish into the shadows.

I also like to play those left-field characters, and hugely enjoyed Francis Ford Coppola's version of Dracula. Wasn't Gary Oldman so poignant and yet so forceful as well? - very believable. I also liked the visuals, and that classic line from Van Helsing "I'm just going to cut out her heart and take off her head!"

 

[Christian T]

I have been in, in order:

School House Rock Live!
Cinderella
Elfis Goes West with Lewis and Clark (put on by my history-obsessed music teacher in 3rd grade. I got the lead, Elfis)
Check, Please
The Foreigner
It's a Wonderful Life
Four Little Words
Lotto Date
How to Succeed in High School Without Really Trying
The Miracle Worker
This is a Test
Almost, Maine

Wow, I don't suppose you have a favourite, or 2, or 12?

 

[buckyboy14]

My favorites were the ones where I got roles that I wanted, and was able to have lots of fun doing. So my favorites would be The Foreigner, Lotto Date, and The Miracle Worker. I actually had the flu on the three nights we performed The Miracle Worker. I was miserable and my voice was incredibly hoarse, but I somehow pushed through it.

 

[Christian T]

I actually had the flu on the three nights we performed The Miracle Worker. I was miserable and my voice was incredibly hoarse, but I somehow pushed through it.

Oh yeah, that is tough. Well done for persevering, very professional of you. I've only been sick during one show, and luckily for that I was playing a drunk, so my voice could crack and scrape all it liked, it just added to the effect!

 

[buckyboy14]

Oh, wow, that is lucky. I played James, Helen Keller's bratty older brother. I loved that role.