Both Nikki Erickson and Nikki Swoboda became involved with theater at their respective high schools. Years later, the duo is using their performance knowledge to help kids with autism improve their social skills and self-esteem through a program called CAST.
CAST (Creative Accepting Sensory-Friendly Theatre) started last fall at Stages Theatre in Hopkins. The students meet every Monday for approximately 15 weeks and are organized by age into pairs. During class, they do various theater exercises to work on vocal inflection, spatial relationships and more, as well as work with their emotions to help better understand them. The classes started again in June.
Swoboda, who created the program, was inspired by a similar program designed by Kate Horvath at the Duluth Playhouse. Swoboda witnessed the program during her time there.
“[The Duluth Playhouse] is where I witnessed how powerful the program was,” Swoboda says. “Ours is the same class but not the same program, but the inspiration and success of the project was inspired by them.”
With CAST, students don’t have a buddy system—rather, they learn by themselves. A performance took place in December that incorporated everything they’d worked on throughout the class. The show was an original production, which allowed the students to express their favorite interests in their own way.
Erickson, the program’s instructor, says, “I think kids with autism perhaps don’t necessarily [feel comfortable getting] out of their own world and working with people all of the time. Arts are a great way to build teamwork and bring people together with a common goal.”
