Hailed as NOT Tiny Tim...

...The Cripple of Inishmaan is playing in New York and a review can be found here. It opened Sunday at the Linda Gross Theater and features Cripple Billy who the reviewer notes is not about to say "God bless us, everyone." The 1997 comedy is written by Martin McDonagh.

With his twisted body and wheezing cough, Billy is the pride and woe of the women who raised him, Kate and Eileen (Ms. Mullen and Dearbhla Molloy, both wonderful), who run a tidy but understocked country store. (Francis O’Connor’s set is a melancholy blend of barrenness and hominess.) Billy’s restlessness disturbs his protective guardians. “Stop thinking aloud,” Eileen tells him. “Did you ever see the Virgin Mary going thinking aloud?”

The "rural boredom" leads to lives of quiet desperation among other inhabitants: one who talks to stones, another who tosses eggs at folks. But central to the play is the rise and fall, so to speak, of Cripple Billy who has dreams of Hollywood and fame.

Below is a clip of one professor's take on the play.

You didn't think a Christmas would go by without blogging about Tiny Tim, did you?

Autism: The Musical

via the SDS list serv

Via the website (link above):

"In 1980, autism was a relatively rare disorder, diagnosed in one in 10,000 children in the United States. Now it is one in 150.
AUTISM: THE MUSICAL counters todays bleak statistics with one womans optimistic pledge to lead a group of autistic children in defying diagnosed expectations by writing, rehearsing and performing their own full-length musical.

Following five Los Angeles children over the course of six months, director Tricia Regan captures the struggles and triumphs of their family lives and observes how this musical production gives these performers a comfort zone in which they can explore their creative sides."

HBO will be airing this documentary and it is showing in limited appearances around the country.

Removable Parts - The Experience

I posted about a week ago on the show Removable Parts showing in NY City - about BIID and voluntary amputation. A musical. Wheelchair Dancer was able to get to the show and wrote about it , as well as a panel she and her friends attended afterwards.

What's so interesting about her observations and experiences is that the response to the disability issues involved seemed to be no more aware than those writing the Monty Python scene herein pictured where a knight lops off his limbs for comic effect.

She writes:

"The panel admitted that including disability in the title of the panel was a "mistake." No one, not the people on stage, not the staff of Here Theater, not the audience wanted to get to grips with a possible connection between the disability community and the voluntary amputation community: we were told that disability was not relevant."

And, although I suppose that is one approach toward including disability subjects in your work (of art), people need to realize that doing that will elicit a reaction from those of us with disabilities. Because you can't deal with a subject like amputation without bringing up the subject of disability and how it's presented. And you're going to have reactions, especially when you put your work on a NY stage. Stage it in your own garage? Well, maybe you could pretend it was your own little private show that doesn't merit scrutiny. Put on a play at a summer camp? That's understandably not going to receive as much feedback. But in New York? Difficult to believe that folks would feign surprise, especially when they put 'disability' in the panel, that there won't be a reaction.

Sometimes the disability community's reaction is an amused or bemused one or outright laughter when disability is handled awkwardly , yet does no harm. At other times, it can be quite a serious thing, because treating the subject of disability with as much thought as slapstick comedy -well, it's just not funny.

Click above to read Wheelchair Dancer's post.

And I still haven't given up on my dream of writing a Broadway play about disability. In fact, I'm working on a song right now.

visual description: [A knight dressed in black with his left arm cut off stands with his sword to the ground held in his right hand in front of a white knight.]

eVokability...the notion of "walking": a multimedia performance

Exploring ideas and images surrounding the notion of “walking,” vis-à-vis the body with disabilities, multimedia performance piece, eVokability: The Walking Project presents a workshop performance in Philadelphia on June 22.

Performers wear Costumes embedded with sensors that track the shape and force of physical gesture, using these dynamics to generate live media projections that amplify their movement. Each performer’s sensor-based Costume is technically “tailored,” to her body and her movement. Each Costume functions as a media "instrument" that the performer plays: a virtual extension of the body, a narrative prop.

The eVokability workshop performances take place:

Thursday June 14, Friday June 15 & Saturday June 16 at 7:30pm at Dance Theater Workshop Studio, 219 W. 19th St., New York;

Friday June 22 and Saturday June 23 at 7:30PM at Spirit Wind Internal Arts Society (213 New Street in Philadelphia).

Tickets are $10 ($7 for students/under-/unemployed) and can be purchased by contacting Sarah Drury at sarahdru@gmail.com or by calling 917. 254. 3468.

Marathon 2007 at Ensemble Studio Theatre opens today

Despite the fact that its founder died recently, the Marathon will go on. Click above to see the fare at this NY city legendary spot.

549 W. 52nd St.
New York, NY 10019
212-247-3405

The theater is air conditioned and listed as wheelchair accessible.