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Hot Cripple #2/ November 2014 Amiee Mullins

11/14/2014

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This "Hot Cripple" Series is an experiment; an effort to bring attention to the fact that Disability isn't necessarily synonymous with Ugly- as in Ugly Laws, which proliferated this country for over a century.

This month we feature athlete, advocate, fashionista and art world darling, Aimee Mullins.
"I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can't possibly speak for a diverse group of people. I don't know what it's like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy."
From her website...

Aimee first received worldwide media attention as an athlete. Born without fibulae in both legs, Aimee's medical prognosis was discouraging; she was told she would never walk, and would likely spend the rest of her life using a wheelchair. In an attempt for an outside chance at increased mobility, doctors amputated both her legs below the knee on her first birthday. By age two, she had learned to walk on prosthetic legs, and spent her childhood doing the usual athletic activities of her peers: swimming, biking, softball, soccer, and skiing, always alongside “able-bodies” kids.

After graduating high school with honors, Aimee was one of three students in the US chosen for a full academic scholarship from the Department of Defense, and at age 17 became the youngest person to hold a top-secret security clearance at the Pentagon. She worked there as an intelligence analyst during her summer breaks.

It was at this time that she rediscovered her love of competitive sports. While a dean's list student at the prestigious School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, she set her sights on making the US Team for the 1996 Atlanta Games. She enlisted the expertise of Frank Gagliano, one of the country's most respected track coaches. Through this partnership, she became the first amputee in history, male or female, to compete in the NCAA, doing so on Georgetown's nationally-ranked Division I track team. Becoming the first person to be outfitted with woven carbon-fiber prostheses that were modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah, she went on to set World Records in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and the long jump, sparking a frenzy over the radical design of her prototype sprinting legs. The essential design of those legs are now the world standard in sports prosthetics.

After a profile in Life magazine showcased her in the starting blocks at Atlanta, the world took notice. Aimee soon landed a 10-page feature in the inaugural issue of Sports Illustrated for Women, which led to her accepting numerous invitations to speak at international design conferences. This introduction to a discourse relating to aesthetic principles fueled her interest in issues relating to body image, and how fashion advertising impacted societal notions of femininity and beauty. In 1999, Aimee made her runway debut in London at the invitation of one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Alexander McQueen.

Walking alongside the supermodels of the world, Aimee's groundbreaking, triumphant turn captured the attention of the fashion media, propelling her onto the magazine covers of ID and Dazed and Confused. After making her mark in such fashion magazine standards as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, W, Glamour, and Elle, she was also named as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." In February 2011, she was named as the new Global Brand Ambassador to the world's largest beauty brand L’Oreal Paris, another cultural milestone.

An influential voice in today's culture, she is regularly invited to share her ideas at various corporations and global conferences like TED and TEDMED, and she has been named as one of Esquire's "Women We Love," one of Jane magazine's "10 Gutsiest Women," one of Sports Illustrated's "Coolest Girls in Sport," and was celebrated as the "Hottest Muse" in Rolling Stone's annual Hot List. In addition to her professional career, Aimee serves on numerous boards and spends much of her time assisting various non-profit organizations, most notably the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF). After serving as a Trustee for the WSF, founded by Billie Jean King, she was elected as the foundation's President, a position she stewarded from 2007 to 2009. Aimee served for years as Vice-President for J.O.B., the nation's oldest non-profit employment service for persons with disabilities, founded in 1947 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Orin Lehman, and others. She is a founding member of the Leadership Board to SPIRE Institute, the world’s largest and most diverse athletic development center.

Already at a young age, Aimee's impact on modern society and her influence on future generations is undeniable. Her likeness has been immortalized in exhibits at institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the NCAA Hall of Fame, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Modern, the Track and Field Hall of Fame, and the Women's Museum, where she is honored for her contribution to sport among the "Greatest American Women of the 20th Century."
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The Elephant In The Room

11/6/2014

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A few months ago I was eating a bowl of cereal at the kitchen counter, engaging in my morning ritual of Public Radio listening and Facebook perusal, when I noticed a post about an upcoming revival of The Elephant Man on Broadway starring Bradley Cooper. The article wasn't lengthy, not much more than a blurb really; what caught my attention was the photograph that accompanied said blurb-icle.
Picture
I nearly swallowed my spoon.

Ever since I ran sound for a production at my local community theater as a teenager, I have loved Bernard Pomerance's play, The Elephant Man. I have also enjoyed Bradley Cooper's work ever since he played Will Tippin, the intrepid, love-lorn reporter who finds himself in way over his head on the hit show, ALIAS.

How can you not like this guy? He's an attractive, charismatic, multiple academy award nominated movie star. As a consciences disabled American however, I think it's only natural to question why in this day and age an attractive, charismatic, successful guy plays arguably the most famous- and famously deformed- disabled person in all of modern history.

In an Introductory Note to the play, Pomerance states- 
Merrick's face was so deformed he could not express any emotion at all. His speech was very difficult to understand without practice. Any attempt to reproduce his appearance and his speech naturalistically-if it were possible-would seem to me not only counterproductive, but, the more remarkably successful, the more distracting from the play. For how he appeared, let slide projections suffice. 

Any one who has spent any time with someone with severe disabilities that effect their speech know that they are capable of expressing emotion and can in fact be understood. At the time the play was written in the late 70's, I'm sure the playwright didn't know of any actors with disabilities, and like most people then and now, his was an all-able-bodied universe. How could The Apothetae help to change the shape and perception of that universe?

I decided The Apothetae would present an informal reading of the play. As Pomerance suggests, I decided to use a cast of seven actors. As an exercise, I decided that the cast would consist entirely of actors with physical disabilities.

In addition to the reading, I was interested in the power of the image I had seen at breakfast that morning. As the play has traditionally been done since its Broadway premier in 1979 (with Phillip Anglim in the role of Merrick), the audience is being asked to see a traditionally "beautiful" man as a hideously deformed other. What if however,  an audience was confronted with the image of a disabled or non-normative body? What if an audience was confronted with that body for ninety plus minutes?
I am extremely grateful for the willingness and daring of this ensemble of actors (Matthew Joffe, Scott Barton, David Harrell, Anita Hollander, Seth Abrams, Jessica Yates and Gregg Mozgala)  who agreed to go along with The Apothetae's latest theatrical experiment. Thank you to Heidi Handelsman for her crackerjack directing! Many thanks to Lori Grinker for the wonderful photos! Thank you to Lloyd Suh and the staff of The Lark Play Development Center for the use of their space!

On Monday, The Apothetae presented an informal reading of The Elephant Man to an invited audience at the New York Conservatory For The Dramatic Arts. As an exercise, the reading raised more questions than presented answers- which I think all good art does and should do. In this play about otherness, eroticism, power, art and medicine paramount of these questions among the ensemble was, what does it mean to have a soul? We of course were seeing the play through an entirely different lens than the producers of the current production who from the marketing seem to be pitching the play- at least to audiences- as a sort of love story.

Based on the real life of Joseph Merrick, THE ELEPHANT MAN tells the story of a 19th-century British man (Cooper) who became a star of the traveling freak show circuit. When the renowned Dr. Treves (Nivola) takes Merrick under his care, he is astonished by the man's brilliant intelligence, unshakable faith and, most of all, his resounding desire for love and understanding. He introduces Merrick to the beautiful actress Mrs. Kendal ( Clarkson), who is deeply touched by this pure and genuine soul. As a complex friendship blossoms among the three, Treves and Kendal struggle to protect Merrick from a world of questionable intentions...and so begins a story of love as unique as "The Elephant Man" himself.

We also had many heated discussions- or maybe it was one long continuous one rather- about the intent behind the author's note. Did Pomerance mean that no disabled actor should play the role of Merrick? Ever? Could that be used as ammunition by producers and casting directors to discourage the auditioning and hiring of actors with disabilities? Or was it rather, an attempt by the playwright to release the actor from having to rely on prosthetic make-up and intense physical choices to focus more on the character's inner emotional life?

I had written a post in June of this year about several of the issues surrounding authenticity, the casting of disabled actors and the market forces of The Great White Way. The upcoming production of The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper is mentioned, naturally. If you're interested you can read that post here-
The Fabulous Invalid

The reading and subsequent photo project are, I hope, just the beginning of a conversation and examination into the role and responsibility of artists with disabilities taking ownership and agency of their stories, their bodies and engaging with the field at large. 

Thanks for reading and go see The Elephant Man! Let us know what you think!

-Gregg Mozgala, Artistic Director
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    The Apothetae is a new theatre company dedicated to the production of new full-length plays and existing plays in the theatrical cannon that deal with the"Disabled Experience." 

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