Breaking The Code
by Kitty Lunn, actor and dancer

Whether opportunity is denied because of one's skin color, one's gender, one's age or because of one's disability, the effect is the same -- it is the denial of the opportunity. I happen to be concerned with the Performing Arts and with increasing employment opportunities for performing artists with disabilities, but this principal of equal opportunity is true for all types of employment situations.

Since July 26, 1990, we've all been hopeful that the passage and implementation of the Americans With Disabilities Act would begin to tear down some of the more traditional barriers. However, those of us who are disabled also know that attitudes are indeed the real disabilities and, therefore remain our greatest challenges. What we are asking for with the ADA is not a new idea -- especially in the not-for-profit area. We asked for it and achieved it with The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. What we are looking for now, is enforcement of the law.

Recipients of grants from organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, as well as State arts organizations, should be familiar with Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The ADA extends accessibility provisions to the private sector in an effort to guarantee persons with disabilities the right to inclusion in the economic and cultural mainstreams open to other Americans.

Because of an accident nearly a decade ago, I am a paraplegic. While preparing for my first Broadway show, I slipped on ice, fell down a flight of stairs and broke my back. My life was changed profoundly that evening, but it didn't stop. Instead of performing on Broadway, however, I spent the next two and a half years going in and out of hospitals. During this time the students at Gallaudet University gave birth to the rise of Deaf Power, and the Disability Rights Movement was changed forever. At that moment, it became a Civil Rights Movement.

This was especially significant for me, because I was a newly spinal cord injured person, desperately trying to rebuild my life from the new perspective of a wheelchair. Even though, in my heart I knew that I was the same person, people treated me differently. I became "other". I hated it! From my hospital bed, I could identify with the student's frustration and anger at being treated like dependent children simply because they were in some ways -- different. Although I didn't know anything about Deaf Culture or ASL, in fact I had never even known a Deaf person, just knowing that these students at Gallaudet had gone out and reclaimed their lives, inspired me to do the same. After four spinal surgeries and a great deal of rehabilitation, both physical and emotional, I was able to resume my career as both an actor and a dancer. My husband, Andrew, has been an unfailing source of strength, and we were married in December of 1989.

Through a friend I learned that Actors Equity Association had a committee for actors with disabilities. I was quite surprised to learn that there really were professional actors out there who were disabled and were working!

I was terrified. I wanted to get back into an acting class. I still didn't know if I was going to be able, in reality, to do any of this in my new "condition." I went back to a class I had been working with before the accident. Instantly I knew I was doing the right thing. I have learned that my ability has nothing to do with my disability or the fact that I now use a wheelchair. My soul and my talent don't know that I fell down those stairs and broke my back. The dancer inside me doesn't know or care that I use a wheelchair.

A new chapter in my life began. I began to be concerned, not only with my own goals, but in opening new vistas for other performing artists with disabilities. I was very fortunate to have had excellent training and opportunities to perform prior to becoming disabled. I discovered, however, that many of my new peers were not so fortunate. Training programs are not very accessible and most careers in the performing arts are still viewed as inappropriate for people with disabilities.

The Performers With Disabilities Committee was founded in 1979 to address the needs and concerns of this under represented often overlooked community of professional actors with disabilities. The founders recognized the need to organize performers with disabilities who wished to be judged for their abilities rather than their disabilities. This Tri- Union Committee includes members from all three of the professional acting unions: Actors Equity Association, The Screen Actors Guild & The American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists. It is dedicated to increasing employment opportunities for professional actors who are disabled and ready to seek gainful employment in the entertainment industry. To this end, the PWD holds audition showcases to highlight the talents of its members and invites casting directors, agents and other industry professionals to attend. In addition, the Committee office maintains an active file of photos and resumes of qualified performers with disabilities as a resource to assist casting directors and others in decision-making positions.

I'm not suggesting that it's been easy. It hasn't. In reality, there isn't a great deal of work offered to actors who are disabled. Even with the success of television shows like Reasonable Doubts and Life Goes On, most of the time when a character with a disability is portrayed on the stage, in film, or on television, more often than not, the role is played by a non-disabled actor. Not only that, but in most cases, actors with disabilities were never considered or auditioned.

Literature has found characters with disabilities fascinating for centuries. Actors love these roles because of their creative colors and textures. More often than not, however, when it comes to casting these roles, those in the decision making positions find it difficult to imagine that an actor with a disability could contribute to the creative process. Think about it. In the last few years alone, there have been many major motion pictures dealing with a central theme of disability and having a leading character who is disabled in one way or another: Rainman, Passion Fish, Scent Of A Woman, Calendar Girl, Awakenings, My Left Foot, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, etc..

Frequently I'm asked, "Aren't these films making the issue of disability more visible? Aren't they raising peoples sensitivity to the issue?" After careful consideration, I've concluded that having non-disabled actors portray characters with disabilities has not increased sensitivity. It serves to create the myth that "this only happens in the movies, this is not part of real life". But it does something much more harmful. It serves to perpetuate the misconception that people with disabilities must continue to rely upon the non-disabled community to speak on our behalf, because we cannot speak for ourselves. Some might argue that this isn't important. Some would say that what is important is that the role be played with dignity. How can there be any dignity in a process that is steeped in exclusion and discrimination?

Four hundred years ago women weren't allowed to appear on the stage, so William Shakespeare had young boys playing the female roles. Fifty years ago, Ava Gardner put dark makeup on her face and played an African American women in the film Showboat. Black-face is no longer acceptable - thank God! The film Cocoon celebrated senior citizens in their golden years, and real, honest-to-goodness senior actors played those roles. Why should the disability be viewed as a technical acting problem to be solved in the rehearsal process? Why should an actor with a disability be excluded from consideration for a role that portrays the very disability that the actor has? Where is the logic in this?

The year after I joined the PWD Committee, I was asked to run for the Council of Actors Equity. I was very flattered, but knew it would be a long shot to get myself elected. The Council had never had a member who used a wheelchair, and in fact, Actors' Equity didn't even have an accessible bathroom! I knew it would be quite a challenge, but somehow I did manage to get elected and am now the chairperson of The Performers With Disability Committee for Actors' Equity Association.

I knew the first thing we had to do was bring the union to a greater understanding of exactly what equal employment opportunity means to an actor with a disability. Since so few of the theaters, sound stages, or television studios in New York City, or the country for that matter, are accessible to the professional performing artist with a disability, we certainly had a strenuous path before us.

Thus began a year long, often heated, often ugly struggle to gain an equal place for actors with disabilities within the union. I knew that we would never be able to get the theatrical industry to take us seriously if our union treated us as invisible. I'm not suggesting that an actor with a disability be hired simply because he or she has a disability. What I am suggesting, however, is that simply because an actor has a disability, it shouldn't be used as an excuse not to hire that actor. Once at a PWD meeting, a casting director was asked whether or not he would consider bringing in actors with disabilities to read for a disabled specific part. He said that if he were seeing both non-disabled actors and actors with disabilities for the same role, the disabled actors would have to be so much better than the non-disabled actors to be seriously considered. Of course, in the next breath he also said that this had nothing to do with discrimination, he just wanted the best actor!

What we really want is to be given equal and fair consideration in the audition process. But, we also realize that as long as theaters and other venues of employment remain inaccessible, we will not have the equal employment opportunity guaranteed by law. Once a prominent casting director in Los Angeles told my agent that she wouldn't see me for a disabled specific role because she "couldn't take an actress in a wheelchair seriously."

It doesn't matter what the form, discrimination is the enemy and we must all work together to eliminate it. The key here is to work together. We must stop segregating people into "special populations," no matter how well meaning it may appear to be.

We must take care not segregate ourselves, either. When our needs and goals differ, as they surely will from time to time since our disabilities are different, we must take special care that we don't end up working against each other. We must strive to understand our differences, so we don't unintentionally hurt each other. Deaf people must work with others who have disabilities as members of the disability community. We are all the perfect expression of God's love exactly as we are. We don't need to spend our lives in search of a "cure" Within our various disabilities, we are whole, complete, competent individuals. We are proud of our identities as deaf people, blind people, wheelchair users, etc.. We are proud of our common identity as People With Disabilities! I truly believe that together we can all make a difference. To exclude anyone from the Arts simply because they are in some way different -- diminishes us all.

I enlisted the rights of the Department of Justice to help me prepare the case to take before the Equity Council. I knew we would need the courage to see the matter all the way into the courts if it came to that. Sometimes I found this new "Public" role a very lonely and depressing business. But, persistence is the only remedy.

To make a long story short, the following spring we were successful in getting Actors' Equity to amend its policy on non-traditional casting to include performers with disabilities and seniors. This policy change was a significant breakthrough for actors with disabilities. Non-traditional casting was conceived to create a more representative slice of the American scene. In order to achieve this, persons with disabilities and seniors must be included in that scene. This policy change opens up new possibilities for casting talented performers who have been overlooked in the past and hopefully will encourage producers, directors and casting people to consider actors for roles which they may not have considered them before. To this end, Actors's Equity has been successful in bargaining into each contract rule book, language protecting the rights of performers with disabilities. For example, auditions must now be held in architecturally accessible facilities. Audition material must be made available in advance, upon request, for blind and visually impaired actors. When deaf performers are sought, certified and/or qualified sign language interpreters must be provided during the audition and throughout the engagement.

Is it so difficult to conceive that an actor with a disability could play a role
where the presence or absence of a disability does not affect the storyline or the character's development? Several years ago I had the opportunity to play Dr. Martha Livingston in John Pielmeier's acclaimed drama, Agnes Of God. We didn't change one word of the text or amend one stage direction in order to accommodate my wheelchair. During the intermission of one performance, a friend overheard two ladies discussing the play. "I don't think Jane Fonda used a wheelchair in the movie! I don't think you have to use a wheelchair to do this part."

One of the audio describers was sitting in on a rehearsal one afternoon so she could make notes of the performance, since she would be describing the play the next evening. Since she had been unable to get a baby-sitter, she brought her six year old daughter to the theater to watch the rehearsal. Now Agnes of God isn't exactly material for a six year old, and her mother told us that she had lots of questions about the play as they drove home later that afternoon. One of the things the little girl wanted to know was why the lady in the play was in a wheelchair. She wanted to know if that part was real, or just pretend for the play. Her mother explained that the actress used a wheelchair because she couldn't walk in real life. Without batting an eyelash, the little girl said, "I get it mommy! The moral to this story is that even if you use a wheelchair, you could still grow up to be a psychiatrist! " That's exactly the point, isn't it? If the relationships are working on stage, what possible difference does it make if someone is using a wheelchair or American Sign Language. I am very grateful to all those concerned for allowing me to play Martha Livingston and demonstrate my abilities rather than my disability.

My hope for the future is to see programs instituted in high-school and college level drama departments that will encourage students with disabilities to mainstream and participate. One of the biggest problems facing artists with disabilities is the "medical model". The non-disabled world mandates that "it can't be drama, it must be drama therapy. It can't be dance, it must be dance therapy", etc.! They keep putting us back in the hospital or rehab centers. Or they create "special programs" for us -- the other! Training for the Arts, like anything else, takes time and discipline as well as talent. I am certainly not suggesting that every deaf child is going to grow up to become Marlie Matlin or Phyllis Frelich, nor is every child with Downs Syndrome going to grow up and star in his own television series like Chris Burke. But, you know what? Not every blue eyed, blonde child is going to grow up to come Meryl Streep either. It takes years of hard work and commitment and, of course, lots of luck to succeed in the Arts. But maybe when artists with disabilities begin to be graduated from such esteemed institutions as the Yale Drama School, Julliard, New York University Tisch School Of The Arts, Mason Gross School Of The Arts at Rutgers, and Carnegie Mellon, casting directors will begin to take us seriously. We're looking for the same dignity and consideration as anyone else in the employment arena.

Recently I've founded Infinity Dance Theatre, a non-traditional dance company committed to bringing the joy and drama of motion and movement to a new level of inclusion for dancers with disabilities and non-disabled dancers over the age of 40. We are developing a wheelchair dance technique based primarily on classical ballet and modern dance. I am particularly interested in the inclusion of American Sign Language in dance. It is my belief that because dance and ASL are both very physical forms of communication, they are naturally compatible in dance. Infinity Dance Theater is committed to professional artistic excellence through public performances, lecture demonstrations, and inclusive dance classes. When I'm dancing in my little manual wheelchair -- the chair becomes an object of motion and movement that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with a medical accommodation.

All things considered, I wish I'd never fallen down those stairs. Who knows what would've happened if I'd done that Broadway show? Not too long ago, while I was dancing in Brussels, Belgium, the press wanted to know what I was trying to accomplish with all this dancing stuff. I thought about it for a moment and said "I want to command the same amount of respect sitting down that I did standing up"! People make assumptions about people with disabilities without taking the time to see the person. They see us simply as our medical accommodations. But the truth is, I am not a wheelchair! I use a wheelchair -- there's a difference. I'm disabled due to a spinal cord injury. But, I'm "handicapped" by societal attitudes towards my disability. People with disabilities are sort of like Visa Cards - We're Everywhere Everyone Else Wants To Be! This includes becoming professional performing artists.

Each new day brings another opportunity to try again to put into practice what I've learned the day before. Those students at Gallaudet University showed me the way. They taught me to be a pioneer. Pioneers must have the courage to go where there are no paths and leave a trail behind for others to follow. There can be no turning back. We must all do what we can, simply because we can. Then and only then, will we truly be free.

National Endowment for the Arts
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