Actor defends autistic boy who interrupted his show

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http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/broadway-star-takes-compassionate-stand-child-autism-disrupts/story?id=34031626

Considering the wealthy NYC mom who killed her autistic kid a few years ago because the kid was cramping mom's jet set life, I think that the mom in that theatre with an autistic kid is to be proud of the fact that she was confident enough to bring her kid to a Broadway show. Broadway tickets are not cheap, even by NYC standards, and The King And I remains in high demand. I have never seen The King And I, but apparently there is a scene where a character is whipped, with a traditional bullwhip. The scene obviously overwhelmed the kid in some way. These sort of things are hard to predict, especially if the kid is nonverbal.

I think I would have hesitated to take even an NT child to see a show with a person being flogged...just because of the intensity and violence of the scene. Folks could have been more tolerant though, it sounded like he just yelped once. If he didn't get out much, she might have tried him out on milder content first (family-friendly themes, smaller venues, or matinees where children are expected to be in the audience). I expect it might help to explain what was going to happen in the plot, and what the theater would be like.

My mom took me to movies, concerts, and even a few operas when I was a kid, although none of us knew that I was on the spectrum at the time. I think I tolerated it pretty well, and she usually picked something that would be kid-friendly, except the time she took me to Carmen. It's probably just as well that I dozed off before it got to the violent parts. I didn't really know what was going on anyway. After that, she took us to shorter, lighter operettas like The Pirates of Penzance and The Magic Flute, or the science fiction movies I preferred.

This reminds me of a couple of months ago when I went to see a play. For the most part I was quiet, and tried to stay that way. However, sometimes I fiddle with things, sometimes without even thinking. Long story short, for a brief scene, I accidentally made a loud noise when holding a Coke can, I got one or two angry looks from the audience

The irony - the play was about autism

I'd like to give that actor all the Brownie Points in the world for defending that child.

I am wondering how old the child is and even more wondering how it was determined the kid is autistic. Seems like the only person giving any details about this is the cast member, from his perspective up on stage.

A lot of the comments about it are saying the parent set the child up to fail. This could be true. While of course I do not think autistic people should be excluded from things, certain situations should be avoided for the sake of the child. Just being packed in with all those people could cause a panic attack and or set off a sensory meltdown.

But also this was a case of audience members acting like jerks. It would have been nice if they could have been understanding and maybe tried to help.

My comment below is copied and pasted word for word in my comments in the comment section of that story.

I am Autistic myself (Diagnosed I'm not a fake. Sadly we have confused people who think they can diagnosis themselves with a mental condition) as well as my youngest son. If you bring a child autistic or not into a situation that child does not feel comfortable that child will act out and in the case of an autistic child that child will have an uncontrollable meltdown which is no a tantrum but a literal defensive mechanism as the child is somewhere where he shouldn't be and he or she is not comfortable.

So well people are saying the audience is bad and the mother was an angel try to look at it from another prospective. The autistic child was forced to attend an event where each noise, light caused him to fear and he or she lost control of him or her self.

The fault is the mothers to bring and than KEEP a terrified autistic kid in a situation he or she clearly does not want to be in.

Don't pity or write articles defending the mother because clearly she was in the wrong and the child should be the one pitied. How about writing an article titled, "Autistic child dragged to an event by selfish mother and forces autistic child to watch show"

I watched the whipping scene on YouTube and no one actually gets flogged. The King threatens to whip someone and even pulls a bullwhip back a couple of times to strike, but then drops it and walks off. There was a lot of yelling and shouting going on between the King and Anna though. I think seeing people arguing like that in real life rather than in a movie might have been a little too much for a young kid or autistic kid to deal with in general.

Anything can trigger a meltdown. Lighting, sounds, smells etc. One of the worst meltdowns I ever had was from watching some low budget dopey foreign horror film, during a scene with red flashing lights and an echoing voice. For whatever reason that combo at that time triggered a massive meltdown.

We've only ever gone to autism friendly performances because basically I'm not a brave as this woman. It's a shame as we should feel able to access the experiences other "normal" families can but the social pressure to conform is immense and we just can't deal with the looks and the scorn.

That being said the autism friendly performance of the lion king as one of the best things we have done. And my son sat mesmerised as good as gold through the whole thing. We would probably have been fine in a normal performance to be honest but the lack of pressure in the autism friendly environment surrounded by his flapping, hooting and shouting peers and their understanding families kind it made the whole thing more magical. The appreciation of the performance was far more audible throughout and did not detract from the experience in any way.

Not a play my parents took me to but they took me to see Snow White and the seven Dwarfs because they thought I would like it because of the song "Heigh Ho." It was a song I loved so they took me to it but when the Hunter pulled out a knife, I got scared so my parents took me out to the lobby and I wouldn't calm down so we just left. Money wasted.

Yes the mother tried to take her son out when he got scared. I am saying that not all places are a place for kids to be, autistic or not. I don't think small children and babies belong at plays (I am not sure how old the kid was) because of their short attention span and they cry and make noise and it's rude to get up during the play unless it's some children's play aimed at small children so I am sure that stuff would be more tolerated. But then again my parents took us to a play once when I was eight and my brothers were 4 and 5 but we got bored in it and we did fine in it but then we left during the break because my parents saw we were bored in the play and didn't enjoy it because we were all saying how it was over and we are so glad and now we can go home. So I guess it depends on the child. I know my NT son wouldn't be able to handle a play because he gets bored and wants to move around and you can't do that at a play. But my mom told me years later when I was in my teens that she and my father should have just gotten us a baby sitter but instead they had ruined it because they had to leave because of their mistake of taking us. It was not a kid's play but it had no violence in it and we did keep saying we were bored, when is it over but we were not loud. I just sat quietly I remember waiting for the next scene because I was already bored with the scene. But we all know what happens when kids get bored which was why we left.

But I do wonder how the actor knew the kid was autistic, did the mother talk to him personally and tell him that?