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Highlights from EAP’s First Live Production

Each year, Early Autism Project (EAP) Malaysia organises a Family Day for all our children and families. It is a day to showcase and celebrate our children with autism, as well as to honour their families for their great sacrifice and contribution to their child’s progress.

On the 30th of June 2018, Early Autism Project (EAP) Malaysia held its first ever live production since its establishment 12 years ago. The production, “The Greatest Treasure”, was held in Pusat Sains Negara where 42 of our children with Autism participated and played a role on stage.

The event was kicked off with a speech by our Director, Jochebed Isaacs, honoring the families for all their sacrifices, hard work and commitment towards their children with autism. Our Director also took a moment to honour one of our families, who organised several events to raise sufficient funds for The Hope Project, in order to sponsor a child for one year of fully-funded ABA therapy programme.

After the speech, 6 of our children with Autism presented a warm-up dance to ‘Tooty Ta’. During this warm-up dance, the entire crowd were encouraged to stand up and dance along, and it was a sight to behold as the families, young and old, all danced along with the children on stage. All the 6 children on stage were able to perform the dance amazingly, giving the audience a taste of what is to come.

Next up was “The Greatest Treasure” live production. The production, created to honour the children’s families, told a story about a group of boys in search of the greatest treasure, embarking on an adventure to 4 different lands – a village, jungle, ocean and mountains, in search of the treasure. Each scene featured our children reciting their script, acting and accompanied by dance performances. Our children were also dressed up in costumes for their respective roles, and the stage was decked out with different props for each scene. At the end of the production, it is revealed that the greatest treasure is their families. Upon the big reveal, the audience in the hall were treated to a variety of chocolates wrapped up in gold-foil, highlighting to them that they are in fact, the greatest treasure.

The production was a tremendous success and was enjoyed by many! Despite being prepared for the worst, the children were excited to be on stage after numerous rehearsals. One of the kiddos even excitedly informed the therapist, “Awak tak tau ke? (Don’t you know?) I’m going on stage to dance!” One of our big boys, known to be anxious was also elated upon being called to stage by the emcee to share a joke and he successfully spoke with confidence and entertained the audience! The children were able to tolerate more than 18 areas of challenge and successfully performed their parts.

After the production, each child was in turn honoured for their strengths, achievements, and efforts in learning during an awards ceremony. In this awards ceremony, each child was awarded a title and a certificate centered around their strengths and achievements.

Overall, EAP’s first ever production was a HUGE success, all to which was owed to the children that had worked so hard in preparation for the production, the parent and families for their support, the volunteers, the vendors and partners, as well as the entire EAP team for all their efforts and dedication in making this a dream come true.

In our next blog, we will be writing about the steps and processes our EAP team took in order to prepare our children for a successful live production. Stay tuned!