Do you want to see autistic people’s perspectives, lives and stories represented authentically on stage and screen?

Do you want to support neurodivergent creators and performers? 

Do you like exciting, innovative new theatre, and wish it was accessible to as many people as possible?

Do you kinda wish you could watch a new play in your living room?

So do we - but to make it happen, we need your help!

What is Helping Hands all about?

When the whole world wants you to be a certain way, what does it mean to get help?

Sheridan needs help to do battle with the Department for Very Differently Special Needs, so she can get help for her child. Alice needs help to find a therapist who knows anything at all about autism and gender. And Donna needs … well, no one seems to know exactly what Donna needs. She can’t tell us. Not yet.

A surrealist, experimental journey through the world of help, Helping Hands digs into everything from the world’s most popular and most controversial autism therapy, to making battle plans to get through parties, to what autistic people really learn at school. There’s a goblin who loves the word “no”, a talk show all about the tragedy of not being autistic, and some real, goddamn, actual friendship. 

It’s a show about what help is, and what help could be.

When and how can I watch Helping Hands? 

Usually, A_tistic shows are only presented in Melbourne, Australia. This time, we’re trying something brand new and groundbreaking, something we’ve never seen before in theatre: a streamable “video ticket”! 

We love and feel passionate about live theatre, but we know there are lots of reasons why people might want or need to engage with their media at home, taking breaks when needed. 

At the end of our short season at La Mama, we’ll be recording a high-quality, captioned film of Helping Hands. Anyone with a video ticket will get an email with a link to access the film, and it’ll be available online for ten full days – plenty of time to watch, or rewatch, at your own pace.

So, you can watch Helping Hands one of two ways:

1. If you’re in Melbourne, you can see it in person at Melbourne’s iconic La Mama Theatre, from 7th-10th August 2019 - tickets are now available via La Mama Theatre, or you can snag a limited number of in-person tickets via this fundraiser!
   The Relaxed Performance will be on Thursday 8th August
   The Auslan-interpreted performance will be on Friday 9th August
   
   

2. If you’re not in Melbourne, or if watching at home works better for you than watching a live performance in a theatre, you can watch online via video ticket, streamable from 27th August - 6th September  - tickets are available here through our fundraiser. After our fundraiser closes, they'll be available via the Helping Hands page on our website.

Our first production of Helping Hands is a “development season” – a brief showing to help us test out a brand new work before we run a full-length season in future.  

At the end of each in-person show, we’ll run a discussion forum featuring directors, devising cast and crew, where we would welcome your reflections and questions. Folks who watch the show via video ticket will also have opportunities to comment, question and reflect.

Who’s making Helping Hands?

The production company: A_tistic

A_tistic is a team of multidisciplinary neurodiverse artists, consultants and educators located in Melbourne, Australia.

Using our style of Spectrum Theatre, we aim to bring autistic lives, insights and experiences to the stage. 

• We write, direct and produce original works, primarily in theatre but with an ever-expanding scope.
• We consult with other creatives to help them improve their work involving neurodivergent characters and related themes.
• We collaborate with artists and producers to help them put on relaxed performances of their work.
• We run workshops aimed at a broad range of people and organisations, designed to offer insights, practical knowledge and broadening of perspective about life on the spectrum.
• We also write about and comment on autism and neurodiversity.

Our past works have been presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2016 and the Poppy Seed Theatre Festival in 2017, and we’ve presented workshops and trainings for The Arts Centre Melbourne, Drama Vic, Back to Back Theatre and Darebin Arts Centre.

To learn more about A_tistic and what we do, visit our Website.

The production team: Helping Hands Cast and Crew

Helping Hands has been created by a collaborative team of artists - directors and cast have written the script together during our development period. 

• Directors: Hannah Aroni, Jess Gonsalvez and James Matthews
• Devising cast: Tara Daniel, Vanessa Di Natale, Emily Griffith, Dee Matthews, Artemis Munoz, Aislinn Murray and Alexander Woollatt 
• Set and Lighting Designer: John Collopy
• Sound Designer: Jacinta Anderson
• Cinematographer: Gideon Aroni
• Costume Designer: Hannah Aroni
• Stage Managers: Jacinta Anderson and L. Turpin
• Production Manager: Theodore Murray

We drew on both research and direct experience to create Helping Hands. 

Some of our team are autistic, some have ADD/ADHD, and some identify as neurodivergent and have many internal experiences in common with autistic people. 

Our team has experience needing help, but also experience being helpers, in lots of different ways - we’re drawing on experiences of parenting, advocacy, student support, teaching, social work, and even working at Centrelink.

Consultation

Our show features an autistic character who can’t communicate by speaking, and communicates by typing instead. Because no one in our cast has had this experience, we turned to a consultant for help - we’re working with Hari Srinivasan, a deeply insightful young man who was once presumed incapable of communication, and is now completing his studies in Psychology at UC Berkeley.

Will Helping Hands be accessible to disabled people, D/deaf/Hard of Hearing people and neurodivergent people?

These are the accessibility measures we’ll be putting in place, to make sure as many people as possible can experience the show:

• Helping Hands will be presented at the La Mama Courthouse, a wheelchair-accessible venue.

• One of our performances and forums will be Australian Sign Language-interpreted by professional interpreters.

• One of our performances will be a “relaxed performance” - to learn more about relaxed performances, take a look here: https://www.a-tistic.com.au/relaxed-performances.

• All of our performances will have a “leave and come back any time” policy. If you ever need to take a break from the show and come back in later, you can. There is a chillout room within the performance venue, right near the theatre itself, where you can relax while taking a break. This room will be clearly signposted.

• Helping Hands will publish a “relaxed pack” well in advance of the show. This pack will include information about the show’s format, content, performers and venue, along with pictures. It will include an extensive list of potentially difficult subject matter included in the show. 

• The film version of Helping Hands will be captioned (and it will be possible to turn captions on and off, according to your preference).

If you would like any clarification about these issues, or you’d like an additional accessibility measure put in place, we would welcome hearing from you. You can contact our team at [email protected]. 

Who else is supporting Helping Hands?

Brunswick Mechanics Institute

Helping Hands has been originally developed with the support of Brunswick Mechanics Institute’s 2019 Creative Development Program. We’re grateful to them for offering us rehearsal space to turn Helping Hands from concept into reality. 

La Mama Theatre

We’ve received wonderful support from La Mama, who are offering us a place in their venue and their season, with all the support that entails. 

In-Kind Support

We’re also receiving some in-kind support with cinematography equipment to help make our video ticket plan a reality.

But we are still a small, independent theatre company, and we can’t do this without you - your support is crucial to making this show happen.

How can I find out more?

To stay up to date with Helping Hands and everything else A_tistic does:

• Sign up to the A_tistic mailing list here

• Facebook

• Twitter

To get in contact with us or ask questions, use the contact form on our website or email us directly at [email protected].

How will we use the money?

We’ll use the money raised through Pozible to cover the costs of making theatre – everything from venue rental to set to costume to publicity costs to paying for Auslan interpretation. Once we’ve hit our fundraising goal, any additional funds raised will be split between profit for the cast and crew, and funds to help make the 2020 production of Helping Hands into the best show it can possibly be.

Helping Hands is a profit-share production, which means that rather than earning a wage for our work, the cast and crew are essentially volunteers - we only make money if the show turns a profit.

The 2019 season of Helping Hands is a short development - we hope to make enough profit and generate enough interest in this season to pave the way for a full-length season later down the track.

Our Fundraising Goals

Our Pozible goal is $4,000.

 A lot goes into a theatrical development and performance season, and this is how much we need to make Helping Hands happen. 

To give you an insight into our budget, here are our main expenses:

• Rehearsal venue hire for 6 months of creative development
• Performance venue hire
• Auslan interpretation
• Public Liability Insurance
• Costume design 
• Lighting design 
• Sound design 
• Set desgin 
• Show documentation (photography)
• Promotional materials (flyers) 
• Postage and badges
• Consultation