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RAT Cripples, in your face

At 13:23 -0600 02.04.2001, Glen 'Skip' Newell wrote:
>I also saw 'Cripple of Inishman' last year when it was being done at the
>DCPA- It's a beautiful play, moving and funny and well-crafted, and this was
>a top-notch production. ( I recommend the play strongly- if you get a chance
>, go see it...)
>
>In addition to the Cripple, the play has as characters; a murderer, a woman
>with a serious eating disorder, and a pair of functioning alcoholics. The
>script spares none of these people either the sword of rebuke, nor the
>compassion of a gentle laugh. throughout the play, the audience is led to
>love these folks in spite of, or even because of these flaws. The Cripple is
>no more put purposefully in a disadvantaged position than anyone else on the
>island- in fact, he is established as one of the more capable and sensible
>of the inhabitants, if ultimately humanly susceptible to vanity. Again- a
>whole bunch of people missed the boat on all of that- even some who saw the
>play.





   All.

  What stings my ass is simple- even in a play  called THE CRIPPLE OF 
INISHMAN, I can't get a fuckin' job.  Ok? That's the problem.  As 
RAT's resident supercrip- it just pisses me off to no end. I had  a 
slight variation on this very conversation with Jim Sheridan, back 
when  MY LEFT FOOT came out. Not only was Daniel Day-Lewis playing 
the lead role- at that time, 50% of the movie theatres it was shown 
in were not wheelchair accessible.  When I confronted Sheridan on the 
phone, he said that Daniel Day-Lewis was simply the best actor for 
the role- no bias was involved. When I asked, theoretically,  if he 
would consider casting Patrick Stewart as Malcolm X, simply because 
A) he's a wonderful actor  and B) his  vocal training makes him 
uniquely qualified to handle Malcolm's speeches- he accused me of 
racism and hung up.

  Flash forward to  now. Dark Angel- on Fox  about 3 weeks ago. One of 
the lead characters, Logan, Logan is in a wheelchair. I had truly 
hoped that this role was played by a disabled actor.  Not so.  On the 
aforementioned episode- not only did Logan get up and walk- not only 
was  he  undergoing a procedure that looked suspiciously like 
electric stim for the 21st  Century- he had an entire monologue about 
how he couldn't live this way- with the definite implication that if 
the treatments that would make him able to walk  again were to fail, 
he would kill himself.  There was  no hue and cry about this 
statement , or the set of  negative  stereotypes it brought forth.

  Consider, on the other hand, if the character of Charlie ( the 
President's Bodyguard on WEST WING), played by Dule Hill , a 
wonderful black actor, were to spend his 5 minutes on-camera talking 
about how badly he wanted to be white- perhaps asking  Senior Staff 
if they knew of any  research into hospital procedures that could 
make it  so.  Hue and Cry?  You betcha.  I bring up the African 
American community because, in the last census, the physically 
disabled and the African American community were found  to have even 
representation in society- with  both groups being at 10%. This 
would imply equal  amounts of societal power.

  Until disabled  theatre artists can walk into  any theatre  in this 
country- From the Guthrie and Seattle Rep down to your local 
community theater-and be treated as artists first and  disabled 
people second- we are not full citizens in the artistic world.  If, 
then, it is true that my disability means  I'm 2/3 of an artist- I 
reserve the right to protest anyone who feels they  can produce  work 
discussing disability  that  reinforces any sort of negative 
stereotype - especially when we are  not involved in that process. 
It's very simple- if you open the door we won't have to knock it 
down- but we're not going away.


--brad rothbart, supercrip





**************************************************************
The barber shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves.
  If he does, he doesn't;  If he doesn't, he does.

-Bertrand Russell
*************************************************************



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