Whoever thought of this should get a medal...at the least.

 

NJ police department's autism awareness project equips officers with sensory tool kits

Roselle Park Police are equipping patrol cars with new 'Emergency Sensory Tool Kits' and training officers

By Michael Ruiz | Fox News

A New Jersey police department is equipping its patrol cars with new "Emergency Sensory Tool Kits" and training for officers aimed at improving its response to situations involving people with autism or other special needs.

"You hear these police stories where departments are ill-equipped to deal with people who have mental health issues or learning disabilities, or in a lot of cases, autistic people who were misinterpreted," Roselle Park Police Chief Daniel McCaffery told Fox News Saturday. "This kind of training in these kind of tools can only help us to better serve the public."

The idea emerged during Autism Awareness Month last week when Officer Jessica Diaz approached the chief with her proposal, McCaffery said.

"She approached me and asked if she could look into it and move forward with it," he said. "And once she gave me a presentation, I said absolutely."

The issue touched close to home for several people in the department, including the chief himself, who have family members with autism, McCaffery said.

The kits will include earmuffs and sunglasses to block out sound or bright lights, stress balls and other handheld objects – as well as dry-erase and picture boards to facilitate communication with nonverbal persons.

Although there have been reports of some other departments equipping police or firefighters with similar kits, the chief said the Roselle Park program was developed in house from the ground up.

With calls to defund the police emerging around the country in the past year, the chief said the department is working hard to never be involved in an incident that would warrant such measures in Roselle Park.

"Every tool that you can give an officer can only help them to better serve the public and to better serve the people that you come across," he said. "We haven't had a situation that has called for this, [but] we're trying to be proactive with it."

The nonprofit group Autism Speaks recommends special training for police on how to deal with people with autism they encounter while responding to calls.

In a section of its website dedicated to educating police departments and first responders, the group says individuals with autism might not understand risks or danger, be overly fearful or curious, fail to respond to police commands, feel overwhelmed or avoid eye contact, among other things.

"Police are trained to respond to a crisis situation with a certain protocol, but this protocol may not always be the best way to interact with people with autism," the page reads. "Because police are usually the first to respond to an emergency, it is critical that these officers have a working knowledge of autism, and the wide variety of behaviors people with autism can exhibit in emergency situations."

By equipping each patrol car with the sensory tool kits and offering new training to its officers, the Roselle Park Police Department hopes to accomplish that goal.

playwrights

 * FREE THEATER ONLINE ***

UNTIL THE FLOOD

Writer- performer Dael Orlandersmith’s one-woman show explores Ferguson following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. Based on extensive interviews, this theatrical event gives voice to a community grappling with injustice and yearning for change.

https://allarts.org/programs/all-arts-performance-selects/until-the-flood-wtcesv/

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

In response to the present racial climate in this country, we want to deepen our allyship with the Black Community in Berkshire County. We need to act, but first we need to listen. Barrington Stage Company is giving a platform to Black Voices in response to Black Lives Matter.We are inviting Black community members to submit digital reflections of their thoughts, feelings, fears and triumphs.

This can include but is not limited to: monologues, scenes or plays, poetry, original music, multimedia projects, etc. We want everyone in the conversation to ask themselves: “What can I do to make a change?”

***

B3 Theater of Phoenix, Arizona, seeks scripts for their 1st Festival of Shorts for Youth! The Festival will be held in December of 2021. The Shorts will be fully-rehearsed shows, whether they take place live or virtually.

Plays will be selected with an eye towards originality and taking risks. Plays which do not follow the requirements below will not be read.

***

United Beyond Borders Hear Thalia’s Daughters Laughing seeks short comedic plays from female-identified playwrights for publication

This international volume is hoped to be multi-lingual, thus giving each playwright a chance to submit a short piece in their mother tongue and its translated into English version. Submissions from the United States/UK/Australia/Nigeria/etc. shall remain in original unless the author knows and speaks fluently another language or can work with a translator. 

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***

*** MAY DAY ***

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre - MayDay History

The spring of 1975 was our first MayDay Festival. Our original impetus for this Festival was quite simple. We wanted to give a gift to the community that was supporting our theatre, and to create a celebration that would bring people together out of their homes at the end of winter.

The Vietnam War ended just 2 weeks before the event and our little procession was exuberantly joyful. We were a group of 50 or 60 people, an Earth puppet, a Water puppet, several birds, two accordions, and many banners. When we got to the park, we raised a Maypole puppet and hosted a few small performances and some MayDay speeches.

Nowadays, the organizing work of the festival is a year-round task. Each February we host a public brainstorming session, when we invite all to share ideas and images towards developing the specific theme for the year. The thoughtful themes of the past years echo the pulse of our south Minneapolis neighborhoods, and as such, the chronology of themes tells a peculiarly imaginative history of the times.

More...

https://hobt.org/mayday/mayday-history/

***

In the final hours of April 2004, Tristan Sturrock, Kneehigh’s leading man fromBrief Encou­nter, joined the May Day festivities­ in Cornwall to celebrate the coming of spring.  A buoyant father-to-be, his life changed in a moment that night… He fell off a wall. It nearly killed him.

Instantly engaging, when Tristan walks on stage, his lyrical presence defies his assertion that this story is both his and true.  However, Mayday Mayday is “life affirming theatre at its very very best…” (The Cornishman). Tristan takes us through his solo tale of recovery with great wit, a few props and grand operatic flourishes. Mayday Mayday is a love letter to Tristan’s life and the people who saved it.

More...

https://stannswarehouse.org/show/mayday-mayday/

***

Chapman based the plot of May Day, and its Venetian setting, upon a Commedia erudita by Alessandro Piccolomini called Alessandro (1544). The story, as adapted by Chapman, is a complex, crowded, multiple-plot tangle of intrigue and disguise. In the original production, "much of the play's humor probably derived from the child actors' interpretations of adult roles." "The whole play, if over-ingenious, is vivaciously written, and the characters are well-sustained."

The play exploits the plot device of gender disguise and cross-dressing that was so common in English Renaissance drama — though Chapman manages to double and re-double the cross-dressing trick. Two characters cross-dress, one male, one female. The page Lionell disguises "himself" as a "gentlewoman" in the course of the play; but at the conclusion it is revealed that Lionell is actually Theagine in disguise – so that a boy player played a female character who disguises as a male page, who then disguises as a woman.

More...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day_(play)

***

Crandell Theatre proudly presents Mayday 1971 Raw, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1971 May Day peace protests that made history, with record-setting civil disobedience arrests and leading to the end of the Vietnam War. The protestors’ slogan: “If the government won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government.” The early video documentary was recorded by Mayday Video, an ad hoc group of pioneer video makers, including Videofreex, who lived and had a pirate TV station in the Catskills during the 1970s.

This virtual community event features access to a 66-minute, 21st century edit of the original video compilation from the historic 1971 May Day protest. Participants are invited to view the film in advance of the event, and tune in to a panel discussion on May 1st at 5 p.m. To gain access to the film, please register for the event here.  A link to view the film will be sent via email with registration confirmation.

More...

https://crandelltheatre.org/making-history-marking-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-1971-may-day-march-on-washington-as-recorded-by-the-videofreex-mayday-1971-raw/

***

MAYDAY: distress call dispatched mainly by boats and aeroplanes. In use since the early 20th century, probably derived from the French expression “Venez m’aider!” (Come help me!).

For the choreographer and artistic director of MAYDAY, Mélanie Demers, the stage is a platform for performers to reflect as a group, a space for calling into question the role of the artist and the genre of theatre, and where our collective and individual fates are pondered. She does not subject audiences to accusatory harangues, nor does she wallow in a mood of sterile resignation: she simply draws our attention to the dark side of the human condition. Her works are at once a cry for help and a call for change. Hence the name MAYDAY: in the eyes of Mélanie Demers this word is imbued with equal parts hope and despair.

More...

https://www.mennoplukker.com/may-day

***

MayDay est une remontée libre et sauvage dans le temps, une plongée dans la mémoire, c’est-à-dire dans une matière infinie, plus vaste que le souvenir. Tout part d’une interview: pour échapper aux fantômes de son passé, Mary Burns accepte de revenir sur les crimes qu’elle a commis dans son enfance, lorsqu’elle avait dix ans. Sa parole va faire surgir, successivement, d’autres figures féminines : Mary à 10 ans, sa mère, la mère de sa mère. Les voix et les images vont s’entremêler, à ciel ouvert. Pour au final, comme au sortir d’un rêve, entrevoir la possibilité d’être, à peu près, en paix avec le présent.

Plus...

https://www.colline.fr/spectacles/mayday

***

Sound & Fury Morris & Sword have been dancing around Seattle and the rest of the west coast of North America since the waning days of last century (1999 to be specific). These are dance traditions dating back, well, a long time, from various regions of England. Sound & Fury is proud to bring them to you, residents of the Pacific Northwest!

https://www.soundandfurymorris.com

Recording of their May Day Morris Dance, streamed live on Facebook May 1, 2021

https://www.facebook.com/90816262800/videos/471023630823862

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