Discover how one autistic playwright is using theater to challenge stereotypes and inspire change. Join us as we sit down with Matteo Esposito, a talented autistic playwright, to discuss his journey, his work, and the power of theater to promote understanding and empathy.

Show Notes:
Discover how one autistic playwright is using theater to put autism on stage to challenge stereotypes and inspire change.

Join us as we sit down with Matteo Esposito, a talented autistic playwright, to discuss his journey, his work, and the power of theater to promote understanding and empathy.

In this insightful interview, we delve into:

• Personal Experience as Inspiration: How Matteo’s own experiences with autism have shaped his writing.
• The Power of Storytelling: The impact of theater in challenging stereotypes and promoting inclusivity.
• Breaking Barriers in the Arts: The importance of representation and diversity in the theater world.
• Advocacy and Empowerment: Matteo’s passion for using his platform to advocate for the rights of autistic individuals.

Whether you’re a parent, educator, or simply someone interested in the arts and social justice, this interview offers valuable insights into the world of autism and the power of human connection.

👉Connect with Matteo:

• 💻Website: Autism Theater Project – Everyone has a voice
• 📩Email: matteoesposito[at]hotmail.com

📰 Are you getting our newsletter? If not, subscribe at https://waterprairie.com/newsletter

👉 Support our podcast and help us share more incredible stories by making a donation at Buy Me A Coffee. Your contribution makes a significant impact in bringing these stories to light. Thank you for your support!

• https://BuyMeACoffee.com/waterprairie

Music Used:

“LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

---

---

Episode #116: Autism on Stage: How Theater Breaks Down Barriers and Builds Bridges

Discover how one autistic playwright is using theater to put autism on stage to challenge stereotypes and inspire change.

(Recorded May 27, 2024)

Full Transcript of Interview:

Tonya: Can words change the world? According to Matteo Esposito, an autistic playwright, they can definitely make a difference. Welcome to the Water Prairie Chronicles, a podcast for parents of children with disabilities. I’m your host, Tonya Wollum, and I’m glad you’re here. In this episode, I’m talking with Matteo Esposito, a young playwright and set designer from Canada who is passionate about using theater as a teaching tool.

His play, Sorting It Out, based on his own experiences, recently had a successful off off Broadway run. Let’s dive in and learn from Matteo’s unique perspective. Matteo, welcome to Water Prairie.

Matteo: Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure to be here.

I was really impressed with what I heard about your play, Sorting It Out.

Can you share kind of how you took your own experiences on the autism spectrum and put that into a play?

Absolutely. So first of all, I want to say inspiration can come from anywhere. Sorting It Out was based on a true experience. On a transit bus, you know, for Ontario, Canada, Route 13 out of all numbers, but honestly, you know, and, and the, and the story goes as it, like, I, I walk in, I press, I’ll tell you, I walk in, I tap the thing, it wasn’t with the bus driver, it was the thing, I walk on the back of the bus.

And I sit there like, right at the back of the bus. Somebody turns to me and he says, I remember you from somewhere. I said, trying to sound like today, and I don’t normally talk like this. I don’t know you from a while ago, man. I don’t normally talk like that. But, right? Exactly. I don’t use slang that much.

Or not at all. I swear a lot, but that’s a different story. Right? Back to this. Um, so he said, but I remember you from somewhere. You were with Brandon. Now, Brandon was a, now I knew a bunch of kind of friends. And special ed, special education, right in the hallway, but like, so I was like, and of course I had to play along.

Yeah, now I remember you. Thank goodness I’m an actor. Honestly, you know, thank goodness I’m back. But honestly though, then he said, oh great, so what are you off to today? I said Community Living Oakville, that’s where all the special needs. So, and this is his reaction. That’s nice.

And, and he, and at the next stop, he walked off the bus. He just looked at the bus driver saying, as if to say, why did you let this kid on the bus? And he looked so businesslike, like, calm, like cream colored pants. Nice collared button down shirt, or nice collared shirt, beautiful. Like he was, yeah, and he got off on the next stop in the forest, and I know where he stopped.

Awful. So, I went to community living, okay? And I came home early, and in this house, this house, I walked in and I was so angry. I felt bad for my father because my parents get in front of it all the time because I’m autistic and I get angry and stuff. But this time I was really angry. Because, not because he used the r word or anything like that, but, but honestly, he, he pissed me off.

And I said I had enough of this kid in my head, and I’m like, I have to do something about it. I’m a writer. I didn’t even think about it. I said, Daddy, give me a piece of paper, give me a pen, and I’m writing something down. That’s what I did. I went to the kitchen table, and I wrote the first draft of Sorting It Out on paper.

And I don’t have the paper. It’s all on my computer. Of course, technology has, but, uh, but honestly, though, but there’s a line that I want to share with you that almost everybody, um, from this play, and, and it’s not my only play that I wrote, but this is pretty interesting. So, there’s a character named Bob, who’s the homemaker, or the caretaker of Nick.

He’s like the helper of Nick. He’s like a support worker, almost. And he says, um, he says, You should understand about special needs to Ed. Now, Ed is our ignorant antagonist. He’s so ignorant, he’s so blunt, he’s so rude. Then Ed says, Society doesn’t understand. So why should I? Think about that. When people are born into a society, who do you follow?

Society or yourself? Of course, society. Because society is a machine. It’s a system. It’s something like that. And you have to be very, very clever into making your own rules for society. And going on your own path, because if you’re not careful, you will go on the wrong path with all of society. And I think that, and I think Ed is a manifestation of people in society that, I hate to say this, don’t like us, don’t understand us.

And he’s young, he’s like, and, and why this character is like young, high, uh, college age, just out of college, he’s a business man, right? Student and everything. Is, I based him on the character on the bus. And it felt like this character was literally following me around, you know, in a way saying, saying, and like, and honestly, those are the best kind of stories.

It’s based on my own experience and my only own experience. So when you walk in, you’re experiencing, like, this story that people really don’t know ever existed, but it actually exists in real life because it happens every minute and every day. I, of course, I’m a dramatist, I’m a playwright, so I add my own interpretation, I own my own weave, I weave my own, um, experiences, and I weave other experiences.

For example, before even Ed says that line, there’s a part where, um, Ed, now I stim, which is an artistic thing, I have to, and so I stim with paperclips and twist ties, this is twist ties and a paperclip, so I stim like this, and, and basically, It’s for the people who can relate, and I know there’s a lot of people that can relate to this.

So I was a kid in special ed, right? I had an E. A., and they said, Put that away or I’ll take it away. Which is awful. And it’s sad because if they could only explain to the other kids. He has autism and he needs to do this. But these people are so stupid on the other end of the spectrum, if you know what I mean.

I’m not talking about the autistic kids. I’m talking about the neurotypicals who think they know it all, but they don’t. Because if they knew it all, they would let us do it. Think about that. Anyway, I put that into my place where Ed So he looks, give me that, and he snatches the string away from Nick, who’s actually stimming, and trying to calm himself down.

And he said, it’s annoying! And, and, and I remember, that’s enough, he basically tosses his string back, and Nick said, please, please don’t do that again, I have autism, or I’m autistic, and, and the play continues on, and that’s one of the biggest moments is, It’s like, that’s one of the first big moments that Ed really reveals himself as a kid.

Like, he’s arrogant, he’s just annoyed. And the best thing is, I’m gonna take it away from this punk, you know, this kid. And, and that’s my tribute to all the EAs that, that mistreat all the kids like that. Because, honestly, when, and I love telling this, because when people see it live on stage, they’re like, Oh, how sad, how sad!

But you don’t realize that you’re doing it in person, in yourself. Parents included. I dare say parents included. Because a lot of people still don’t understand autism, they’re still only scratching the surface, especially a new person just getting diagnosed. Like, we have so much to offer. And I think we’re assets instead of liabilities if you know what I mean assets instead of liabilities And a lot of people argue, no, no we’re not, you’re, you’re disabled.

Well, that’s my opinion and I think, I think we can offer a lot to people. If you give us a chance. And if you give us an opportunity to show with the right supports that we can actually do it because it’s, it’s sad, like, it’s sad that these kids and, or these people with special needs, special needs disability people, these folks, whether it’s from Canada, America, wherever, get mistreated every day, misunderstood every day.

And that’s why I write the book that I do. I don’t do it because I want to make money. Money, fame, and fortune, give me a break. Those are for the elites, if you know what I mean. They’re for the stars of Hollywood, which I do not want to be. And I have my specific reasons why.

You have a message to share and what I like from what you’ve shared so far about this is, your characters have someone, everyone in the audience can relate to someone in that character list.

Even those three that you’ve already listed. Someone in there is going to be the one that they see themselves as. Or they’re going to view it, as you say, from a distance and Hopefully be able to see the world differently as they exit the door of the theater so that they they recognize it when it’s happening.

The other thing I want to say is you’re talking to you’re mentioning the stemming and I just wanted our listeners to hear this part. We just had an episode out a couple of weeks ago where we talked about this too. And the specialist that I was talking to mentioned that if you have a child or if you have a student or if you’re in a community group and you’re working with kids and they have what you might consider a toy out.

So if they if they do need to be stemming. If that is causing a less of a behavior issue for them and it’s actually giving them a focus, then it’s okay because they need that. If it’s become a toy and they’re, they’re being abusive with it, then now it’s a toy. You need to take that away. So there is a difference between whether they need it for comfort and for, for stabilizing themselves or if they’re, if they’re using it for a distraction.

I agree. I totally agree on that. And in that scene in particular, and it’s trying to come and Nick is trying to calm himself down and I’m okay, Nick. I’m okay. Give me that. Like he’s trying to calm himself down.

He’s trying to lower like the anxiety. And of course we all know what happens because I told you things like this do happen. And they happen.

Oh, every day.

More often than not. Exactly. Exactly. Every minute of every day. And my heart breaks for these kids. Because I am one of them. Remember that. Like, if you are one of, I hate to say this, the breeders, especially, you should be advocating for each and every one, whether it’s cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, you should be advocating for these kids.

You have a responsibility. It’s not a right, but you, to me, you have a responsibility, like I do with my work.

When a lot of our listeners are parents, so they understand what you’re talking about. However, they’re having to work with teachers, neighbors, family members, sometimes too, who don’t understand. So I think it helps to be able to hear your point of view, so that they have that, that reassurance that, yes, it is right, I do need to advocate for my child.

I do need to help. Help me, not, not make it easier for everybody because none of us need to make it easier. We want to be able to live our lives, but every child has the right to be able to grow up and be that person they’re supposed to be. You, you are a phenomenal playwright. If you had not been given a chance to get to this point and I’m thinking how, how young you are. Where are you going to be in 20 years? Is what I’m thinking.

I don’t know what I can think about that, Tonya, with all due respect. If I just want it to happen, I just want it to happen because I have more love that I need to touch before I go.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The, so I want to ask, I want to move into Sorting it Out. Um, now Sorting it Out has, has gone to, to New York, correct?

So, um, so what, what type of audiences has it, has it been exposed to already?

So I’ll start with the original production that I was in. I play Nick, the original Nick, because the actor dropped out of the week of. We all know, we all have these kinds of stories. The show must go on, right? Of course. So I, so the week of, I was, okay.

I’ll think, I’ll try and pick another picture because this is great. Um, Easter Sunday. The show was Thursday night, the week of. So, everybody was here, my uncle who was directing it, he’s an industry member, Anthony Tullo, he’s amazing. Um, musician, singer songwriter, and he’s, and this was the first time he directed any play.

He’s a film director, but he comes from the industry of entertainment for years. He’s fantastic. And I, and I asked him, and he said, okay. And John Paul, who I have to harp on a little bit because he’s amazing. He’s, I’ve been, I know him for nine years and he has hydrocephalus, which means he’s lives in Toronto housing.

And he gave me five grand to do this play out of his own disability pocket. So he never knew me. He never knew the book that I did. I just said, I’m doing play, I’ll give you money. Huh? Now that’s rare in this industry, okay? That is very rare, because, like, that would be a dream come true. I didn’t test them.

I’m like, oh, how much money, I don’t do things like that. I’m not asking, oh, how much money can you give me a little bit more. Just be honest. Just be honest here. So, back, so back to Easter, okay? The day of, I went, so I was on the stage, and I got a text. I cannot play this role due to a family emergency. I was shocked, I’m like, huh?

So I went to Anthony, I went to my mom, who’s Anthony’s brother, and my uncle, and John Paul, all three of them were here. I said, and Anthony, I believe it was Anthony more than my mother. Anthony said, Matteo, you’re going to have to play the part. Me, I’m the gosh darn playwright, I’m one of the, you know, I want to see Lennie sitting down sorting it out.

And I’m going to the back of the house to watch it. I couldn’t. So, so, so, so that happened. So once everybody left, my mom, um, had to run the lines with me. You know, come here, we’re gonna do the lines. Okay, mom, thanks. You know, it’s one of those things, right? But, but honestly, like, you don’t expect these things to happen, but they do.

Life is unpredictable. We’re under the sky, as my grandmother said. Life’s unpredictable. So anyway. Two rehearsals, Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday we were on. Let me explain to you something. If this is not a feat of brilliance, I don’t know what is. 129 people in a high school auditorium. A dignitary from the government and a critic.

And, and, and, we had to stop the show because more people were coming in. That was in a high school. And my mom got the high school for free. And I, we got professional actors, we did everything. But I want to share with you a story that happened after. So after it, the audience was abuzz. They gave us a standing ovation, why not, right?

Right, but there’s two things that I want to mention. So, so the standing ovation I was kind of expecting because I did not know that people would gasp or cry, but that makes me happy. I got, I got you guys in the palm of my hand as a writer, and that’s the best thing as a writer. That’s the best thing.

Anyway, so I walk out of the stage door, somebody says, there’s um, some people that want to see you. I’m like, huh? So I walk out, and this whole friggin entourage of people were just, and, and I couldn’t Honestly, and I just had to stand there. Now, after that, everybody, they loved it. The cards, whatever, money, whatever.

That’s great. But this is more of a, more of an awakening for me as a writer. And, and this makes me go, wow. It’s actually real. Let me explain. So when we were at home, my mom told me a story, and this was my mom, and I believe my mom, of course. It was two autistic people. Um, I hate to say this, but they’re a little bit lower functioning than I am, no offense.

One was in a special, uh, uh, a college special program and everything. Nice kids! I’m not saying that they were mean or anything, I understand, but the dad brought two kids, two sons, two of his sons. And, after the play, my dad, the dad asks, Did you like it? One of them said no. And I’m like, what do you mean?

And, and my mom says, wait Matteo, You knew exactly what your son meant. He liked the play. And, but he did not like how Nick was treated on stage, The autistic kid was treated on stage. I’m like, wow. One word. I, like I was, huh? Come again, mom? Like, I never, every, how, like, Why, how, like I, I could ask tons of questions, and I keep telling this story because it’s like, and people say the script is real, the script is real, you have something here, the script is real, and that’s where it started, and now New York, okay, the audience, I went to New York actually, and I saw a preview performance, 25 seat theater, off of Broadway, like I was here, and the audience, and the actors were here, right here, where my finger is, It was like that, like, not even a foot close to the actors.

It was that, like, that small of a room. And I, of course, I cried and everything, but I didn’t really like the production. What I liked is what happened after. When I went back home, I said, OK, thank you, John, nice to meet you, cast, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But I never, ever thought that this would happen. And it’s great.

So, the first week, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon. The three, um, first shows, um, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night were not sold out. Sunday was sold out. I’m like, okay, like, I never, ever had any of my plays sell out every single seat in the house. Especially 25th Street Theater.

Not knowing who I, not knowing who I am as a writer and I’m autistic. Like, who would want to come see my play about autism? Like, he’s from a different country. He’s written about autism. He has autism. Like, why? I said about some of these ignorance, misunderstanding, why would I go see it? But that was just the first week.

Second week, this Thursday was half sold out, half empty. Friday night, oversold. Saturday night, sold out. Sunday night, or Sunday afternoon, sold out. And what I mean by oversold is, 25 seats, 26 people came. If the producer didn’t get him a seat, you know where that would be? Standing room only in the back, buddy.

Honestly. And I never, ever thought that would happen. So, our producer, Broke even and he made money, which and he said and he said I don’t I know we’re not gonna make money off of the play I’m like Don I I think sir, I Sir, like I’m a little bit more positive, but I agree with you. I felt like saying I agree with you I don’t think we’ll make much money either.

Maybe a hundred maybe might break even But the guy was probably skipping down 45, 000 and he was saying I made money off of this. Like, which is great. I’m not saying that that’s bad, but like, holy jeez. Like, and this goes to show you, like, this kind of entertainment is needed. People want to come and see this.

People don’t want to see fantasy all the time. People don’t want to see fantasy. People want to see People want to relate to characters, in my opinion. People want to see reality from a different perspective. And I think that’s what’s great about sorting it out in all my other works. Like, The Value of Many is about inclusive employment.

And I got a reading in New York as well that didn’t do too well. We lost money on that, but that’s show business, right? But That, the play, The Valley of Many, as well, it talks about inclusive employment and talks about a lot of stuff that we won’t necessarily talk about at the Ninja table, if you know what I mean.

If that’s not a success story, I don’t know what is.

That’s fine. I wanted to ask you, um, so, because I haven’t seen your plays. So the, um, and you, you’ve written, how many now? Three. Okay. So, do you write, just, I’m just curious as a writer’s point of view, do you write and do you resolve all the conflict and everyone leaves with a happy ending?

Or do you leave everyone kind of hanging and wanting to fix it as they leave?

I wanted to take a message and have the message come home with him. Because, you know, it’s words matter. And by, and I don’t want to give the plot twist away, but it’s ingenious. And because in the play, Um, Ed gets so angry and pissed off at Nick that he calls, I hate to say this on camera, but he calls Nick, right in front of the audience, and right in front of the, uh, yeah, says Nick is the R word.

I don’t want to say it because, but he actually says that, and I remember, and I remember, honestly, I had to react when I heard a few oohs and ahs, but apparently a friend of mine told me that got a huge reaction. I’m like, I did my job. Yes, I made you how I wanted you to feel. Me, personally, I don’t want to make people feel angry or sad.

I don’t want, it’s not my intention to do that, but if it has to be done, I’m sorry if this offends anybody, but it has to be done, it has to be done. To make people understand the point of view, that I have, it’s the same with any, any race word, it’s the same with any bad word. But, after that, I, I say, don’t call me that, Ed walks up to me, I already did, and I have a mouth, and I bang my head, and then I, And a fight happens, and then a push and pull happens, and then, well, let’s just say he gets a call from his, Ed gets a call from the doctor, and he gets something too, and that’s all I’m going to give away.

So, it might be, okay, but you get what I mean. I wanted to make the audience say, Like, it could happen to anybody, that’s what I mean. Like, it could happen to anyone, and I think, like, plays like this don’t get written a lot, and I think that, that we need somebody who, who can break the rules, who says, I want to write about this, I don’t care what anybody says.

And honestly, I don’t really care what anybody says. Like, thank goodness, and I lovingly joke that thank goodness there’s no intermission for the play, because if there was an intermission, and, and the ending, you’re gonna walk out because you’re so darn offended. So thank God, there’s no, thank God it’s only 30 minute pieces.

Honestly, if you wanna, like, I pull no punches in the script. I show people what it’s like to have autism. I show people what it’s like from the outside point of view. And then, when I get angry, you know, instead of calling the police, we get a call from the doctor. And, and, because, in my opinion, I don’t want to call the police, because then I would be, then I would look bad, right?

As an autistic person. And I don’t think, in my opinion, I don’t think that anybody should be mistreated in society. From the police, from the authorities, from the government and everything. But that’s not the world we live in. We can only dream and hope about that. And that’s what makes me sad. And I hate to say this again on camera, but ignorance will never go away, sadly, if you think about it.

But, but you’re helping to make a difference here. So, so my last question about Sorting it Out is what’s the future now for Sorting it Out?

That’s a good question. Um, really good question. You know, I’m, I’m in negligations with a production company. Um, Next year. It’s gonna come. I can’t really spell out the details because I don’t have a contract yet, but honestly I would love and for the people who are listening I would love for you guys to grab a copy like I would love to share my email with you guys if you don’t mind on the thing because I would love people to Experience just reading it and one person said even reading it I felt like punching the screen these characters are so vibrant and like I’m like like and I touched a nerve in everybody like people like And my question to, to me is why, but now I understand why.

It’s because people need to know how to be, people need to be reminded to be treated in society. But I’ll tell you, but I’ll tell you a question and it’s always gnawing on me. But why do I need to write a play about, about human decency when people should know how to treat people? Decent. Think about that.

Think about that. Think about the why. Like, why do I need An autistic kid, 26, I was um, it was 2019 when we first premiered it, a long time ago when I first wrote the first rap, but like, honestly, like, it still gnaws on me, like, why do we need a better play about how to treat people in society when we should know how to treat people in society?

And I think it’s society itself. The government, the influencers, the media, the music, everything comes together to make this horrible impression on these kids. And I hate that. Like, why can’t we just live in peace and harmony? Well, we can’t, of course. And I hate when people say, what do you want for Christmas?

And what do you want? Oh, the world peace? Yeah, and for less things like that’s gonna happen. Honestly, I’m not trying to be negative, the way that we combat it is us, it’s us, not especially, but all the humans have to get together and understand that we’re, I hate to say this, but we’re part of a system and it’s a horrible system.

What advice do you have for parents of autistic children, but of pretty much any child who is dreaming of pursuing a career in the arts?

I’ll tell you, and this is a story that I would love to share with you. It’s um, so near and dear to my heart, not by my parents, but it’s about a very special person. It always gets me emotional and I cry because the passion comes out of me and the And the joy of, so I’ll tell you, so, um, there’s a show called Jersey Boys, Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Vallon, The Four Seasons, one of my all time favorite musicals.

And I saw the, I saw the North York production, the Toronto production, at the North York Performing Arts Centre, Toronto Centre for the Arts. And I’ll tell you the story, it gets me right here and right here, because, like, honestly, like, things like this do not happen on a day to day basis, like, it’s rare.

So. I went to see it in the summer of 09, this was before my high school, this was before I was even ready for sorting it out. This was in grade 6 to grade 7 elementary school. I was moving to a new school, and I just saw it. And front row mezzanine, front row one level up, staring into the beautiful stage, and the great story and everything.

And I remember just being blown away by that show. And, honestly, and, God, and there’s, uh, so, and I remember coming, like, grabbing my mom into the exhibition. That was great, and if you saw Jersey Boys, you know that, like, come on, and Dawn is one of the best moments. One of the most complex moments, but it’s, it’s, um, it’s an amazing show, with an amazing storyline, and it’s about dreams.

And that’s what got me to, to be in musical theater, actually, this show, and this special, special man. That I would love to share with you. Um, but it comes with a story. And it comes with, like I said, a very emotional story. So, after I saw that show, Um, I went to a new school. I got moved to a new school.

From grade 6 to 7. Essential skills class. Of course I was bullied. I was the first artistic kid in there. But something very important happened to me. Very important happened to me. And that was my, the special education resource teacher coming in To um, to um, saying we are writing letters to stars, like, or fan letters to people.

And they had Nick Jonas, Miley Cyrus, you know, all the Disney Channel names, or all the Nickelodeon, Universal. I said, I don’t want to write to those, I’m not a big fan of those. Let me write to this gentleman named, I’ll let you wait on that. His name is Jeff Madden, okay? He played Frankie Valli in the Toronto Productions Cruiser Boys.

So I wrote to him, thinking, okay, maybe I’ll get a letter back, you know what I mean. And this is what happens. This is what happens. One day, my, uh, teacher, who I actually saw a few weeks ago in church, no, no comparison there, but, um, she says, Michelle, do you need to go to the washroom? And I said, yeah, okay, let’s try this, like, not, don’t, so I go down, I go, and this is, God, like, I love telling this story because it’s the truth, but it’s also emotional and it makes people think, like, there is hope in this world, this is magic, not like physical magician’s magic, but, you know, magical things that could happen, right?

So I go down, touch the, The door handle of the washroom, and I look over there, and over there I see my mom, a few people crowding around this man. And I’m like, oh, it probably is the superintendent of the communal works. I never thought it would be him. I never thought. And you don’t, you know, anyway, so I go in, and then, and then, I, so I go in the washroom, and then I come out.

Wash your hands, go wash, put back. And this was way before Covid. Okay. Way before Covid folks. Okay. I have to say that this was back in 2009, which was a long time ago. I’ll tell you that’s long time ago. But, but honestly though, so, so then, so now, I, now, okay, she’s trying to hide something from me. Now I’m an autistic kid.

I hate surprises like this. So I, I’m, I’m furious. So I come out, I grab the teacher’s shirt and I said, you better tell me what’s going on. I literally said that Poor lady. I said, and then she said, somebody from Jersey Boys is here to see you and the emotions. Like you don’t know what to say. You don’t know what to do.

You got like, you have a guy portraying on freaking icon Rock and roll Hall of Fame icon, Frankie Valley, six to seven nights a week in the theater, in the main auditorium, Frankie, and he’s coming here to see me. After I read him a simple, one simple page, one page letter. Huh? But it’s, but it had to happen.

And I’ll, and it continues the story. So, so I, I, I, honestly I said, in my mind, like, I had to walk back in the classroom and just two to three feet away was him. It was the guy and

I’m so grateful for that. Anyway, um, yeah and then and then but but it gets it gets more emotional than that because like you think okay now he bought a plaque poster and I loved it. I love the show. It’s a beautiful show. The music is amazing, um, but it’s the story. It’s a story about dreams. People think it’s about always family.

It’s about dreams. It’s about you know, it’s about struggling. It’s about All the stuff, and honestly, and Jeff, okay, he gave me a card, okay, handwritten card.

And he told me, in the card, what Frankie Valli told him, to believe in yourself, kid. I’m sorry. It always gets to me. It always fucking gets to me. And that’s how much it means to me. And that’s what I’m trying to relate to anybody. God, if people could only just leave and work hard and never give up, this world would be a different place.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but it gets to me, and, like, this is not anger, this is not, this is passion coming out of me. I want to make a change, and people should too. Like, why does it have to be people who are C students in a classroom, just waiting, looking out the window, dreaming? Why can’t it be you? Honestly.

Absolutely.

You know what I mean, and that’s what happened, and that’s what propelled me to be the person who I am today. And it was a battle, not with him, but because after grade seven and eight, it was high school. And of course, high school’s more tougher than anything for a person with a disability, especially if you’re in special ed, which, and they don’t treat you nicely there.

If you know, you know. And I mean that. If you know, you know. But I had to, of course, play the game, as we were talking about before. I had to play the game. I said, I have to play the game. It’s outside. I’m gonna, I’m gonna do it. And now I’m in college. Now I’m in Sheridan College, which is, And I got my English.

I got a 72 in English. Um, Grade um, grade um, 12 college English. Um, And, but, you know, it’s great. And now, next year, I’m gonna be graduating. Sheridan. And I’m hoping to go to university for set design because that’s a whole nother ballgame. But it’s just going to show you that people can, people, not only can people be inspiring but, and be inspired, but we need to take our lessons that not, like, we need to leave this in our heart and in our mind and up there as well.

I’m a very spiritual person as well and I don’t care what anybody says. For the parents who are listening, I’ll give two advices, two advices. First, listen to your kids. Listen to the people that, and believe in the people that believe in you, for the kids who are listening. Which is another saying that I would love to experience, would love to say.

Believe in the people that believe in you. One, listen to your kids with special needs. You’re not the ones that have it, parents. They are. Unless you have autism. Well, they do, right? So, it’s better to listen to us and how we experience the world instead of assuming, oh, that’s going to be good for them when behind closed doors, behind backdoor businesses get bushwhacked and smacked and sweared at and all that stuff by individuals that you don’t know the track record of.

It’s abuse. It’s sad. And I’ve seen a lot of that stuff. I’ve seen a lot of that stuff and it’s sad and some of the stuff happened to me, sadly.

So, um, so to finish up our questions here, how can theater productions be more inclusive for autistic actors and audience members? Because I feel like this is a big area that That you can share about to

two words, use us, and I’m not talking use us as slaves or whatever, but invite us to the conversation, see what we have to say, we might say some incredible things that you might not have thought before, or might and might not, and might stay with you for the rest of your career, rest of your life.

And that’s what people feel drawn is at all. There’s there’s all this. Screw you. Like I said, we’re assets, not liabilities. And I think, and I, I, I harp on that. I hear when people say, well, it’s worth nothing that he has autism. Huh? Like, honestly, come on! Well, honestly, and that actually happened to me.

Somebody wrote that in a, in a reference letter. I don’t want to say who, but, honestly. When, when somebody tells me that, like, it’s worth nothing that Michaela has autism. So, you’re saying, sir or miss, whoever the actor is, you don’t think that my autism has something to, an extra perspective, you know, that could be worth bringing to the table.

Well, Matteo, our time’s getting, um, short here, so I want to, I want to wrap up. But before we go, I want you to, um, you had mentioned your email and do you have a website as well?

I do. I would love to put it in the chat, but there’s a company that I’m actually working with, it’s called Autism Theatre Project.

I would like, I’m one of the lead writers of, of a film series actually about autism. And we got over six, um, six, uh, 61, 000 views on the trailer. It’s all about autism. It’s all about the high school experience, believe it or not, based on. Hello, my story from, from behind and from, and from all that. And I think that we created a pretty powerful product that I would love more people to come, autistic or not, parents as well, but like I want people to come and join us, we’re doing theater, music, production, film, everything.

I’m me and John Paul, who I told you about, he’s a lovely, lovely man. I, like I said, friend for nine years, next year is going on 10 years. And, um, he’s one of the board members. I’m one of the senior writers of the film. So, and, that was enough to make you say, that’s interesting, wow, we already got into the Miami Film Festival, and LA Film Festival, and this fall it’s going to come to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which is half an hour away from my house, in this fall, so, we’re, we’re going, and, and, and, we don’t think the journey will end very soon, we don’t, because there’s many stories to tell, there’s many of these characters that we can go in depth, and, by the way, I’m autistic, and I’m a writer.

That’s very rare in the industry, but we also have a few autistic actors in the film, and a few people who are also autistic or writers. So, come one, come all, basically. That’s what I’m saying. I’m not trying to be rude, but honestly, I want, and I’m not trying to advertise this company as well, but like, we’re doing amazing things.

We’re trying to Like, we’re doing a, also, um, I, the founder is doing a play that I’m going to be set designing as well. But that’s in the future, of course. He wrote a short play about his sister being on the spectrum and all that. But, like, I would love to give you that link as well. Please check it out, and please contact, um, the, the Autism Theatre Project.

Not because I’m in it, or not because John Paul is in it, but because we’re doing great things. And we, like, we want to change the world about, and perceive about people with disabilities. And I think the more people that get on the bandwagon The more people will say, this is not only a moneymaker, but this is actually something special.

I said, this is something that hasn’t been done before. Like writing something about autism, having an autistic person in it and having autistic writers, that’s rare for the film industry.

We’ll have the links to all of this and the show notes. If you’re watching on YouTube, it’ll be in the description below.

And if you can’t find that. And send, send us a note. I will get it to you.

I would be honored to collaborate with anybody or just to say hello. Like, I would love to give a copy, PDF free copies of my script to anybody who is interested in reading it. But please do get back to me when, when I, you know, I want to hear your feedback.

I want to hear your stories based on your own child and what the play means to you. And what I said means what, what, you know. So I don’t mind. I’m an open book. I want, I want people to collaborate with me. That’s. Not why I’m here, but that’s what, what I want to do, make a difference. And you know what I mean?

Even through my place in schools, that would be excellent. These are very educational products anyway. Honestly, I would. Thank you.

Matteo, thank you for sharing with me. I’m looking forward to, to having you on again in the future. I think, I think you have a lot to add to this and I have a few ideas I want to share with you.

Anyway, thank you for being here today.

Thank you so much. And thank you to the viewers for listening. Thank you.

Thanks for joining us today. I hope Matteo’s journey will help you understand how important our words can be. Imagine if we each took the time to encourage just one young person, like Jeff Madden did for Matteo.

Who knows how your words might influence someone else’s life? Join me next week and learn about a technique called tapping. I found it fascinating. I’ll see you then.