Shakespeare's Heartbeat

Drama Games for Autistic People

This updated and revised edition of Shakespeare’s Heartbeat offers a step-by-step guide detailing how to demonstrate, play and perform sensory games based on two of Shakespeare’s most popular plays with autistic people of all ages.

This updated and revised edition of Shakespeare’s Heartbeat offers a step-by-step guide detailing how to demonstrate, play and perform sensory games based on two of Shakespeare’s most popular plays designed for autistic people of all ages.

The original games of heartbeats, eye contact and spatial awareness were created at the Glebe School, Beckenham, with a group of twelve autistic teenagers who met and played with Kelly Hunter once a week over three years, 2002-2005. This second edition brings the book up to date with the additional knowledge Kelly Hunter has gained since then as the founding artistic director of Flute Theatre, the world’s only Shakespearean troupe to focus on the needs of autistic audiences. The book includes the following:

• A new chapter dedicated to performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest with autistic audiences, including Hunter’s adapted, interactive performance texts of both plays.
• A new resource for playing with younger autistic children and their families.
• A new resource for playing with those who require a lower demand approach.
• A new chapter with targets and techniques to understand the autism puzzle more clearly.
• New games based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest which have been created over the last ten years, in addition to the original games detailed in the first edition.

This book provides an indispensable learning tool for theatre practitioners, drama students, applied theatre students, teachers, autistic people and their families.

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