I am a BA Theatre Arts (Performance) student at Middlesex University. My final year essay I have chosen the topic of disability artists, specifically actors. I am currently researching the obstacles disabled actors face in their early career development. And am posing the question, is there a lack of opportunities for disable actors today? In terms of training, getting auditions and if there is a lack, does this lead into disabled collectives creating original new work? I am in my early days of research so I don’t necessarily believe there is a lack, I’m just interested in what other people think? Do you have a personal experience you would like to share? I am happy for people to email me privately at jessheasman1@hotmail.com I look forward to some replies. Jess
This is such an important topic—exploring the challenges and opportunities for disabled actors can really shed light on how the industry can become more inclusive.Telkom University Jakarta
So much work to be done. We are not yet at a point where a disabled actor’s disability isn’t ‘the story’. We’ll have succeeded when disability is a non-issue and we’re a long way from that.
On the other hand Sarah Gordy has had some good opportunities. There is always the other question also: Does a disabled role always need to focus on the disability element or could they/should they be part of the wider story?
I think there is still a lot of work to be done- just looking at recent films that still use “pretend actors” as in “the fundamentals of caring” and so on. Would all make great opportunities for actually disabled actors?