International Guild of Disabled Artists and Performers
Should non-disabled win awards for works about disability?
"[the play] tells the story of nineteen year old Kate Harris, a bright young woman with an absurd wit and a devilish love of trouble. [The playwright] Lucy O'Brien, motivated by her own experience of growing up with a sister with intellectual and physical disabilities...has produced a play that rejects the notion of a ‘universal’ experience of living with a disability. Instead, she paints a portrait of a mistreated – and sometimes manipulative – young woman, whose family life is fraught with pain and controversy, yet imbued with a dark sense of humour."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Guy W. Stoker on -
It wouldn't be the first time that a none disabled person has won an award for something covering a disabled issue. In the field of epileptic art there was an artist from Germany by the name of Wolfgang Fehring who won an award for his piece "Seperate", which later featured in the book Visions by Dr Steven Schachter (2003, Academic Press). Wolfgang doesn't have epilepsy, but his image and explanation clearly reflects a thorough understanding of one of the issues surrounding this condition.
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Permalink Reply by LiANA GuitarBabe on
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It is difficult to answer this as the reply would be "it depends".
An actor is an actor and can play any role ....
The questions that arise for me:
1) were there NO actors with disabilities available? and
2) does it matter what type of disabilitiy an actor has?
To me, the fact that the play was in a non-accessible space is pathetic ...but also, irrelavent in terms of an actor's award nomination.
Do I believe that a disabled person was consultant in the creation of the play? maybe...but if yes, HELLO??!
I recently aced an audition. The only reason, I was given, for not getting that role, is because the director wanted someone with a wheelchair type of disability. Yeah, I was not disabled enough/visably ....
The young woman that did get the role, is an inexperienced actor but definitely in a wheelchair. I'm not sure that either is better or worse in these circumstances.
I do NOT want a role because of my disability. I want it cause I am the right fit, can do the job, etc.
So I could go on with the pros and cons of both sides of the coin but I do applaud the attempt by those few to actually hire a disabled person who can do the job as opposed to a person that can pretend....as long as both can do the job regardless of disability.
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Permalink Reply by Carol Ann Mueller on
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Most definitely- non-disabled people should be able to win awards for works about disabilities. What would we think if a disabled person was excluded from awards for works about non-disabled characters- or for any subject under the sun, for that matter? We don't want to go down the road of creating exclusions and barriers for any societal group; that is exactly what we have been fighting against all these years. Of course some portrayals of disability issues and people with disabilities may be poorly or even falsely done by non-disabled people, but there is also the potential for such portrayals to be done well and draw positive attention to our causes. We would not want someone to tell us that disabled people who are not alcoholics would not be allowed to portray an alcoholic or win a prize for that portrayal, or that disabled people who are not Native Americans would not be allowed to portray Native Americans or win prizes for a works about them. Let's not become what we advocate against.
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Permalink Reply by William Macartney on -
Sure! Why not? Art is art no matter who wrote it, if it's that good, give it an award!
I don't know anything about the so called 'disabled community', but I'm not sure I like the sound of that, it sounds a bit exclusive. All of my friends except one are able bodied, I am in a chair with an arm missing but have yet to be excluded from the 'Able bodied community'. I don't seriously think actors figure that playing disabled roles might win more brownie points or such. Prior to winding up in a chair, I was a theater technician/musician. So I don't see any difference to musicians 'hustling for a gig. A disability role would be an interesting character to research and play if you were able bodied. In the music world, if you can 'cut it', you get the gig mate without regard for color, creed, or how many arms you got!
Playing the guitar 1 handed doesn't give me anymore reason for preference over 1 who plays better than I, that's reality. It's about bums-on-seats, and if the crip does what the director wants better, give him the gig.
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Permalink Reply by Carol Ann Mueller on
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I like your style!
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Permalink Reply by William Macartney on
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"Hey!"... It's nearly the year 2011! I wonder how things goin' in down town Bagdad! Lets start a forum to see if we can send all our excess wheel chairs with spares to mobilize all those poor sods who stood on a land-mine. I doubt any of them have even a black & white television set, much less a movie pass to find out if 'Al' succeeded in starting a 'black stampede to Hollywood!
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Permalink Reply by David Feingold on -
Is it ok for an actor who has never played basketball in his life to play the role of a retired basketball player? Is it ok for an actress who is not really an undercover cop to play one in a movie? How about an actor who never got in trouble--should he be allowed to play a film noir gangster? And should someone be allowed to play the role of a psychopath if she's never experienced anything worse than an occasional bad mood? My answer is that anybody can be allowed to act in place of anyone else (as long as it is not considered to be offensive by a group of people who feel they are being portrayed in a negatively stereotypical way). Acting is pretending to be someone else, isn't it? What I find particularly offensive though, is someone with a disability who feels he/she has to hide it and therefore "acts" as if they don't have one.
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Permalink Reply by Gregg Vigil on -
Here are three very distinct questions…
What do you think about non-disabled portrayals of "manipulative" disabled characters – do they perpetuate worn stereotypes?
As an actor with a disability I have had the good fortune to portray a wide-variety of characters and I believe most characters are manipulative, especially the antagonist. Through all the training actors receive the two
constant questions when creating a character is…what does the character want
and how will they get it? To say that
this type of behavior is stereotypical of people with disabilities is a gross
misconception because this is a common human behavior.Should non-disabled people be accoladed for "riding the coat-tails" of the disabled community?
Because the playwright may or may not have a disability doesn’t disqualify them writing about the subject. Plays are stories and some can
be based on non-fiction while others are totally factious but either way they
are written from one person’s perspective.
If a disabled playwright uses non-disabled characters in their play are
they then “riding the coattails” of the able-bodied world?Is it acceptable for non-disabled actors to be "cripping up" to play disabled roles?
I think that as actors we should be given the same opportunities as our able-bodied counterparts. Normally, I would not want a role just because the character happens to have a disability but that said doesn’t mean I
would say “no”. In college, I was asked
to audition for a role whose character happened to be elderly and blind. When first asked, I said, no! But the director was pretty insistent and
asked that I read the script before making a final decision. I read the play and immediately knew I wanted
to play this character and have his disability along with my own, which meant I
need to use a manual wheelchair instead of my power-chair due to the period of the story. I did
struggle a little with having to be pushed around on stage in an old wooden
chair but the end result was total exhilaration. However, with all that said, I still believe
that “the playing field needs to be leveled” so that ALL actors are given equal
opportunities based first and foremost on talent. My question is…Is it acceptable to only cast actors with disabilities in roles that are written for characters with a disability?
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Permalink Reply by wendi mariia eliazarian on -
No... How could this have possibly come about? A wonderful opportunity for the many disabled actors, writers etc to be involved in and what do they do? Disregard this aspect altogether and just use able bodied cast and crew who have no idea what being disabled is like. One can read about it, study it and be told what it is like, but if one hasn't experienced disability how can they know?
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