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Clay High senior with autism takes leading role with Broadway pros in New York

South Bend Tribune - 12/1/2019

Dec. 1--At 18, Madison Kopec is articulate, but sometimes a thought or feeling enters her head that she just can't put into words. Sure, that sounds like most of us. Except that this is one of the aspects of autism with which she lives.

Now place this Clay High School senior on stage with all of its attendant stimuli -- under the lights, in front of a microphone, alongside other actors -- and she's in her element, even in New York City.

Madison recently spent two weeks there as a lead in a staged reading of a new musical production next to a cast of professional actors who've all had experience on Broadway.

In "Indigo," she plays 16-year-old Emma, who is on a different part of the autism spectrum. Emma doesn't speak, but, through her voice, Emma's inner thoughts come out on stage.

Madison refers to the two weeks as this "crazy experience," about which she says, "I never would have dreamed of something like this happening in a million years."

"She just played with the big boys," says Scott Evan Davis, a New York-based composer and co-author of "Indigo," which also weaves through dementia and child custody issues. "She completely exceeded any expectation we had. She blew all of us away."

The cast gave two staged readings of "Indigo" -- with scripts in hand -- for an invite-only audience of Broadway producers and people in the theater industry who could possibly take the show to the next level: a fully costumed production.

Costumes. Putting on costumes still makes Madison nervous, thinking about the possibility of an icky pin or needle hiding in the cloth. But she's mustered through that sort of obsession in the past.

When she was 4 or 5, her father, Art Kopec, started bringing her to the mic on gigs with his band, Art & the Artichokes. She still sings with them occasionally, such as during a performance last summer at the St. Joseph County 4-H Fair. Also at 5, she started participating in the education program at South Bend Civic Theatre, where she would appear in several productions over the years, along with theater at Clay High.

She played a key role in "The Secret Garden" last year with South Bend Civic, and this summer she produced and directed a story at the theater where the "Peanuts" characters deal with the challenges of adolescence, "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead."

This year, she was among girls with autism from around the country who submitted videos to audition for the part of Emma, first narrowed down to 50, then to 10. Davis says he and the directors had unanimously decided that it had to be a girl with autism because, he says, "You have to represent."

Madison and the other finalists had to send a follow-up video, part of which had them talk about one of their memories. Madison told the story of her stuffed duck.

Davis recalls he watched it in bed and laughed out loud at the "cutest, funniest story," saying, "Well, that's our Emma."

The story of "Indigo," though, is poignant. When Emma's father dies, social services connect her with a godmother who has early onset Alzheimer's disease. So Emma's care falls to the woman's daughter, Beverly, and her husband, Rick, who question whether or not they can care for Emma as well. Emma is agitated by loud sounds. She sees colors and patterns in unique ways and sometimes uses Scrabble tiles to communicate. And yet she touches the elder women.

"The story is about a girl who doesn't know how to communicate who teaches everyone around her how to," Davis says.

Although Emma is different than her, Madison says she relates to her challenges with autism, saying, "There are just a lot of things on a sensory level that are overlooked by people."

In just one example, Madison says, "The texture of food can put me off and not want to eat."

"People say you are being picky," she adds. "Really, there is an underlying reason."

Davis noticed her fondness for doodling, so -- in many tweaks and rewrites through the production -- he incorporated doodling into Emma's character.

"It's (drawing) just something that's a natural stress reliever," Madison says. "When I'm doing it, I can be focused and listening to something and process what it means better."

Madison says the story accurately portrays autism and notes that Davis "has a good sense of what he's dealing with."

Davis says he'd once worked with 10 autistic children from a school in Manhattan, helping them to write a collective show, "Powerful Day," about autism and overcoming bullies. It drew Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Stephen Sondheim to the audience and also spurred a documentary film, "Spectrum of Hope," about Davis' work with those kids. It also spawned a performing arts program for children with autism from several schools.

"From that experience, I got to see what a lot of the kids are capable of," Davis says. "I've seen kids who are nonverbal get up and sing."

Music's magic for the autistic mind, he says, in that it "makes order out of chaos."

"Indigo," with its many-layered story and Madison's ability to give voice to Emma, meant that, Davis says, "All of us cried every day."

To quote one song that Emma sings: "If the world only knew what I could do, they would be astounded ... I would change their whole perception, open their eyes, and they would see a beautiful exception."

In a lucid break from dementia, Emma's godmother tells her daughter, "I'll still love you when I forget."

Asked if she came to tears, Madison says, "on the inside." With all that was going on, she says she couldn't process it much until later. With this redemptive story and her own opportunity, she adds, "I was so overwhelmed with joy."

She credits her fellow cast members for encouraging her.

But Madison, who didn't see the script until she arrived in New York, says she'd prepared by reading through social media groups for people with autism and their families.

Her parents, Art and Deanie Kopec, and their younger daughter came to watch, and Art was amazed at how she cultivated a new character rather than play one from an oft-told story as she's done in the past.

"I always thought she was brilliant," he says, admitting his fatherly bias. After watching this, he says, "No, I was right."

Davis says the next step for "Indigo" would be to do another reading just for the writers to keep shaping the show, then take it outside of New York for a production, eventually working toward a costumed show.

Madison turned 18 while in New York. She took in two off-Broadway musicals, "Beetlejuice," and "Jagged Little Pill" (inspired by the music of Alanis Morissette).

And after playing with Broadway veterans, the talented girl frankly says she doesn't know how far she'll go with theater in her life.

"I don't know what the future holds for me," she says. "I just hope it'll be OK."

jdits@sbtinfo.com

574-235-6158

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