UC Santa Cruz

When the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time premiered in 2012, it was one of the most significant representations of autism produced for the stage up to that point. However, the production was not accessible to autistic people, with the script and staging unaccommodating to the needs of autistic people.As an autistic director, I attempted to stage a version of the show that was accommodating to the autistic community and empowering to them. For this, I adapted the Theatre of Neurodiversity created by Sarah Magni for online performance to an in-person rehearsal environment and used myself as an autistic individual to determine the success of this adaptation. I created a manifesto that defined Theatre of Neurodiversity to evaluate the result. Ultimately, while the production did not fully meet the standards of the Theatre of Neurodiversity, it was closer than the original production.