REPRESENTING DISABILITIES ON STAGE: THE BREAKTHROUGH PLAYS
In a study conducted in September 2017 by the Ruderman Foundation, it was found that, while 20% of the US population has a disability, less than 2% of television characters do. The study also found that 95% of those characters are played by able-bodied actors.
The notion that characters with disabilities should be played by actors who have them is not a new one. In 1980, Phyllis Frelich became the first deaf actor to win a Tony Award®
,
for her performance in Mark Medoff’s new play, Children of a Lesser God. The play, which chronicles the personal and professional relationship between a deaf student and her hearing teacher, played on Broadway for two years, with multiple deaf actors taking over Frelich’s role. It was also adapted into a 1986 film, with Marlee Matlin (in Frelich’s role) becoming the first deaf actor to win an Oscar. The play is being revived on Broadway this year, with deaf actor Lauren Ridloff making her Broadway debut.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens also made waves recently, winning the 2015 Tony Award for Best New Play. Like Mark Haddon’s novel from which it was adapted, the play chronicles a boy with autism investigating the death of a neighbor’s dog. After much protest when the main role of Christopher Boone was repeatedly cast with non-autistic actors, Mickey Rowe became the first autistic actor to play Christopher in September 2017. In speaking about the role, Rowe noted that the only change that had to be made to the production in order to accommodate him was enlarging the font of the script. “All too often...we are learning about autism from others instead of going straight to the source and learning from autistic adults,” he wrote. “If you are different, if
you access the world differently, if you need special accommodations, then theatre needs you! The world needs you!”
Elsewhere in recent history, Martyna Majok’s play The Cost of Living, which played off-Broadway, explored the relationships of a double above-the-knee amputee and a man with cerebral palsy, both of whom were played by actors with the same disabilities. Madison Ferris made history as the first lead actor on Broadway in a wheelchair when she played Laura in the 2017 revival of The Glass Menagerie. While the play mentions that Laura walks with a limp, the character is typically cast with an able-bodied actor, with the recent production making the choice to more actively explore Laura’s disability.
Deaf West Theatre has taken the casting of actors with disabilities a step further with their revivals of Big River in 2003 with Roundabout and Spring Awakening in 2015 on Broadway. While the text of neither musical refers to deafness, these productions saw them performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and English, often with both deaf and hearing actors playing one role. Spring Awakening marked the first time that a Broadway production was interpreted for deaf-blind theatregoers, which even in the last few years has become a more widespread offering.
The journey to fair representation on stage for those with disabilities is still far from over, but it is these breakthrough plays and productions that have allowed progress to be made and will continue to make progress in the years to come.•
16 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24
