As a disabled New Yorker interested in theatre, I'm not just concerned about accessibility as an audience member, I also want to see my peers represented on stage. Happily, our city is home to multiple professional companies that put artists with disabilities in the spotlight, allowing them to play a wide range of characters both with -- and without -- disabilities.
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This is what I was talking about last week! I am very glad an article about theatre with disabled artists that advertises them in a positive way has ended up on the green page!! It also makes me happy to know, and reassures me, that there are theatres doing accessible theatre and showcasing disabled artists of such a wide variety here in the United States. I only wish that art and theatre of this variety was something more well known and accepted, and if I get the chance, I will definitely try to see a show of one of these groups. I have been learning ASL and some general information about deaf culture for about a year now in what little free time I have, and I was particularly intrigued by the New York Deaf Theatre’s video. I was moved to see that this group strives to make their pieces understandable to both the hearing and hearing-impaired communities. Those who are excluded are often the most inclusive. I would love to get to see a performance done by this theatre.
Talent doesn’t discriminate, so why have casting directors? We’ve been addressing the topic of “color blind casting” and discrimination based on race and sex, the conversation about disability in the theater has been a much quieter one, but is just as relevant when the goal is to equally represent all walks of life.
We were just talking about this with Susan in Basic Design yesterday in regard to the cast of Hairspray that she is working with in Oregon, so the topic is on the front of my mind in a way that it hasn’t been before. It’s something that is difficult to relate to when you don’t have a disability, so it has been an exercise in putting myself in other people’s shoes, but everyone can relate to the broader idea of representation and misrepresentation on stage.
My favorite point brought up in the article was about “shattering misconceptions” about the capability of disabled actors. In theater, we talk a lot about problem solving, but that doesn’t seem to extend into working around actor capability when it should.
Theater is made for everyone and is a safe space where anyone should feel welcome, both on and off stage. If theater is the place to tell stories, then why has it taken it so long to include disabled people. To me, theater is reality and life lessons in disguise and including all walks of life is the door to exploring those realities. I remember when glee first came out, and the disabled character, Andy, immediately became a fan favorite. No one viewed him as someone who was “disabled” or different, he was just a regular character on the show, as it should be. With NYDT, being a theater company created by deaf people just goes to show that disabilities should never be an obstacle. New theaters are opening where its inclusive of everyone and I think there needs to be more of this. Of course, ideally one theater would be able to accommodate all disabilities, but these theater are definitely the first step to getting there and making the theater world a more inclusive, supportive, and safe environment for everyone.
It is really great to see that these companies exist, and I would love to go see their work if I get the chance. I hope that these theaters will not only inspire similar companies to form in other cities but also make people realize the amount of skill, talent, and expertise that people with disabilities can bring to a production and stop assuming that only able bodied people can play most roles or fill most jobs in a theater. The theater industry tends to be very ableist, and while there are also serious issues with racism and sexism, I think the industry has a whole does not necessarily acknowledge ableism as a problem in a way we have started to address other forms of discrimination. I have had a conversation with someone who insisted that someone who has only one foot couldn’t be a rigger, despite the fact that there is no reason why that would prevent someone from being able to do any of the tasks typically associated with rigging. I was the only one in the room who argued with him on this claim, and I think had he said a woman can’t be a rigger or a person of color can’t be a rigger, there would’ve been immediately backlash from the room as a whole and possibly a conversation with production management. Of course, I’m sure you could find people who are blatantly racist or sexist enough to say women/ people of color can’t be good riggers, but I was working at a pretty progressive theater where those kind of attitudes aren’t accepted, yet ableism still is. We have to stop seeing people with disabilities as less capable, and we have to stop assuming what a person with a given disability can or cannot do just based on their disability alone. I think theaters like this help disprove the notion than a person with X disability can’t effectively do Y job, and I hope people pay enough attention to see that.
New York City’s theatre scene is so much more than just Broadway, and this list is shining evidence of some of its most important yet most underappreciated efforts. The reason that this article was so inspiring to me was not the possibility that people with disabilities are in fact wonderful theatre-makers and artists, which has never been a doubt of mine, but rather that they are being tasked with the beautiful and experimental world of devised theatre in some of the listed institutions. Devised theatre is a challenge regardless of the people working on a particular piece. These passionate and determined artists are not only willing to challenge themselves and trust one another with this work, but are doing so in a loving, safe, and inclusive space. Hopefully, the future of differently abled theatre artists becomes less bound by labels and designated groups and is more visible in mainstream venues.
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