Introduction

InterActing is a nonprofit theater for youth with autism ages 12 to 22. Through improvisational theater, we encourage our participants to let go of their routines and rituals to face the ever-changing world with confidence.

Improvisation is a form of theater in which there is no script used. Yet it is based on a number of strategies that are very applicable to increasing the social flexibility of young people with autism. From being able to quickly build on each other’s ideas, to responding to the other person’s acted emotions, at InterActing they get to practice life in all its facets.

Our Motivation

Saskia Maas, director of InterActing, noticed that her autistic son Aidan has a remarkable brain, but couldn’t handle everyday surprises well. Together with educator and owner of Child Center, Pim Donkersloot, she founded theater school InterActing in 2018, where young people with autism learn to improvise, make friendships and build their self-confidence. Participants learn that the unexpected is not at all nerve-wracking, allowing them to better deal with unplanned situations.

Saskia Maas: “Sometimes they don’t dare say their name in the first lesson and by the end of the course they effortlessly tell me something about themselves.” Then I think, “Wow, what great progress.”

When you enter adolescence, you want to belong to the group. Then it is extra difficult when your challenge lies in connecting with another, because of your autism. That’s why with InterActing we focus precisely on these vulnerable young people. After all, everyone wants to build friendships and a life that is also filled with having fun. Through our approach, we increase their flexibility, personal development and social participation.

Our Approach

InterActing has several activities in which young people can participate. We organize trial classes for new participants, a 12-week spring and fall course, and a 4-day summer school program.

We use all kinds of varied exercises from improvisational theater that provide interaction between the participants. They learn to listen to each other, build on each other’s ideas and create skits together on stage. The basic principle of “Yes, And” is central to improvisational theater. This means that what your fellow performer says is always true and your job is to add something to it that makes the idea grow.

Respect, understanding and fun come out very well in this form of theater and they really learn to play together. Their so-called limitation plays no role whatsoever on stage and that works enormously liberating. In the summer school we add other creative forms that appeal enormously to this target group, so that they can experience that there is also much more in the world for them to learn than what they do in everyday life.

Our Statutory Objectives

Conceiving, developing and performing theatrical and improvisational programs that provide communication challenges for

• teens and young adults with autism and/or other disabilities
• their parents and schools and training institutions for this group of young people

We do this through the following activities

• Offering improv courses, a summer school program and trial classes to individual participants and schools.
• Increase awareness about autism and the opportunities our approach provides to increase the social participation of this specific group.