Click here to learn more about Autism: the Musical and to view clips of the movie.
Q: What inspired you to make this film?
A: Autism first came to my attention in a psychology course in high school … then in my first semester in college, I took abnormal psychology. In that class, someone came to speak to us who ran a clinic at a university for autistic kids. I was so intrigued from the first time I saw the word, so I did an internship at the clinic. It was pretty devastating. In the 80s … it seemed that once people reached a certain age, they were just put into institutions. I was put with older kids who’d been in institutions all their lives … I was teaching them how to put a fork, knife, and spoon in a bag so someday they would be able to work at a factory.
It was hard to communicate with them, but at the same time, I had the sense that there was something more. Years later, a good friend of mine and the executive producer on this movie [Janet Grillo] had a child who was diagnosed with autism. This brought me back to thinking about the issue. Then she was approached by some people who wanted to do a documentary on the film … just as a favor to her I started talking with them …
But I told her, “Look, I would rather go to a root canal appointment than show up for an hour and a half movie about autism … it’s painful as hell! We need to come up with something where autism is not the subject, but the obstacle. So it’s about people facing autism, not about people being engulfed by autism. I suggested a group of kids putting on a play. It turns out they knew a woman [Elaine, director of the Miracle Project, in film] who was working with kids with autism on plays ...
Q: I was struck at how well adjusted and happy these kids were. What’s your take on that?
A: We tried to set up a dichotomy where there’s life outside the Miracle Project … and then you come back to the Miracle Project and there’s a sense of calm and acceptance … then you go back into the real world where marriages are breaking up, kids aren’t getting into schools—and I think that was true of the experience …
Some people have said, “Well, this is a really high functioning group of kids” … but the group of kids is self selecting. These are parents who took their autistic children and signed them up for a musical theater program. Number one, you have a group of kids whose parents are very invested in them to begin with and invested in making their lives happy. Number two, you have a group of kids who are drawn to the stage … so they’re in an environment that makes them happy … They are pretty happy, but they face some serious challenges and are facing them very courageously.
Q: Of all the children in the film, whom did you most connect with?
A: I loved them all. And there were six others we spent a lot of time filming, but we had to narrow it down. They’re all great spirits. That was really important to me in this movie: to show the kids. They’re human beings, they’re kids. Fall in love with them!
They’re here and they’re not going away and right behind them is a whole other generation coming along. This is a reality we have to face. Since the time I began making the movie and today, it’s [autism] increased from 1 in 166 to 1 in 150, so it’s not getting any better. Yes, it’s true we know more about it and there’s more diagnosis. But anyone I talk to who works with autistic kids (teachers, pediatricians)—and who has worked with kids more than twenty or thirty years—says there’s a marked increase with children with neurological issues … Something has gone horribly awry.
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