This production is rated PG-14 for scenes that depict or reference strong adult language, domestic violence, and animal abuse.

Additionally, there are scenes in the second act that contain flashing lights and fog effects.

At times this past year has felt impossible. From the basics of learning how to teach theater virtually, to the only consistent—change (Virtual, Hybrid—no virtual again, no Hybrid—now everybody! Sort-of)

The one thing keeping me sane, making it all worthwhile is the kids. Being able to see them and rehearse with them in person has been such a blessing—a little slice of normal for those few hours where the rest of the world can disappear and we can just create together. And what a wonderful group to work with! They have been focused, attentive and hard-working. They have been fun, joyful and full of laughter. They have been OFF BOOK on time 😊! And… I haven’t had to fight the battle of the phones because everyone is sick of screens! I am grateful for this yearlong reminder of what is actually important in education….in life--the people you get to share it with, so thank you for sharing your lives with me.

And a note about the show itself. I chose this show to produce this year for several reasons. I wanted to share a different voice. The voice of someone who thinks uniquely. The voice of someone who has autism. In preparing, we learned more about autism from videos, from our Dean of Students—Joy Kovanda (who also happens to be an expert in Special Education) and from students with personal experience with autism. One of the most impactful things for me was Mrs. Kovanda saying, “If you’ve met one person with autism…you’ve met one person with autism.” In working with JD (Christopher), this really opened up my understanding for character development and allowed JD to discover who this person with autism is. We have all gained so much knowledge, understanding and empathy from this process.

Knowing that we would have to perform in masks as well as keep our cast and crew under 25 people, this was the perfect year to perform this show. It is a small cast and conceptually, my idea is that the audience is experiencing the story from Christopher’s point of view. Having characters masked, the grid on stage, the sequencing of scenes and sensory experiences we included in our storytelling hopefully allows the audience to experience the world from his viewpoint—at least in a small way.

Additionally, I felt the show dove-tailed nicely with our 10th grade Language and Literature curriculum because they read Curious Incident at the beginning of second semester. What an amazing opportunity to enrich the learning of our students! One of the discussions our 10th students have had is about Christopher as a reliable narrator and the use of adult language in the book and play. I did not cut much of the adult language, swearing or cursing. In order to represent Christopher as a reliable narrator, the story must be told accurately from his point of view. He does not filter out the language that the people around him use. Also, the story is set in England, which is a different culture than America. Though the English have the reputation of being uptight or repressed, they do not have the taboo around swearing that we do in America. I felt the culture and story needed to be accurately presented and therefore kept the language used largely intact.

Thank you for joining us on our journey—and welcome back to the theater!