HowlRound Theatre Commons: This past summer I attended a screening of the acclaimed documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution at a leading Off-Off-Broadway theatre. I had already seen the film (admittedly more than once) but was excited to watch it in a communal space where I hoped I could engage others in discussion about how to continue the work of the activists the film follows.
5 comments:
This article truly and concisely writes down a lot of what I feel about the differences between representation and artistry. While just seeing your marginalized identity onstage may be euphoric, it may feel less so when that representation is always a story about pain. A story that reduces you to a flat form of one of your identities. When it comes to disability visibility and artistry, there is a level of inauthenticity when media about disabled people is made for able-bodied persons. This is due to the source material essentially excluding the disabled people in the audience and making a film about their experiences “not for them”. That is why disability artistry is so meaningful. Disability artistry is about reclaiming space. It is a movement by disabled people FOR disabled people to humanize themselves through art. To take back the mic and make stories that are more raw and authentic and layered rather than representational.
THis is such an important conversation to be had. My sister is part of the disabled community and I see her struggle every day to be heard, recognized, and respected. Disability is such an important topic in theatre. We are in a very ablest profession. While access for performers with disabilities are increasing, I rarely see any talk about how backstage roles can be more accessible for people of all ability levels. I really like the question of how do we move from disability visibility to disability artistry and what comes after that. Those are the conversations I want to see expanded to include people who are interested in technical theatre. Physical access is something that desperately needs to be updated in theaters. Most theaters have accessibility for audiences but are terrible backstage and in dressing room/green room space. I hope more conversations around accessibility behind the scenes occur as renovations on theatres happen too.
Reading just the two opening paragraphs, I'm struck with how we, as a society, seem to commend and revere anyone who has to "deal" with someone who has a disability, as if people with disabilities are such a burden. From parents of the disabled, to teachers of special education, we look upon them with admiration for their strength or servitude. This mindset is incredibly demeaning and dehumanizing to others. People with disabilities are so casually othered that we don't even notice when we're excluding them, such as the author of the article points out. We don't assume that they're already in the room. This article really demonstrates the need for visibility of disabled artists as artists. I would love to see more theatre for disabled artists and more stories for and about disabled people that aren/t stereotyped. I'd love to see more disabled people on stage.
It's also important that our theatres, in general, become a more welcoming place for disabled people. Not just in terms of wheelchair accessibility or hearing assistive technology, but more inclusive for all type of disabilities. It's beyond time that we, as a culture and as a society, make art a more inclusive space.
This article is everything. The word visibility in terms of marginalized communities has always felt odd - why are we having to grovel for simply being visible? Why are we still having to ask for that bare minimum? I truly appreciate the way this author put words to some concepts that I have been longing for: “Whereas disability visibility can be shallow or tokenizing, disability artistry says we are already here, we are already making exciting work, and the world of theatre will be made better by engaging deeply with that work”. The difference between visibility and artistry is the difference between simply acknowledging that someone exists, and shifting our worldviews to create spaces where people can be celebrated for everything they are, complex human beings who are disabled among the rest of their rich identities. The following quote also resonated with me: “I want stories that revel in disability, those that do not dilute themselves by trying to convince people that we’re all the same, but those that willfully delight in the beautiful divergences of our bodyminds”. It is not enough to just have stories told that are about disability, we can go so much further to truly celebrate all that comes with disability.
When I first started reading this article I immediately thought of Ali Stroker in Oklahoma as an example of visibility, but I hadn’t even realized she had been disincluded at the Tonys due to the lack of ramp between audience and stage. As I think back on the theaters I’ve worked in, they are generally very limited in terms of accessibility, especially physical accessibility – there might be a night of ASL interpretation of the show and the occasional ramp, but I can’t think of other examples I’ve witnessed in high school shows. And it’s so true that there needs to be a change in mindset. Produced theatre so often reverts back to this gaze that is automatically, or even by default, assumed to be white, able-bodied, cisgender, and straight, and male – although female playwrights definitely have a lot easier time than BIPOC, LGBT, or disabled playwrights. We need to get to the point where shows such as disability artistry are not a one-off or a gimmick designed to “warm up” able-bodied people to people with disabilities, but instead are a thriving and frequently seen art form, invested in by society and allowing these differences to be front and center. The market is so saturated with white, cishet, able-bodied content! Time to eliminate the default and give other art space to be the new normal.
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