Treatment
ACT 1
Narrator’s Prolog: “Once upon a time in a state known for its progressive policies - disabled residents had less legal protections from physical harm than abled residents.”
Overture Song: “Control,” introduces the main characters through spotlighting them, and shares how they are impacted by control - including by being controlled, being controlling and fighting to take control back.
Scene 1: College student Sam tells her grandmother Daisy that she is studying so hard for her behaviorism class that she can imagine the fathers of behaviorism, Dr. Skinner, and Dr. Lovaas speaking to one another. This discussion is captured in the song “Context: Behaviorism.” Sam and Daisy are supportive of negative reinforcements, seeing the value in tough love to achieve positive changes. Meanwhile, Dr. Skinner shares his reservations about the limitations of negative reinforcements to make lasting changes.
Scene 2: Clara brings her 11-year-old daughter Ada unwillingly to an Applied Behavioral Analysis room by her mother. Sam (now a professional behaviorist) offers services in this room. Ada wishes instead to run around with her 10-year-old cousin Ben who is visiting them with his mother, Dorothy. Once Ada realizes that she must have an ABA session, her body crumples.
Scene 3: Ben has eloped and is running down a path around a pond singing the song “Ben Running” in which he shares his desire to run away. Just as he realizes he wants someone to follow him, Ada appears, and they run off the stage together.
Scene 4: Ben and Ada overhear their mothers discussing their struggles addressing their children’s behavioral challenges. Their conversation makes up the lyrics in the song “Counterpoint.” The mothers discuss their concerns over Ben’s eloping and Ada’s self-harm. Meanwhile, Ben and Ada react off to the side, sharing their concerns about not receiving what they need to thrive.
Scene 5: Sam tells Daisy that she received a job offer from the Behavioral Change Center (BCC), which administers electric shocks as part of the treatments they offer. Through the song “Context: Treatment” they imagine Dr. Lovaas having a conversation with the inventor of device used at the BCC to administer shocks. Daisy is starting to have concerns about the use of negative reinforcements. This is because she is about to spend time in a nursing home due to medical issues and is nervous about receiving cruel treatment.
Scene 6: After Clara says goodnight to the now 19-year-old Ada, she sings the song “If.” This song captures Clara’s desire for Ada to be a vastly different person so that she could then easily love her daughter unconditionally. The stage fades to black on Clara, and spotlights Ada creating embroidery in her bedroom, while singing the song “Embroidered.” Ada shares her need to both protect herself and have autonomy through art, as well as feel her own presence through self-harm.
Scene 7: Clara sits in a BCC office with Kate, a BCC staff person. They discuss admitting Ada to address her increasing self-harm behaviors. Kate sings the song “Here” to sell the potential of the center for the positive transformation of their residents. This includes using the imagery of a chrysalis transforming into a butterfly.
Scene 8: The stage is divided in half, to see Ada in restraints in a bedroom at the BCC on the right side, and Daisy in a bed in a nursing home on the left side. They sing the song “Deserve” where they both question why they deserve to be in institutional care.
Scene 9: In a community room at the BCC, Ada and a new resident Debby get to know each other. Ada shares that ABA did not make her less autistic, and Debby shared that gay conversion therapy did not make her any less gay. When Ada and Debby were pressured to change who they innately were, they acted out and were sent to the center. Ada also learns that a youth recently joined the center, who is around Ben’s age.
Scene 10: Sam visits Daisy in her nursing home. Daisy tries to imply that she is receiving abusive care, but Sam misses this call for help, by identifying with nursing home staff, not her grandmother.
Scene 11: In the BCC community room, Ada and Ben sit together. They talk about their reactions to the center, and the fact that they have different rights due to Ada being under guardianship through her disabilities and Ben being there through a Department of Children and Families placement. Ada learns that Ben can simply walk out at age 18. They also share their admiration of Debby’s toughness and bravery in standing up for herself even when that means receiving shocks.
Debby then joins them and quickly learns that Ben is Ada’s cousin. The three characters bond when Ben and Debby happily decide to do a clothing swap with Ada planning to provide alterations.
Scene 12: Ada asks Sam to discuss her current behavior plan with her. This plan forbids her from sewing or embroidering because of the potential for harm. She asks to be able to embroider again, through the song “Not Embroidered: Behavior Plan.” Sam tells Ada to put her trust in her behavior plan to help her. Once she hears this response she crumples.
Scene 13: Ada, alone in her room at the BCC, sings “Endurance: This too shall pass” in reaction to the harms she is experiencing. She can endure if she sees an end to her suffering. For emotional relief and sensory regulation, Ada self-harms through pinching her arm.
Scene 14: Clara meets with Kate and Sam in a BCC office to discuss the possibility of putting Ada on the shock device. When Clara wavers, Kate threatens to evict Ada from the center, if permission is not granted to use the shock device on Ada as a motivator.
Scene 15: In Ada's Bedroom, Kate and Phil hold down Ada to apply a shock device to her leg. Ada sings the song "Without Consent."
Scene 16: In the staff lounge of the BCC, Sam and Phil compare stories about their pets acting up when they are not present, sharing a good deal of empathy about their pets’ feelings.
Scene 17: In the Community Room at the BCC, Ada, Ben, and Debby watch another resident, Paul, walk up and down the room. Phil is disciplining Paul by requiring him to walk back and forth twenty-five times. After Ada counts twenty times, Paul bangs his head against the wall to regain his control, garnering Debby’s respect. Phil shocks Paul, who screams and continues to bang his head.
Scene 18: Staff let Ada sew in the BCC Art room. She is putting on the finishing touches on a jacket for Ben, created from Debby’s dress. Kate tells Ada that she has to stop for the day, and Ada asks for a little more time. This creates a standoff, and Ada accidently pokes Kate with a needle. Kate loses her temper and shocks Ada. Phil drags her out of the room.
Scene 19: Ada is restrained to her bed, in her bedroom. She sings the song "Endurance: A Waste of Immortality.” She imagines how the immortal jellyfish can regenerate indefinitely, effectively being immortal. If she were to be an immortal at the BCC, with the endless danger of pain, it would effectively be a waste of her immortality.
Scene 20: In the Community Room at the BCC, Debby, Ada, Paul, Jewel, and Ben sit together. Ada shares that she feels stupid that she did not stop embroidering before things escalated. Debby points out that the staff provoke them to act out so that they have an excuse to use the shock devices. This discussion flows into a song titled “Provoked” that shares ways that the BCC attempts to provoke the residents.
Scene 21: Debby is on a board to receive shocks with increased pain levels, in a sterile looking room at the BCC alongside Phil and Kate. Phil makes sure that the center has legal permissions before beginning. Because Debby’s father gave guardianship to the center, because they lived out of state, the center has the right to approve shocks. Through the shocks, Debby sings the song “Drifting” that shares her desire to drift away and, in the end, even die to escape the pain. Phil activates the approved five shocks and Kate out of spite adds a final sixth shock.
Scene 22: Dr. Skinner and Dr. Lovaas discuss whether in the present day aversives are legal for use on disabled people in the song “Context: Laws.” This scene ends with the Dr. Skinner stating that if aversives were used on abled people within the United States there would be an uproar because that would be considered torture.
Scene 23: In the BCC Community Room. Debby, Ada, Paul, and Ben sit together. They discuss how other options are better than the shocks in the song “The Meds Were Better.”
Scene 24: In the BCC Community Room, Jewel, Paul, and June stand. Parts of the song "We Are Still Here" are typed and digitally spoken by Jewel, danced by June, and sung by Paul. These long-term residents talk about the fact that although they were not born there, they may die there and describe other long-term residents and their stories. Through this scene the audience can come to realize that the narrator is the long-term resident Jewel who communicates through typing.
Scene 25: Kate and a new accountant, Robert talk together in Kate’s office about the center’s financials with the song “Money.” This song breaks down the ways that the organization can be profitable and able to afford to fight against lawsuits. After Robert learns more troubling details about the center’s practices he stops and looks around. He then asks himself “what am I doing here?” Kate watches him walk off the stage and states, “Why are accountants so surprisingly sensitive?”
Scene 26: The stage splits between Daisy’s nursing home room and Ben’s BCC bedroom. Both Ben and Daisy sing the song “Enough” about how they both have had enough of the harms of institutional abuse.
ACT 2
Scene 1: In the morning Daisy gets ready to leave the nursing home with Sam. Ben is greeted by Ada who wishes him a happy birthday for turning eighteen. She gives Ben the altered dress (now a jacket) and Debby joins them wearing Ben’s shirt. They leave with the hope of finding a treat to celebrate Ben’s birthday.
Scene 2: Ada and Ben enter Kate’s office. Phil runs after them, to stop Ada because she is not allowed there without her guardian present. Ben asks for his records, and the form to sign himself out of the center. Ada asks for the same but is not allowed, because she is under guardianship. After Ben signs out of the center and receives his records, him and Ada leave the office. Ada suggests that they run for old times’ sake, beginning the song “Running Together.” They run out of sight. There is a crash and the beeping of the shock device. Debby’s voice is heard saying “Don’t be a fool Ben - don’t leave this place for jail.” Next Ben is seen at the edge of the stage. After catching his breath, he says “She always made sure that I didn't run away alone.”
Scene 3: Sam shares her concern that the residents are afraid of the staff to Kate. She says that Ada in particular is not acknowledging her. Kate assures Sam that they are only doing what is in legal behavioral plans. She recommends that Sam needs to create a professional distance, or she will be “haunted at night by this place.”
Scene 4: ADA admires her embroidery work in her bedroom at the BCC. She then sings the song "Human Rights: Unequal Rights" where she highlights the difference in rights between herself and Ben and how she wants human rights for herself and for all people.
Scene 5: Kate has a second meeting with a newly hired accountant, Roberta for the BCC. where they discuss campaign donations to legislators, and lobbying expenses to keep the use of the shock device legal. The song “Money: Reprise” is sung. Kate uncertain of the accountant’s reaction to these expenses, asks “Are you a sensitive accountant?” She answers, “No I am an insensitive accountant.”
Scene 6: Debby and Ada discuss whether Ben will tell Debby’s father that Debby received burns from the shock device. Ada says she does not know if her mother would want to protect her if she received burns herself. Ada learns that Debby considers her and Ben family, and they both allude to romantic interest between each other. Then they discuss the state constitution (which Debby partly has memorized) in the song “Human Rights: The state constitution.” They discuss how the constitution sounds like it should protect them but in practice it does not.
Scene 7: Sam tells Daisy, in their living room about how a parent who is trying to get their child released from the center because they received “minor burns” from the shock device. She shares that even though the parents gave up guardianship to the center because they lived out of state, the center is considering agreeing to release the child to avoid a drawn-out legal battle. This is because the parent is a lawyer. Daisy is concerned that Sam is getting too cavalier about her patients and reminds her that the point is to help the patients. She says that the patients at the BCC must deal with more harm than she did at the nursing home. Sam asks, “What happened to you?”
Scene 8: In the arts room at the BCC, Ada gets to do embroidery again, with the assumption that Sam has pulled strings to make that happen. In the middle of a conversation with Debby, Phil comes in. Phil shares that Debby’s father is there to see Debby. Debby is unable to breathe and leans forward. Ada says “Breathe, Breathe.” Debby slowly collects herself and leaves with Phil. Ada says to herself “She’s leaving too.”
Scene 9: In the BCC community room at the BCC, Sam, Paul, Jewel, and Ada are looking out the window at a squirrel that is lying down with a tail in the air. Jewel plays on her flute the beginning of the song "Sarabande by Boismortier." It flows into the song titled “The Dehydrated Squirrel.” With dark humor all the characters have their take on what is wrong with the squirrel and whether to assist it or not. Within this dialog, there is a reference that Debby is no longer at the center.
Scene 10: Ada and Sam sit in a service provider room at the BCC. As they talk, projections of Ada’s behavior plan are displayed on the stage. Ada, broken down by the shocks, feels punished. Sam tries to convince her that the shocks are not meant as punishment but as treatment that will allow her to with progress have a home visit to her mother. Ada sings the song “Deserve: Punishment” where she wonders if all she deserves is to visit her mother.
Scene 11: The stage is split to show the back of Dorothy’s house on one side of the stage and the inside of Ada’s room at the BCC on the other side of the stage. Together they take turns singing the song “Unconditional love.” They both describe their definitions of what unconditional love is to each of them. At the end of their song Dorothy calls Ben in for supper, and Paul checks in on Ada to make sure that she eats. Both feel cared for.
Scene 12: Outside of the BCC there is a rally to protest the use of shocks. Activists attending include Ben, Debby, and Dorothy. They sing the song “Protest” which includes “Stop the Shock” chants and their joint realization, that their protest approach is to just to keep getting back up again, repeatedly, when they are pushed down.
Scene 13: In the BCC community room BCC, Paul, and ADA, sing the song "We are Cared for - We are not Forgotten." June reacts through her movements. In hearing a protest outside, the residents are surprised that they are not forgotten and are cared for. They learn through Kate that Sam walked off the job. They assume that Sam will not be allowed back.
Scene 14: The protest outside the BCC continues. Sam joins the protestors and asks if it is too little and too late for her to join. Ben replies that she is needed and welcome.
Scene 15: Ada sits in the living room of her home, with Clara. We see this through the outside window of their home. They discuss their misunderstandings and the effects of the BCC treatment on Ada. When Ada says she cannot return to the center, her mother says that Ada’s time at their home, was only meant to be a temporary visit. Ada then says she can not stay there anymore and gets up to leave. At this point it is clear to the audience that Ada has a shock device on her leg. Clara gets up to follow her daughter and the audience can see that the key fob that controls the shock device is in her hand. They both freeze for a moment, trying to process what to do next.
Scene 16: The narrator shares the following words through typing, projection, and a digital voice, “Two years have passed. Legislators at the state house are considering a bill that if passed would ensure that disabled people will have the same protections from physical harm as abled people. The hearing is about to begin. Will this be the year that this perennial bill finally comes out of committee to be voted on by the legislature?”
In a hearing room at the statehouse, legislators listen to speakers testify through the song “Hearing Voices.” Kate testifies in support of the BCC. Then Sam, Daisy, Robert, Ben, and Debby speak against the BCC’s practices. The song changes to spoken words, when Terra (Paul’s mother) speaks about how the shocked device has made her son’s life “almost normal.” Next, Clara speaks to how the same device makes abusers out of staff and caregivers. Clara asks Terra if she has considered any other alternatives. Terra is insulted by this question. She would have chosen an alternative if only any were available. Clara replies that this is how she also used to think. She suggests they talk after the hearing which Terra considers.
Scene 17: Ada and Debby sit together outside on a college campus. Ada has an embroidery loop on her lap. Ada and Debby catch up on their lives- Debby is going to law school and living in the dorms while Ada is living in a group home and doing embroidery commissions. They sing the song “the Dignity of Risk” about wanting to try things that they aspire to do even if they fail and need supports.
Scene 18: Clara and Dorothy talk about their attempts to mend their relationships with their children in the song “Mending.” The small steps they have made feel like a miracle to them both.
Scene 19: Ben and Ada sing “Ponkapoag Bog in the Fog” while walking on a bog boardwalk. In this song the fog, and the unstable, wet boardwalk are symbolic of the BCC. Ada even looks for the carnivorous plants that live there. At the end of the song, they are ready to head home where it is less hidden, and more seen. They feel that their lives are better now and are grateful for that.
Scene 20: In the disability committee room at the statehouse, state legislators sit alongside each other at a table. Together they sing the song "The Legislators Song" which captures their arguments for or against passing the bill to ban the use of aversives on disabled people in their state. One legislator asks another legislator who is against passing the bill, “How do you sleep at night?”
Scene 21: Sam has trouble sleeping the night before the disability committee vote. Daisy asks Sam what she thinks the fathers of behaviorism would make of the current situation in their state around how behaviorist principles have been implemented. The song “Context: Skinner’s Lament” begins. Dr. Skinner and Dr. Lovass share their surprises over what is allowed today (aversives on disabled people) and where there is push back (autistic people considering Applied Behavioral Analysis abuse). Dr. Lovass asks “Do you think behaviorism is the problem? Or - is the problem the goals that we chose to make change on?” Dr. Skinner says that both could be problematic. Sam and Daisy state that Dr. Lovaas’s questions are important to ask.
Epilog: The narrator shares the following words “This is where our story now ends. Dear and trusted audience - How will you change the end of this story?
Scene 22: Individuals join the empty stage, one at a time and sing a line or more, from the song “Free Will.” The audience is asked “At what point does the desire to care for our loved ones slip into abuse - where is the line that we do not cross? How far do we protect? How wide do we offer protections? Where do you stand?” The former and present residents directly ask the audience “With the amount of power that you have, and your free will how will you use it?”