Musically supported by The Aspinauts, Donna Williams performs Mirror from the rock musical Footsteps of a Nobody ( http://www.myspace.com/footstepsofanobody )
This piece tells of Donna's attachment to her younger brother 'Tom' when she was 9 and how his acceptance of her, her responsibility to be his carer and protect him lead to a turn around in Donna's identity and relationship to her autism.
Filmed by Lindsay Dresden at The Guild Theatre 09, the show was well received and travels next to the USA in Jan 2010 before returning to Australia for a show in Geelong. Info on upcoming shows can be found at http://www.aspinauts.com
Footsteps of A Nobody
A powerful one woman rock-musical both written and performed by Donna Williams, author of the international best seller, Nobody Nowhere; Autobiography of an Autistic Girl . Through vibrant song, characterisations, gestural signing, evocative spoken word, and musically supported by the band, The Aspinauts, Donna takes us on a journey from a seemingly deaf, psychotic, 'feral' child to life on the streets and ultimately on to her fight for equality among others.
REVIEWS OF DONNA'S WRITING:
She allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before.
NEW YORK TIMES
Deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
By turns fascinating and harrowing. PEOPLE MAGAZINE
we have a second clip from the Footsteps of a Nobody show here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doEIsz6roCw
The song Mirror features on the album Nobody Nowhere available from CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com/donnaw
CAPTIONS:
Until I work out how to add captions here's the words
She's got no friends, she's got no friends, she got....
a world where trees hold, and moon follows,
a world where wind talks,
a world where someone in the mirror walks, just like her
and shares the silent secrets told in enigmatic stare
of life behind wrought iron bars,
in loony attic up purple stairs.
A world defined by ugly loaded labels
passed like salt and pepper,
psychotic, disturbed, spastic, wongo, blonk around the table.
The baby smiled from ear to ear,
eyes twinkling somewhere between mania and fear,
The nine year old became the mother
to the hyperactive clutter of a baby brother.
He looked into her eyes and saw no world apart
and as they spun and jumped and sang the
Mickey Mouse song:
M.I.C.K.E.Y...M.O.U.S.E...
that deaf girl, she made a whole new start.
And the parties whored and roared in raucous sound
As drunkards danced, and sang and drank the whisky down
And music filled the children's rooms
on Friday, Saturday nights
culminating in the smash of glass, the fire of guns
and screaming mayhem of domestic fights.
The baby cried, amidst the place,
we came to call, 'our Vietnam',
His eyes were wide and terrified, and small, so small,
he stood, amidst the world, neither could understand,
and all that she could offer was her own...
small... child's hand.
Into the wardrobe, in the dark,
she pulled the door tight closed,
and cupped her hand over his screams,
and wiped his snotty nose.
Once upon a wardrobe,
she became someone who dared
in a world of one
in which she sought to disappear,
instead, she'd cared.
MIRROR. Music and lyrics by Donna Williams
I look without hearing and hear without meaning insideAnd the feelings in there, I cant seem to share
And it hurts sometimes.
And there you are like a mirror And it all comes together. We never have to ask,
how, why or whether We
agree.
To Simply Be.
I look without seeing,
a world without meaning to find.
And when its turned empty, that world seems so scary
And Im left behind.
And there you are like a mirror
And it all comes together.
We never have to ask,
how, why or whether
We
agree.
To Simply Be. I'm not some broken version of a one size fits all style
See the person, not the label and we might begin to smile
together
together
I give without trying
and love without lying to me.
And when every blank stare says youre going nowhere
I can't break free.
And there you
are like a mirror And it all comes together.
We never have to ask,
how, why or whether We
agree.
To Simply Be.
together together
FOR MORE Aspinauts clips visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bplSoKonKo
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From Autism to Artism by Donna Williamsby 1210donna37,484 views
Can you post captions or lyrics>? It's hard to understand you :(
castaway 2 years ago
have tried to but I'm not techie enough... so I've put all the wording into the 'info' section.
1210donna 2 years ago
Oh, thanks so much. Your music means alot to me, I am autistic as well. I made one vid about my autism. I think you are much more brave then I am though, I find crowds very intimidating.
castaway 2 years ago
what I can do after gut, immune, metabolic, co-morbid and sensory perceptual disorders were addressed is much more than before these changes. When I started as a public speaker I used to be unable to understand my own words and cry with streaming snot just from looking up at the audience. It's been a long road. One of the biggest things was finding the joy of giving, for only then does one's own anxiety become irrelevant and you rise above it.
1210donna 2 years ago