In this paper I, as an autistic actor-trainer who was once an autistic student-actor, explore some of the access issues faced by autistic student-actors. I look at the practices commonly taught on actor-training programmes, and uncover what exclusionary ‘dominant narratives’ they hold, and why these create issues for autistic students. This paper focuses specifically on the example of empathy, asking how it is used within the practices of Stanislavski and Meisner, among others. This research moves away from the deficit model of autism. Instead, I look to autistic experience – my own and that of others – to investigate what acknowledging, welcoming, and maximising upon these experiences can contribute to these actor-training practices. The result is an example adaptation, where I reframe actor-training exercises to be more accessible for autistic students and consider what benefits these changes might have for all actors within the space. This paper is timely as it follows on from other research into training actors with dyslexia and dyspraxia, and moves to address the absence of writing on training autistic actors. By positioning itself within the neurodiversity paradigm it questions what contributions autistic experience could make to the field of actor-training, if disabling barriers were removed.

在本文中，我作为曾经是自闭症学生演员的自闭症演员培训师，探讨了自闭症学生演员面临的一些访问问题。我研究了演员培训计划中普遍教授的做法，并揭示了他们所持有的排他性“主导叙事”，以及为什么这些会给自闭症学生带来问题。本文特别关注同理心的例子，询问它是如何在 Stanislavski 和 Meisner 等人的实践中使用的。这项研究摆脱了自闭症的缺陷模型。相反，我着眼于自闭症的经历——我自己的和其他人的——来研究承认、欢迎和最大限度地利用这些经历可以为这些演员训练实践做出什么贡献。结果是一个示例改编，我重新设计了演员训练练习，让自闭症学生更容易接受，并考虑这些变化可能对空间内的所有演员有什么好处。这篇论文是及时的，因为它继承了其他关于训练患有阅读障碍和运动障碍的演员的研究，并着手解决缺乏关于训练自闭症演员的文章的问题。通过将自己定位在神经多样性范式中，它质疑如果消除障碍，自闭症经历可以对演员训练领域做出什么贡献。