Theatre as an Intervention Against Autism Stigma Using Broadway’s How to Dance in Ohio

This research project examined whether a live theatrical performance of How to Dance in Ohio decreases stigma among audience members. The research was conducted during 2 weeks of Broadway performances in New York City and followed a pretestposttest design, including a survey of audiences right before, 48 hours after, and 2 weeks after the performance. We expected that autism stigma would decrease after the performance and remain lower 2 weeks after the performance compared to the pretest. Results show that participants displayed a significant difference in levels of autism stigma after viewing the performance, F(1,58) = 10.56, Wilks’ Lambda = .85, p = .002, η2 = .15. There was also a significant interaction with gender, showing that men had higher levels of stigma at pretest and showed a larger decrease after the performance, F(1,58) = 7.51, Wilks’ Lambda = .89, p = .008, η2 = .12. These data support the initial hypothesis that the performance was an effective intervention to lower levels of autism stigma for 2 weeks among audience members of a musical.