Blog [with]tv

Creating Penelope

Submitted by: Laurie Rubin

The experiences I've had as a classical singer have been incredibly rich ones thus far.  I've been blessed with wonderful mentors, lucky to get some of the wonderful and fun gigs I've gotten, and so fortunate to collaborate with some very fine composers and to sing with some of the best singers and instrumentalists in the field.

As a singer who is blind, I have done recitals and chamber music more than I have done opera.  This is due mostly to a minor logistical difference between me and my sighted counterparts.  Since opera is a business that needs to be run smoothly like anything else, artistic directors are concerned with productivity and tasks getting done as quickly as possible.  When they see me, they envision a situation where it would take longer for me to learn a stage, they think it would take more people to guide me around the stage, and they often think of lawsuits should I manage to find myself falling into the orchestra pit during a rehearsal.

However, things are slowly changing, and I am finding more and more that directors are wanting to think outside the box.  They can envision a situation where a character in the show would be blind.  Well why not?  It is never mentioned in the libretto that she specifically has sight.

"Disability" Does Not Mean "Out of Order"

By Laurie Rubin

The connotation of the word "disability" has evolved for me over the years. My first reaction to the word itself is a negative one. It makes me think of an ATM machine that is out of order, a toilet in the bathroom with a big sign over the door warning one not to use it, a ticket machine at a train station, or an out-of-order elevator. You also hear on every flight as the plane taxis towards the run-way, a video in which the monotone voice warns, "Please do not *disable* smoke detectors in the lavatories." If a person hears the word "disabled" over and over as a way of meaning, "not functional", I fear that's the message they get when they see a "disabled" person.

There was a period in the 90's when my brother would come home from college telling us all the politically correct words to use.

"Laurie, people think that you might replace disabled with physically challenged or differently able."

Those expressions don't exactly roll off the tongue either, but we place so many images and so much emphasis on a word that to find one that is more suitable would perhaps change our views of people with
disabilities.

I also have a problem with how the word "blind" is used. Too often, you read or hear people poetically negating that word too.

"How could I be so blind."

"Love is blind."