disability & theater- Page 2

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 3:07pm

Not if you realize a lot of people in Deaf culture don't consider themselves "disabled."

Except the question wasn't about people who are "disabled"; but people with disabilities. One in 5 people have a disability. Some, more obvious than others.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 4:03pm

I saw a production of Ragtime where Tateh (sp?) was in a wheelchair, and I thought it was part of the character, until I saw him come out of the theatre after the show in the chair. It shocked me because the role and the disability fit together perfectly when I saw it (Gliding was beautifully choreographed with the girl in her father's lap and the chair would 'glide' to one side of the stage, spin a few times, glide to the other)

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 9:06pm

This is an interesting topic as a theatre geek and as someone who has done disability rights stuff.

There is a theatre group here in DC called Open Circle which has both persons with/without disabilties. They recently did Evita, but I am not completely sure what disability types were represented in the production. I didn't see it though- learned about it after the fact.

Here is an article: http://www.gazette.net/stories/081606/entemus141527_31949.shtml.

[Over_the_Moon]

Posted: 11/13/06 at 9:57pm

At a local high school, in past years, there was a girl in drama that was deaf, and they always did something creative with her in the plays. I can't think of one where it didn't affect the character, though.

Along the same lines, for Get Smart, last year, one of our guys was temporarily wheelchair bound due to a leg injury. Our director wrote in a bunch of other detective type characters from the time period, and made this particular boy Ironside.