Creating Sensory-Friendly Theater, with Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ Gustavo Padrino | EDB 257
Broward Center’s Gustavo Padrino discusses their sensory-friendly performances for the neurodivergent.
(VIDEO – 21 mins) Gustavo Padrino is the Community Engagement Manager for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The Broward Center builds community through the arts by delivering quality entertainment, educational opportunities and memorable moments that engage and inspire audiences, nurture collaboration and drive economic vitality. The sensory-friendly performances are intended to create a welcoming and supportive environment for children and adults on the autism spectrum as well as individuals with other sensitivity issues or developmental disabilities.
For more about the sensory-friendly performances, and to see walk through videos and a social story pdf, go to: https://www.browardcenter.org/visit/sensory-friendly
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HACKIE REITMAN (HR):
Hi, I’m Dr. Hackie Reitman. Welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains. And today, I’m so excited, because right here in Fort Lauderdale, the wonderful Broward Center for the Performing Arts, we have the man who’s in charge of their, all of their community engagement and everything: Gustavo Padrino. And he’s gonna tell us about some very special sensory performances they have coming up. Gustavo welcome to Exploring Different Brains.
GUSTAVO PADRINO (GP):
Thank you so much for the invitation. I’m so happy that I can be here and share some of our amazing community engagement initiatives, including our sensory inclusive initiatives as well.
HR:
Well, you guys do a great job in the community. In fact, we learned about this through my friend Karriem over at the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County where you’re doing stuff for our kids. There are terrific kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs. And he turned us over to different brains as well.
GP:
Yeah, absolutely. So something we weren’t doing with them. Because we have, we had the opportunity to provide the Boys and Girls Club with a few tickets to come see Miami City balance performance of The Nutcracker. He was a very kind donation for Miami City Ballet. So I reached out to him and I invited them to attend. And after these amazing experience they had with a ballet we are actually working on a workshop, where we’re bringing about 20 to 25 kids for the Ronald K Brown Dance Company, which is the second week of January. So they’re going to come and do a workshop in person with them, they’re going to have dinner, and they’re going to go and see the show as well. And it’s just one of like the tiniest events that we have been doing. But our community engagement continues to grow and reach out far more groups as well.
HR:
Tell our audience who might not be familiar with your sensory friendly performances.
GP:
Absolutely. So believe it or not, are sensory inclusive performances started about five years ago, including COVID time. So in a way, it all started, because the Broward Center’s mission is to build community through the arts, and that involves our neurodiverse community. So we started partnering with the Theatre Development Fund over in New York to get some guidance. And also we got some community partners, because we wanted to create a sensory inclusive performance intended for people who had developmental disabilities, sensory issues, autism. And we really wanted to break down the barriers. So we listen. And we, we basically created the right atmosphere, and the right circumstances for families of all abilities to come to the show. And I’ll give you a couple of like things that what makes this a sensory inclusive show. So first things first is that there is no shushing at the theater, you can actually walk around, you can talk, you can use your mobile device, you can be who you are, and no one’s going to tell you what to do, or that you need to leave the theater. That’s a number one thing, there’s no judgement at the theater, we keep the lights on about 30%. So you can still see around, we lower the volume at the theater, and there’s no straw lives, there’s no special effects. And we also provide noise cancelling headphones and fidgets that people can just take home and just use at the theater if needed.
We also provide all the proper accommodations, we have a quiet room area, where you can see the show on a big TV, no volume. And we also have a behavioral therapist on sites that can help you and you’re free to come in. And now during the whole performance, you don’t have to wait till the number ends, you can just go in and out at your pleasure. And one of the other things to see is that we do a lot of preparation ahead of time, we have a really awesome social story that I share with you, I hope that you can share it with families that basically highlights the whole experience from beginning to end, when you come to see a show there’s going to be a full hour of pre show engagement activities, you get to craft activities that are related to the show, you can actually do a meet and greet with some of the cast members from the show to have that social interaction. And we also have a touch table with some of the costumes and props so you can actually take photos and really get familiar with what you are going to see on stage. But I’m going to give you the best secrets of all the myths that people don’t really know is that our sensory inclusive performances are only $10 A ticket. We subsidize the tickets because when we were developing these performances, we understood that we cannot ask a family of four because tickets at a theater can be expensive for a family of four or five to spend 50 $60 A ticket and then having to leave 20 minutes in. It’s just not a good investment. And so that’s why we made it possible thanks to the TAF Foundation, and some of our sponsors to be able to subsidize these performances so that people can just come to the theater and enjoy the performances.
Most of them tend to be about an hour, we do mostly an hour performances, but we do a couple times a year, we do the two hour performances, for those that prefer to stay. And it also helps us to measure growth. When we started five years ago, we actually started talking to families and people that will regularly come, and then they will be here for 20 minutes, 30 minutes 45, they can stay for the whole show, the full show, and now they can stay for the two full hour shows we have seen growth in or participants that come to these shows, the more they come to the theater, the more they are engaged, the more they love the art and they love coming to the Broward Center.
HR:
Well, that is so wonderful, you know, with the autistic community, and other sensory processing disorders we see now. This is — you’re opening up whole doors to people who otherwise just would not be able to go they wouldn’t be able to tolerate everything. Tremendous. We salute you. Now, how long has the Broward Center for Performing Arts been around here in Fort Lauderdale?
GP:
Oh, we just actually celebrated or 30 year anniversary this year. We opened back in February, in 1991. It was the Phantom of the Opera. That was the first show that came through our doors. And right now we’re doing a run of The Prom, at least still to the Sunday. And we’ve been here for 30 years. And we continue to make an impact in our community. Especially through our education program. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the program, where we actually make it possible for Broward County school kids to come to the show, free of charge. And they are actually provided with study guides so that they can actually reinforce what they’re learning in their classes. Because these are curriculum driven performance. These are what we called the arts in education and how you can teach education through the arts. So that’s been going on for 30 years, we finished the 30 year anniversary for the program as well. And we just continue to service our community. I mean, that’s what we’re here for.
HR:
Well, you do a great job. And I know our kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County here really, really appreciate it. I remember back when it was on the drawing board many years ago and some of the original board members who also some of them were on the board at the Boys and Girls Club. And I remember one may he rest in peace Carl Mayhu way back way back hall was very passionate about it. As with so many of the other community leaders here in Broward. And now here, we fast forward decades later. And look at all the wonderful things you’re doing for the citizens. It’s terrific.
GP:
Absolutely. And we want to continue the legacy that started back 30 years and we continue to expand and back in the day, it was only the Broward Center. And now we also manage the Parker Playhouse, which we also use for educational programs. And we have done sensory performances over there. So it allows us to reach far more students and people who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to come to the Broward Center.
HR:
Gustavo, how did you get into this line of work?
GP:
Oh, that is a great question. I was actually, I used to work in finance. So I was behind the computer a lot. And I always like to say that most of the people that I would interact with only wanted to get paid. That was what my role was. But I had the opportunity on our second year when we were doing the sensory friendly shows. I had the opportunity to do the management for one of the events. It was a sensory inclusive performance of Pete the cat four, you know, like the little ones and and when I got to be there for the show, I what I got to see and some of the families that I actually got to talk to just their personal stories. So there’s two people in particular that I remember there was a mom, a mother and she was with her daughter but believe it or not, her daughter was not a little when she was like on her teens. And she was just sharing how she couldn’t really take her daughter to many places because Just people would look at them in a weird way, or they would just not be just they used to just not be the kind people and they would either be asked to leave the place, or just the feeling that people are looking at you. So she didn’t really have many options. But hearing her story about how she was able to find the power center and and come and do these events was there, her daughter, it gave her like, another home because she was at home the whole time isolated, but now he’s like, Hey, now we can do something as a mother and a daughter. And one of the fathers I met to share with me how this was the first time that he son came to the theater. So no, no experience, no prior, anything with the arts.
And for me, after that day I, I asked to give to get this opportunity and try to expand the program and try to like reach out to community partners and groups and how can I connect people to the power center? What do we do? And how can we deliver or our related programs into just community groups that have never had this opportunity. And through these amazing opportunity I was given, I was able to form partnerships with places like the UN NSU Center for Autism and Related disabilities, places like the friendship journey, exceptional Theatre Company, like so many community groups, the Dan Marino, the YMCA, I mean, like everyone is trying to serve the same community. And what we’re trying to do is like, how can we help you serve better your community through the arts, and thanks to those relationships, we were able to continue to build their sensory inclusive performances to what they are now because before they used to be performances, but now they are a whole experience. When you where you actually get the preparation, you get the engaging component, you get the social part, meeting the cast members, and we actually train the cast to know what to expect how to respond the proper ways to communicate to the level of our patrons. So it became just a whole day of like coming to the theater and have the most amazing experience for families.
HR:
What a wonderful, wonderful thing it is you do. What this 2022 have in store for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts?
GP:
I think that is a great question. So we are looking to restart or sensory inclusive performances, hopefully spring 2022. So we’re looking into the possibility of March, end of March. Definitely some performances by April and May when the pandemic’s hit, we had to cancel all of the sensory inclusive show. So it’s been about a year and a half that we have not been able to do in person sensory inclusive show. But we kind of turned to the virtual worlds. So we were delivering engaging our experiences directly to the community groups through zoom and teams, we were able to do virtual summer camps, we actually put together a really nice Frozen virtual performance with some of our community partners and in help through the help of our teaching artists. And everything this last year and a half has been virtual. But 2022 brings back the in person sensory inclusive performances. To give you a little heads up, we are looking into the possibility of doing the Cat in the Hat performance. We’re looking to bring in a really nice group that sings quiet bossa nova. It’s called Brazilian Voices. And we have like instruments for people to play along with them is a very engaging performance. And we are continue to work on our calendar or seasons start in October and then in September. So I hope that for fall 2022 we are going to have a full schedule or performances which they tend to be about one show a month sensory performance.
HR:
Is there anything we have not covered today that you would like to cover, Gustavo?
GP:
Oh, yeah, well, absolutely. I think something that I wanted to also let you know it, how we make these performances happen, because we might provide the resources and the accommodations and the preparations, the right experience. But some of the questions that sometimes people ask me like, so how is that show, besides all of these things different from the other show? So and this is where some of our partners they come to help us out with this. So I’ll give you an example. Pre pandemic, we had a show it was Shrek the Musical. And this was a performance by or professional theatre company slower. And we usually usually when we do the show for the century, we always do the second week of the show, because we have one patron who’s on the spectrum. And he worked with the UM/NSU CARD, he comes on the opening night to see the performance live. And he takes his notes. And he always brings us back the note saying, like, hey, performance is great, but I think there should be a few adjustments, so that our community can feel comfortable.
And I’ll give you a couple examples. There’s times where Shrek, just like in the movie, when a character may strike, they scream, and it’s very loud. So some of the notes that we were given is like, maybe instead of screaming, maybe you want to do just like a little scared noise, like, like, You’re surprised, like, Oh, my God, it’s an ogre. So then that way, there’s not a lot of screaming, because that can be a little painful for some of our patrons. Or when there’s like, Hey, I saw that when they were walking towards the dragon, there’s a lot of smoke, maybe keep, keep this at the smoke at a minimum, so it doesn’t get into the audience, seats, stuff like that. So he helps us actually make the proper adjustments, so that the performance is comfortable for everyone. And at the same time, we have this script of the performances, which we actually send to some of our specialists at TDF. And they review th e script, and they always tell us ahead of time, like hey, and this time in make sure that these sound it’s control. It’s very interesting, you would think when we the Beauty and the Beast Gastone is introduced by actually taking his gun and shooting in the air. And there’s a loud sound. So stuff like “Hey, make sure that when that sound comes, it’s, it’s very low”. And at the same time, it’s a good idea to have Gastone come before the beginning of the show, introduce himself to the artists and say like, Hey, my name is Gastone. I’m just a character pretending to do this role. If you see my little toy here, it’s a gun, but it’s not real, it’s just wood, I’m going to pretend that I’m shooting in the air. And that’s when you see me come in. So we do the preparation ahead of time. So when all of these things appear on the screen, we know how to act through the screen. And we also know how to adjust visually by the people that come to review the show for us. So there’s a lot of preparation that comes to make these performances happen at the power center. And I think that’s something that I am very gracious for our partners that continue to help us make these performances just comfortable for so the families can come to the theater. And I definitely have to share that what I’ve seen on these shows, there was a family of 13 people that came only to support one member in their family who has never been at the theater. And they had like the most wonderful time and just the stories and the memorable moments that we’re able to create to create through our sensory shows are just wonderful. And these shows are always sold out. Like people just can’t wait to be at our theaters.
When we started, we were doing two shows and we went to four then we went to Sega then we went to 12. And you can see that this serves a really a real need in the community. And to finalize one of the other things that we also do the sensory inclusive performances as bar oversees program so that students in Broward County, who are in the ESC schools can come and see the show, free of charge, and also relates to what they’re seeing in school. So not only we provide these for our community, but we also provide it for the ESC schools in our county. And this is one of the most amazing things I don’t eat my life. And again, I continue to reach out to new people. And that’s how I was able to meet you and different brains because I want to bring more people to the Broward Center, but I also want to deliver the Broward Center to you see how we can work together to better serve our communities together.
HR:
Gustavo, what do you hope other venues will learn from the sensory friendly performances at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts?
GP:
That this is not hard to do. If you put your mind if you put your purpose ahead, this is something that you can achieve. Like we did it here at the Broward Center and any other person and organization can make this happen. And our goal for the Broward Center is not to be the only place that does sensory inclusive performances, but connecting community partners and other theatres and venues and how can they open their doors to people with disabilities and be more inclusive, diverse and provide accessibility that we all need. I don’t want people coming all the way from Westfall to come to the Broward Center. I want the Westfalen to provide these for their families. I know that they have a partner, a friend at the Broward center that can help them get to where we like to place we are right now.
HR:
Well, Gustavo Padrino, thank you so much your sensory friendly performances, and all that goes into it. Thank you for educating us. And thanks for everything you’re doing for the kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County, for those of us whose brains a little bit different, for all of your sensory friendly performances, and community engagement right here in Fort Lauderdale. Keep up the great work. And we’ll see you again soon. Thank you.
GP:
Thank you so much. It was my absolute pleasure.
