Blog [with]tv

Lennard Davis: Let Actors With Disabilities Play Characters With Disabilities

Excerpted from the Huffington Post - 12/14/09 - Chicago, IL- Have you noticed that almost no actors who play Othello blacken their faces anymore? Of course not, blackface is considered distasteful at best and racist at worst. Nowadays Othello is routinely played by an actor of color or the color issue might be highlighted in a different way, as in a recent production directed by Peter Sellars, in which Othello and Desdemona were played by white actors while all the other cast members were of color.

We get it with race in the context of theater this way, but not with disability. Whenever a protagonist is disabled, it is more likely than not that a non-disabled actor will play the part. Recently there was uproar in the Deaf community over a New York adaptation of Carson McCuller's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" in which the central character Singer who is deaf and mute is played by a hearing actor. And disabled actors protested the use of sighted Abigail Breslin in a production of the life of Helen Keller when a blind actress might have done the job as well if not better. The television program "Glee" is receiving critiques because, although it includes a singing and dancing wheelchair user, the actor who plays the part isn't disabled. And Larry David has come under fire for his use of not one but ...

2010 Sprout Touring Film Festival!

As the New Year approaches, it's not too soon to start marking your calendars for noteworthy events! The 2010 Sprout Film Festival will be held in New York City on Friday April 30th - Sunday May 2nd at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's New Uris Education Center.

The Sprout Film Festival was founded in 2003 and programmed and supported by Sprout, a NYC-based non-profit organization, is dedicated to bringing innovative programming to people with developmental disabilities. Sprout has been making videos related to the field of developmental disabilities since 1995 and has witnessed the myriad benefits these videos have for this population and the general public. Click here to see a sampling of previews from these powerful films.
 
In addition to the annual Sprout Film Festival in New York City, the SFF has begun touring the country, screening an ever-growing selection of films to areas around the United States. For information and updates on periodic screenings, please call the Sprout office toll-free 888-222-9575 or email: [email protected].  Send your email address to be notified when the Sprout Film Festival comes to a venue near you, and help promote disability awareness through these powerful, educational films !