Summary
ACT 1
Scene 1. The 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 2: The narrator throughout the musical communicates through typing, a projection of her words, and a digital voice. “Once upon a time in a state known for its progressive policies - disabled residents had less legal protections from physical harm than abled residents.”
College student Sam tells her grandmother Nora 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.” Dr. Skinner states his reservations about the limitations of negative reinforcements to make lasting changes. Meanwhile, Sam and Nora are supportive of negative reinforcements, seeing the value in tough love to achieve positive changes.
Scene 3: 10-year-old Ada is dragged unwillingly to an Applied Behavioral Analysis service room by her mother, Clara. Sam (now a professional behaviorist) offers services in this room. Ada wishes instead to run around with her 9-year-old cousin Ben who is visiting them with his mother, Dorothy.
Scene 4: Ben is running 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 5: 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.
As their mothers drink wine together, Ben and Ada sneak quietly out to the backyard. Ben and Ada have a fun time flinging sling shot, rubber animals together. Their antics get more and more happily unhinged. The instrumental song “Sling Shots” plays in the background.
Scene 6: Sam is concerned that Nora may need surgery. Meanwhile, Nora is more concerned about Sam’s job prospects at the Behavioral Change Center (BCC), which administers aversives as part of the treatments they offer. Nora begins to have concerns about the use of negative reinforcements.
Scene 7: 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 like the happy child she once was, 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. Ada sings the song “Embroidered,” sharing her need to protect herself, have autonomy through art, and feel her own presence through self-harm.
Scene 8: Clara sits in a BCC office with Kate, a BCC staff member. They discuss admitting Ada to address her increasing self-harm behaviors. Kate sings the song “Only Here” to sell the potential of the center to provide positive transformation for their residents.
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. They both had behaviors in reaction to being expected to change who they innately were. Ada also learns that a youth recently joined the center, who is around Ben’s age.
Scene 10: Sam visits Nora in a rehab center. Nora tries to imply that she is receiving abusive care, but Sam misses this call for help, by identifying with the center’s staff, not her grandmother.
Scene 11: In the BCC community room, Ada and Ben sit together. They talk about their reactions to the center including the many cameras that watch them. Ben shares that he largely treats the cameras as a way to entertain himself and the staff.
Debby then joins them and 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. Ben and Debby are ready to change clothes in the moment, but Ada stops them concerned about possible consequences.
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 self harm. She asks to be able to embroider again. Sam tells Ada to put her trust in her behavior plan to help her.
Scene 13: In the Community Room at the BCC, Ada, Ben, and Debby watch another resident, Paul, walk up and down the room. A staffer, Phil is disciplining Paul by requiring him to walk back and forth twenty-five times. Debby shares that like Paul, she is now on the shock device. After Debby 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 14: Ada, alone in her room at the BCC, sings “Endurance: This too shall pass” in reaction to the harms she is witnessing. 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 15: 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.
Scene 16: In Ada's Bedroom, Kate and Phil hold down Ada to apply a shock device to her leg. Ada sings the song "Deserve: Consent." Throughout the BCC, other characters who are also on the device sing the second verse, sharing that they too do not give consent to being on the shock device.
Scene 17: Ada is finally allowed to 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 18: 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 19: In the Community Room at the BCC, Debby, Ada, and Ben sit with long term residents. 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 20: Kate and a new accountant, Robert talk together in Kate’s office about the center’s financials. Kate breaks down the ways that the organization can be profitable and is 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 21: Debby is on a board to receive shocks with increased pain levels, in a sterile looking room at the BCC, because she reached the limit of offenses. Phil and Kate monitor from outside the room. Phil makes sure that the center has legal permissions before beginning. Sam sees Debby on her way out of work, and shakes her head in sadness. Phil activates the first shock and Debby screams.
Scene 22: 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.”
Later, after Jo and Jewel join Paul, Ada asks them how long they have all been at the center. Paul and Jo answer in the song "We Are Still Here". They share that although they were not born there, they may die there and discuss other long-term residents and their stories. Through this scene the audience comes to realize that Jewel who is non-speaking can type and write, and that she is the musical’s narrator.
Scene 23: The stage splits between Nora’s nursing home patient room and Ben’s BCC bedroom in the early morning. Both Ben and Daisy sing the song “Enough” about how they both have had enough of the harms of institutional abuse.
Sam joins Nora and they leave the rehab center together. Ben is greeted by Ada and Debby who wish him a happy birthday. Ada gifts Ben the jacket she altered, while Debby wears Ben’s shirt. Paul joins them with donuts and they celebrate Ben’s birthday by singing the song “Happy Birthdays.” Ben hands Ada a present to open later. They discuss Ben leaving as the start of all of them leaving.
ACT 2
Scene 1: Ada and Ben enter Kate’s office. Ben asks 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, 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.” Ben runs until he 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: ADA looks out the window of her bedroom at the BCC. She then sings the song "Human Rights: Why Not Me?" where she highlights the difference in rights between herself and Ben and how she wants human rights for herself and for all people. She opens a present from Ben, which turns out to be a rubber chicken slingshot which she reveres. She flings it joyously before collapsing in tears.
Scene 3: Sam shares her concern that the residents are afraid of the staff to Kate. Kate assures Sam that they are only doing what is in legal behavioral plans. She recommends that Sam create a professional distance, to not be “haunted at night by this place.”
Scene 4: 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 “Without Condition.” They both describe their definitions of unconditional love. At the end of their song Dorothy calls Ben in for supper, and Debby and Paul check in on Ada to make sure that she eats. Both cousins feel cared for.
Scene 5: 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, the center is considering agreeing to return their child to them, to avoid a drawn-out legal battle. Daisy is concerned that Sam is getting too cavalier about her patients and reminds her that the point is to help her patients. She says that the patients at the BCC must deal with more harm than she did at the rehab facility Sam asks, “What happened to you?”
Scene 6: 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. Debby and Ada discuss whether Ben contact Debby’s father, to share 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 one another. Then they discuss the state constitution (which Debby partly 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. In the middle of a conversation with Debby, Phil comes in. Phil shares that Debby’s father is there to see Debby. As Debby leaves the room, Ada says to herself “She’s leaving too.”
Scene 7: In the BCC community room, Sam, Paul, Jewel, and Ada are looking out the window at a squirrel that is lying down with its’ tail in the air. Jo plays the “Squirrel’s Song” on his flute. 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. Jewel who now has a digital communication device wavers between expressing anger through typed words and staying under the radar to avoid punishment.
Scene 8: 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 with her mother. Ada wonders if all she deserves is to visit her mother.
Scene 9: Outside of the BCC there is a protest to end the use of shocks. Activists attending include Ben, Nora, Debby, Robert, and Dorothy. They sing the “Protest Song” which includes “Stop the Shock” chants with a realization, that their protest approach is to just to keep getting back up again, repeatedly, when they are pushed down.
Scene 10: In the BCC community room BCC, Paul, and ADA, sing the song "We are Cared For, We are not Forgotten." 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 11: 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 12: Kate has a second meeting with a newly hired accountant, Roberta for the BCC, during the protest, where they discuss campaign donations to legislators, and lobbying expenses to keep the use of the shock device legal. Kate uncertain of the accountant’s reaction to these expenses, asks “Are you a sensitive accountant?” Roberta answers, “Actually, I am not sensitive at all.”
Scene 13: Ada sits in the living room of her home, with Clara. 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 14: Clara and Dorothy sing the song “Mending” that describes their attempt to mend their relationships with their children.
Scene 15: Narration: “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, Nora, Robert, Ben, and Debby speak against the BCC’s practices. Clara speaks to how the shock device makes abusers out of staff and caregivers. Terra (Paul’s mother) speaks about how the shocked device has made her son’s life “almost normal.” Clara then 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 16: 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 17: Jo and Jewel welcome Paul back to the BCC, after his mother decides to send him back. They sing “We Are Still Here, Only Here.”
Scene 18: Ben and Ada sing “Ponkapoag Bog in the Fog” while walking on a bog boardwalk. 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 their walk, they are ready to head home where it is less hidden, and more seen. They feel that their lives are better and are grateful for that. They wish for the same good life for Paul, Jo, Jewel, and the rest of the BCC residents.
Scene 19: 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 20: Sam has trouble sleeping the night before the disability committee vote. Daisy asks Sam what she thinks the fathers of behaviorism would make of how behaviorist principles have been implemented in the current day. In the song “Context: Skinner’s Lament” Dr. Skinner shares his surprises over what is allowed today, including torture. Dr. Lovass asks “Do you think behaviorism is the problem? Or, are you saying their is a problem with our goals?” Dr. Skinner answers that he believes that both could be problematic.
Scene 21: Narration: “This is where our story now ends. Dear and trusted audience - How will you change the end of this story?”
Individuals join an 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 protection? 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?”