This guide is being developed to help provide a basis for research on theatre and disability.
Included are: library catalog search tips, selected books, book chapters, plays and films and more.
Wide-topic search examples:
theater disabilities
theatre disabilities
drama disabilities
Subject headings:
Actors with disabilities
Autism in literature
Disability justice
Disabilities
Disability studies
Drama people with disabilties
Drama theraputic use (dramatherapy)
Human body in literature
People with disabilities
People with disabilities in the performing arts
People with disabilities psychology
People with disabilities rehabilitation
People with disabilities in mass media
Sociology of disability
Theatrical prosthetic makeup
The Autistic Stage by
This is a book for those who have a stake in and curiosity about the relationship between autism and the stage. Performance here covers theatre to therapy, film to biography, art and beyond. If you are a theater or film critic, a speech or drama therapist, a higher education specialist or special education instructor, a parent of a child on the autism spectrum or an individual with ASD interested in theatre, this book may hold unique value for you. This work is meant to cover a range of issues and reach out to audiences, critics, professionals and parents who want to know more about performance representations of autism. One message reverberates throughout the book: each autistic person illustrates different approaches to and perspectives on life. We become richer each time we come to understand these new perspectives and performance powerfully enhances our understanding of them. Autism Spectrum Disorders include alternative modes of processing information, recording images, discoursing with others, and interpreting social scenes. In this conversation, performance can function as an analytical lens, a representational space, a means of perceptual innovation, and a therapeutic tool. The definition of autism as a disorder has evolved from its first diagnosis in the 1940s to our current frame of reference with several key revisions. These three categories--interaction, communication, and perseveration--underlie any published study of those on the autism spectrum. What has shifted in recent years is an approach to disability that positions autism as a social construction rather than a medical problem.
Bodies in Commotion by
"A testament to the synergy of two evolving fields. From the study of staged performances to examinations of the performing body in everyday life, this book demonstrates the enormous profitability of moving beyond disability as metaphor. . . . It's a lesson that many of our cultural institutions desperately need to learn." -Martin F. Norden, University of Massachusetts-Amherst This groundbreaking collection imagines disabled bodies as "bodies in commotion"-bodies that dance across artistic and discursive boundaries, challenging our understanding of both disability and performance. In the book's essays, leading critics and artists explore topics that range from theater and dance to multi-media performance art, agit-prop, American Sign Language theater, and wheelchair sports. Bodies in Commotion is the first collection to consider the mutually interpretive qualities of these two emerging fields, producing a dynamic new resource for artists, activists, and scholars.
Crip Theory by
A bold and contemporary discourse of the intersection of disability studies and queer studies Crip Theory attends to the contemporary cultures of disability and queerness that are coming out all over. Both disability studies and queer theory are centrally concerned with how bodies, pleasures, and identities are represented as "normal" or as abject, but Crip Theory is the first book to analyze thoroughly the ways in which these interdisciplinary fields inform each other. Drawing on feminist theory, African American and Latino/a cultural theories, composition studies, film and television studies, and theories of globalization and counter-globalization, Robert McRuer articulates the central concerns of crip theory and considers how such a critical perspective might impact cultural and historical inquiry in the humanities. Crip Theory puts forward readings of the Sharon Kowalski story, the performance art of Bob Flanagan, and the journals of Gary Fisher, as well as critiques of the domesticated queerness and disability marketed by the Millennium March, or Bravo TV's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. McRuer examines how dominant and marginal bodily and sexual identities are composed, and considers the vibrant ways that disability and queerness unsettle and re-write those identities in order to insist that another world is possible.
Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice by
Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion presents a wide-ranging compilation of essays, spanning more than 15 countries. Organized in four parts, the articles examine the regulation and exploitation of dancers and dance activity by government and authoritative groups, including abusive treatment of dancers within the dance profession; choreography involving human rights as a central theme; the engagement of dance as a means of healing victims of human rights abuses; and national and local social/political movements in which dance plays a powerful role in helping people fight oppression. These groundbreaking papers--both detailed scholarship and riveting personal accounts--encompass a broad spectrum of issues, from slavery and the Holocaust to the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; from First Amendment cases and the AIDS epidemic to discrimination resulting from age, gender, race, and disability. A range of academics, choreographers, dancers, and dance/movement therapists draw connections between refugee camp, courtroom, theater, rehearsal studio, and university classroom.
Developmental Drama by
People living with severe or profound multiple disabilities (PMLD) can often struggle to connect with the world around them. This book shows how, through enjoying dramatic interaction, they can develop their communication skills, learn to deal with emotions more effectively and gain a greater understanding of their physical and social environment. This guide presents a variety of ways in which drama can be used as a medium for assisting the social and emotional development of people with PMLD, including sensory impairment. It fully explains techniques that are proven to build confidence and promote participation, and illustrates how to include support staff effectively within the process. Charting the author's own journey as a dramatherapist, it clarifies in detail some effective approaches and how to address key issues that arise in dramatherapy practice. This is an accessible and life-saving guide for practitioners looking to use drama in work with people with PMLD, but are unsure where to begin.
Disability, Public Space Performance and Spectatorship by
In Disability, Public Space Performance and Spectatorship: Unconscious Performers, Bree Hadley examines the performance practices of disabled artists in the US, UK, Europe and Australasia who re-engage, re-enact and re-envisage the stereotyping they are subject to in the very public spaces and places where this stereotyping typically plays out.
Disability Ageing and Obesity by
Disability, Obesity and Ageing offers an engaging account of a new area of pressing concern, analysing the way in which OCyspurnedOCO identities are depicted and reacted to in televisual genres and on-line forums. Examining the symbolic power of the media, this book presents case studies from reality, drama and comic television programmes popular in the UK, USA and Australia to shed light on the representation of disability, obesity, and ageing the manner in which their status as unwanted and unwelcome identities is perpetuated."
Disability and Contemporary Performance by
Disability and Contemporary Performance presents a remarkable challenge to existing assumptions about disability and artistic practice. In particular, it explores where cultural knowledge about disability leaves off, and the lived experience of difference begins. Petra Kuppers, herself an award-winning artist and theorist, investigates the ways in which disabled performers challenge, change and work with current stereotypes through their work. She explores freak show fantasies and 'medical theatre' as well as live art, webwork, theatre, dance, photography and installations, to cast an entirely new light on contemporary identity politics and aesthetics. This is an outstanding exploration of some of the most pressing issues in performance, cultural and disability studies today, written by a leading practitioner and critic.
The Disability Studies Reader by
The Fourth Edition of the Disability Studies Reader breaks new ground by emphasizing the global, transgender, homonational, and posthuman conceptions of disability. Including physical disabilities, but exploring issues around pain, mental disability, and invisible disabilities, this edition explores more varieties of bodily and mental experience. New histories of the legal, social, and cultural give a broader picture of disability than ever before. Now available for the first time in eBook format 978-0-203-07788-7.
Disabled Theater by
J#65533;r#65533;me Bel's Disabled Theater, a dance piece featuring eleven actors with cognitive disabilities from Zurich's Theater Hora, has polarized audiences worldwide. Some have celebrated the performance as an outstanding exploration of presence and representation; others have criticized it as a contemporary freak show. This impassioned reception provokes important questions about the role of people with cognitive disabilities within theater and dance--and within society writ large. Using Disabled Theater as the basis for a broad, interdisciplinary discussion of performance and disability, this volume explores the intersections of politics and aesthetics, inclusion and exclusion, and identity and empowerment. Can the stage serve as a place of emancipation for people with disabilities? To what extent are performers with disabilities able to challenge and subvert the rules of society? What would a performance look like without an ideology of ability? The book includes contributions by J#65533;r#65533;me Bel, Kai van Eikels, Kati Kro#65533;, Andr#65533; Lepecki, Lars Nowak, Yvonne Rainer, Gerald Siegmund, Yvonne Schmidt, Sandra Umathum, Scott Wallin, Benjamin Wihstutz, and the actors of Theater Hora.
Drama, Disability and Education by
What can society learn about disability through the way it is portrayed in TV, films and plays? This insightful and accessible text explores and analyses the way disability is portrayed in drama, and how that portrayal may be interpreted by young audiences. Investigating how disabilities have been represented on stage in the past, this book discusses what may be inferred from plays which feature disabled characters through a variety of critical approaches. In addition to the theoretical analysis of disability in dramatic literature, the book includes two previously unpublished playscripts, both of which have been performed by secondary school aged students and which focus on issues of disability and its effects on others. The contextual notes and discussion which accompany these plays and projects provide insights into how drama can contribute to disability education, and how it can give a voice to students who have special educational needs themselves. Other features of this wide-ranging text include: an annotated chronology that traces the history of plays that have featured disabled characters an analysis of how disability is used as a dramatic metaphor consideration of the ethics of dramatising a disabled character critical accounts of units of work in mainstream school seeking to raise disability awareness through engagement with practical drama and dramatic texts a description and evaluation of a drama project in a special school. In tackling questions and issues that have not, hitherto, been well covered, Drama, Disability and Education will be of enormous interest to drama students, teachers, researchers and pedagogues who work with disabled people or are concerned with raising awareness and understanding of disability.
Imagining Autism by
A disorder that is only just beginning to find a place in disability studies and activism, autism remains in large part a mystery, giving rise to both fear and fascination. Sonya Freeman Loftis's groundbreaking study examines literary representations of autism or autistic behavior to discover what impact they have had on cultural stereotypes, autistic culture, and the identity politics of autism. Imagining Autism looks at fictional characters (and an author or two) widely understood as autistic, ranging from Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Harper Lee's Boo Radley to Mark Haddon's boy detective Christopher Boone and Steig Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. The silent figure trapped inside himself, the savant made famous by his other-worldly intellect, the brilliant detective linked to the criminal mastermind by their common neurology--these characters become protean symbols, stand-ins for the chaotic forces of inspiration, contagion, and disorder. They are also part of the imagined lives of the autistic, argues Loftis, sometimes for good, sometimes threatening to undermine self-identity and the activism of the autistic community.
Mind of the Artist by
"Investigation of the psyches of sixty artists...from the world of film, theatre and television radio..from Shakespeare adn Voltaire to major late-twentieth-centry figures..."
Oily Cart: All sorts of Theatre for All Sorts of Kids by 
Peering Behind the Curtain by
First Published in 2002.
The Routledge Dance Studies Reader by
The second edition of The Routledge Dance Studies Readeroffers fresh critical perspectives on classic and modern dance forms, including ballroom, tango, Hip-hop, site-specific performance, and disability in dance. Alexandra Carter and Janet O'Shea deliver a substantially revised and updated collection of key texts, featuring an enlightening new introduction, which tracks differing approaches to dance studies. Important articles from the first edition are accompanied by twenty new works by leading critical voices. The articles are presented in five thematic sections, each with a new editorial introduction and further reading. Sections cover: Making dance Performing dance Ways of looking Locating dance in history and society Debating the discipline The Routledge Dance Studies Readergives readers access to over thirty essential texts on dance and provides expert guidance on their critical context. It is a vital resource for anyone interested in understanding dance from a global and contemporary perspective. lt;P> Debating the discipline The Routledge Dance Studies Readergives readers access to over thirty essential texts on dance and provides expert guidance on their critical context. It is a vital resource for anyone interested in understanding dance from a global and contemporary perspective.
Signs of Change by
There is no one-size-fits-all way to keep pace with the changes affecting high school students and those who educate them. ThatOCOs why Joan Lazarus has gathered here the insights of hundreds of
Studying Disability Arts and Culture by
In this accessible introduction to the study of Disability Arts and Culture, Petra Kuppers foregrounds themes, artists and theoretical concepts in this diverse field. Complete with case studies, exercises and questions for further study, the book introduces students to the work of disabled artists and their allies, and explores artful responses to living with physical, cognitive, emotional or sensory difference. Engaging readers as cultural producers, Kuppers provides useful frameworks for critical analysis and encourages students to explore their own positioning within the frames of gender, race, sexuality, class and disability. Comprehensive and accessible, this is an essential handbook for undergraduate students or anyone interested in disabled bodies and minds in theatre, performance, creative writing, art and dance.
Theatre and Disability by
This succinct and engaging text examines the complex relationship between theatre and disability, bringing together a wide variety of performance examples in order to explore theatrical disability through the conceptual frameworks of disability as spectacle, narrative, and experience. Accessible and affordable, this is an ideal resource for theatre students and lovers everywhere.
Undesirable Elements by
"The cumulative power of these shared stories is nothing short of astonishing. Ping Chong creates a tremendous tapestry of lives."--Twin Cities Reader In Chong's extraordinary series of choral documentary dramas, bodies that had once been rendered 'undesirable elements' become - as bodies on stage always do, through the theater's magical mechanisms of empathy and display - emphatically desirable. The performers - who are not professional actors - live in the community where they are performing and, most important, they are telling their own stories. Through the act of naming themselves and recounting how they came to be here - quite literally here, now, in the theater, as well as here in this town in the United States - they claim their place in the body politic. Theater, like America, is a space of self-making. The Undesirable Elements series offers a distilled, elegant demonstration of that exhilarating and complicated process." - Alisa Solomon, from Her Introduction This four-piece volume of Undesirable Elements, the community-specific theater works series, examines the lives of those born into one culture but living in another. Each production grows out of an extended residency, during which Ping Chong and his collaborators conduct interviews of community members and then create a script that explores both historical and personal narratives. Ping Chong is a theater director, playwright, choreographer, and video and installation artist. The recipient of two OBIE awards, two Bessie awards, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he has created more than fifty works for the stage, including twenty-five in his Undesirable Elements series.
Kempe, Andy. "What Dramatic Literature Teaches about Disability"
in Schonmann, Shifra. Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education . Leiden;: Brill , 2011. Web.
Lewis, Victoria Ann. "Disability and Access: A Manifesto for Actor Training"
in Margolis, Ellen, and Lissa Tylef Renaud. The Politics of American Actor Training . New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Amelia Cavallo and Maria Oshod. "Staring at Blindness: Pitch Black Theatre and Disability Led Performance"
in Alston, Adam, and Martin Welton. Theatre in the Dark : Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre . London ;: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017. Online
Natalie Russo, Melissa Luke, Kevin Heffernan, Luis Columna & Elizabeth Ingram. "A Community Based Theatre Arts Program for Adults With Disabilities: Evidence Through Tesearch, Observation and Individual Transformation"
in Reason, Matthew, and Nick Rowe. Applied Practice : Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art. London, UK: New York, NY, USA, 2017, Online
Michelle Duffy, Paul Atkinson and Nichola Wood. "Thresholds of Representation : Physical Disability in Dance and Perceptions of the Moving Body"
in Boyd, Candice P., and Christian Edwardes. Non-Representational Theory and the Creative Arts . Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Meyer, Michael J. "Enable Us to Look Back: Performance and Disability in To Kill a Mockingbird" ; "Just One Kind of Folks:" The Normalizing Power of Disability in To Kill a Mockingbird"; "To Kill a Mockingbird: Perceptions of "the Other" in Meyer, Michael J. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird New Essays . Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2010
The 'd' Monologues by
This unique collection of fictional dramatic monologues was written specifically for D/deaf and disabled performers (the 'd' of the title), informed by lived experience. But the 'd' could just as easily refer to difference, diversity, defiance, determination, desirability and a host of other delicious 'd's.... Covering a wide variety of form, content, and theatrical styles, the monologues offer fresh perspectives on difference and disability from across the UK and beyond.From biting satire to crip' pride, observational comedy to poignant revelations of life in contemporary Britain and beyond, these texts challenge and subvert ingrained preconceptions of disability and celebrate all the possibilities of human variety. These texts challenge and subvert ingrained preconceptions of difference and disability, relishing all the possibilities of human variety - solo, choral and ensemble monologues for D/deaf and disabled performers, inspired by lived experience.
Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors by
The first of its kind: a collection of dramas informed by a political and cultural disability perspective that redefines the notion of "normalcy" and extends the range of what it is to be human. From monologues to performance texts to realist plays, these involving and subversive pieces explore disability as a portal to new experience.
Beyond Victims and Villains by
"In the 21st century, the disability experience offers new perspectives on issues that promise to dominate the collective (un)consciousness: diversity vs. unity; difference vs. normalcy; rugged individualism vs. it-takes-a-village political ideologies; right-to-die; healthcare as a for-profit industry; care-giving within families and across the boundaries of gender, race and class. "This anthology offers insights into the ongoing dialogue in our theatres about diversity, multiculturalism and universality, and the debates in our civic life about interdependence vs. independence. But in the end, I offer this anthology as a collection of irreverent, comic, terrifying and beautiful plays."--Victoria Ann Lewis This anthology, the first of its kind, explores how disabled artists depict the world they inhabit with their disabilities. Includes: P.H. *reaks: a collaborative project developed by Doris Baizley and Victoria Ann Lewis (Los Angeles, CA) Gretty Good Time by John Belluso (Los Angeles, CA) The History of Bowling by Mike Ervin (Chicago, IL) Creeps by David Freeman (Canada) Shoot by Lynn Manning (Los Angeles, CA) A Summer Evening in Des Moines by Charles Mee, Jr. (New York, NY) No One as Nasty by Susan Nussbaum (Chicago, IL) Victoria Ann Lewis is the founder and past director of the Mark Taper Forum's "Other Voices Project." Emerging from the disability civil rights movement, the "Other Voices Project" is the only professional playwriting program for writers with disabilities in the regional theatre.
B for Baby by
'It was like we were two children - two innocent children just... playing' Mrs C wants a baby not a Christmas tree. B wants a real hairdresser's scissors and a wife. D wants a snow globe and 'a big head of dirty auld curls'. All of them want their own place in the world. And if they can't find it, they'll create one of their own. The play follows B and D in the care home where they are residents, and where Mrs C is a carer, on their special - 'very fecking special' - journey towards happiness. B for Baby is a tender, sharp-witted new play set in a residential care home for people with severe learning disabilities. Treating this taboo subject with humanity and humour, the piece's acuity and generously compassionate portraits result in a moving, if at times uncomfortable, drama. Poignantly exploring forbidden topics, B for Baby invites the reader or audience to rediscover the power and joy of make-believe. The play was first presented by the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage, September 2010.
Cost of Living by
"Immensely haunting... The first of many great things about Martyna Majok's Cost of Living... is the way it slams the door on uplifting stereotypes... Ms. Majok has engineered her plot to lead naturally to moments of intense and complicated pungency... If you don't find yourself in someone in Cost of Living, you're not looking." --Jesse Green, New York Times Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Cost of Living deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after a terrible accident leaves her quadriplegic. John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a first-generation recent graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide.
D. A. R. E. by
''A galvanising and brilliantly inclusive act of political theatre' (Scotsman) Highly acclaimed at the Edinburgh Festival, this bold and confrontational play about disabilities is a radical piece of theatre that unsettles, challenges and changes perceptions of people with disabilities. 'This left me on edge, ruffled, my well-brought-up liberal nerve ends feeling as if they'd been scarified with emery boards. I fell asleep, hours later, still inwardly debating the issues raised - and I woke, next morning, mind seething and a bit on the defensive side. Why? Because D.A.R.E. (Disabled Anarchists' Revolutionary Enclave) puts me - puts us all - on the spot. It challenges the nature of our feelings towards the disabled and it exposes us to their anger...They're not interested in the kind of condescending patronage that masquerades as sympathetic concern. They're no longer willing to deny sexual desires to spare our blushes, no longer willing to stay silent when science declares it has found ways - involving DNA screening and genetic engineering - preventing them from being born' (Mary Brennan, The Herald)''
Elling by
Elling and his roommate, the uncouth, reluctant virgin Kjell Bjarne, are the Odd Couple of Oslo: a pair of confused souls taking their first steps in the outside world after years of isolated, institutional life. Given a flat in the city by social services, they must re-assimilate themselves into society or face a return to the asylum.
Flower Girls by
Flower Girls is the funny, beautifully observed and uplifting story of a group of disabled women who live and work at The Crippleage, Edgware. Inspired by the personal testimony and reminiscences of real-life Flower Girls, the play shifts effortlessly between the unsettled early years of World War II and the seemingly more liberated world of 1965. Their stories reveal an indomitable spirit and a fierce determination to find their place in the world, a world that prefers to keep them at a safe distance. A red button. From a red coat?I collected them. From every coat of every new arrival at the orphanage, before they were sold to the rag man. And I would wait until they were at their homesick worst. A penny to hold it, a shilling to keep it. Britain's foremost disabled-led theatre company Graeae joins forces with The New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich to present the world premiere of this play on 5 October 2007. The play is published as a programme text to coincide with the production.
Gathering Blue by 
Graeae Plays 1 by
IIncludes: Hound by Maria Oshodi, Soft Vengeance by April de Angelis, Sympathy for the Devil by Roy Winston, Fittings: The Last Freakshow by Mike Kenny, Into the Mystic by Peter Wolf, and Peeling by Katie O'Reilly. Introduced by Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director of Graeae Theatre Company, the U.K.'s leading theatre company working with disabled artists.
Hard 2 spel Dad by 
The Healing by
Twenty-five years ago, a motley group of friends met as kids at a summer camp where the head counselor secretly taught them that their disabilities could be "cured" through the power of prayer. Today, the group has gathered to mourn the untimely passing of one of its members. Over the course of the night, old wounds are uncovered, friendships are tested, and the truth surrounding their late friend becomes troublingly clear.
Indian Arm by
Rita and Alfred Allmers live in an isolated family cabin on native leasehold land overlooking Indian Arm, a still untamed glacial fjord just north of Vancouver, BC. With Alfred--a formerly promising novelist--now struggling with his latest work, Rita has been tasked with caring for their adopted son Wolfie, a sensitive First Nations teen who has been designated as "special needs" for much of his life. Rita's resentments and frustrations are further embittered by her younger half-sister, Asta, a constant reminder of the innocence, idealism, and sexual allure Rita once had and yearns for again. The fragile impasse of their lives is torn asunder by the appearance of Janice, the surviving member of the Indigenous family who leased the land to Rita and Asta's reclusive and mysterious father over fifty years ago. With the lease now expired, they are all engulfed by the secrets and contradictions of their lives and of the land itself--in both the past and the present--and their stories are drawn inexorably toward an unspeakable tragedy.
Kill Me Now by
When Joey enters puberty, his father Jake finds himself in a morally ambiguous position. Joey is severely disabled, but he still has the same sexual desires as any seventeen-year-old boy, only he can't do anything to relieve the tension. Jake is a widower whose life is devoted to his son, but when he suddenly develops a serious medical condition, he becomes the one to rely on the people around him, including his sister Twyla, his friend Robyn, and Joey's best friend Rowdy. As Jake's condition worsens, an ethical dilemma troubles the household as everyone is forced to consider the possibility of saying goodbye.
Lucifer Saved by
The circus; topic is people with disabilities
Mourning Dove by
"This sort of theatre should be more fashionable."--The Globe and Mail Could killing your own child be an act of love? Inspired by the true Canadian story of a Saskatchewan farmer and his daughter, Emil Sher's new play explores the dilemma faced by the father of a severely disabled teenage girl whose fate is about to be taken over by the medical establishment.
Mrs. Affleck by
Rita is consumed by jealous love as she welcomes her husband home while caring for her diabled boy. Inspired by Ibsen's "Little Eyolf"
A Nervous Smile by
THE STORY: A wealthy New York couple, strained to the breaking point by caring for their severely disabled daughter, Emily, weigh their own happiness against that of their child--with shocking consequences. Emily's lyrical poetry, the bitter volleys...
Override by
In a world where using technology to erase people's imperfections and disabilities is increasingly normal....A captivating, darkly comic play that questions what it means to be human. In a world where using technology to erase people's imperfections and disabilities is increasingly normal, one couple is going back to basics. Far from the city, Mark and Violet are looking forward to the natural birth of their first baby. But one of them has a secret that threatens to undermine their perfect world. Stacey Gregg's Override was first performed at Watford Palace Theatre in October 2013 as part of the theatre's Ideal World Season.
Pyretown by
THE STORY: Louise is a divorced mother of three, getting by on welfare checks and child support in a depressed, industrial New England town. Harry is a handsome, clever young man, a wheelchair user since a childhood accident. Their paths cross....
ReView (play anthology) by
ReView is an anthology of plays committed to social justice and grounded in socially-based research. These plays-as-research aim to provide a space for readers to imaginatively engage with multi-layered social issues in cultural, political and historical contexts; or to re-view personal and social assumptions in these contexts. The characters within the anthology's pages struggle through complex relationships and differing needs related to ageing, sexuality, homophobia, race, gender, class, bullying, discrimination, as well as hope, joy and humour. This unique anthology assembles strong cross-disciplinary projects moving beyond the attempt to explore complex social issues from the standpoint of a single discipline. Collaborators range from education, equity studies, theatre and performance studies, public health, nursing, sociology, recreation therapy, and health studies, as well as being both academics and practicing artists. Each play includes an academic introduction and each artist-researcher team poses thoughtful, open-ended discussion questions to help guide readers and support reflection. This collection can be read purely for pleasure, or used in courses that address education, sociology, women and gender studies, equity studies, cultural studies, communication studies, performance and theatre studies, language and literature studies, disability studies and health studies. Nominated - 2017 Le Prix Patrick O'Neill Award through the Canadian Association for Theatre Research
The Rules of Charity by
THE STORY: Loretta thinks she is a machine. Her father, Monty, seeks independence and a place in history. Will Loretta learn the secret she needs to hear? Will Monty forgive her for a slap across the face that broke the rules? A play about the body
Russia, Freaks and Foreigners by 
The Thrill by
Elora Dixon is a vibrant, middle-aged lawyer and disability-rights activist who has never walked a step in her life. A neuromuscular disease left her with a curved spine and a reliance on around-the-clock care. Nonetheless, she is an inexorable force when chance pits her against the notorious Julian Summer, who is in town promoting his internationally bestselling book. Julian is a fervent supporter of euthanasia, and Elora is the counter-argument--a living rebuke to parents who want the option of euthanizing a disabled newborn. So it comes as a shock, especially to Elora, when the two find themselves acutely attracted to one another. Will she learn to negotiate her feelings and her convictions, or will Julian's beliefs begin to colour her own?
Wendy Hoose by
Laura and Jake just want sex. Late Friday night drunken sex. Nothing more. No strings attached. But getting your leg over is sometimes more difficult than you think. Containing strong language and scenes of a sexual nature,Wendy Hoose is about two twenty-year-olds searching for love in all the wrong places!
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Lew, Mike. Teenage Dick . New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 2019.
STACKS-2 (Stacks 2nd Floor) PS3612 .E948 T44 2019
Retelling of Shakespeare's Richard III, one of the most famous disabled characters in history is reimagined as a 16-year-old outsider taking on the political turmoil of high school
Nichols, Peter. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. London: Bloomsbury.
Drama Online and STACKS-2 (Stacks 2nd Floor) PR6064 .I2 D3 1967B
Whyte, Ron. Disability a Comedy. New York: Theatre Communications Group
STACKS-2 (Stacks 2nd Floor) PS3573 .H78 D5 1981
Searchable full-text plays online available to Carnegie Mellon users.
Asian American Drama
Contains the full-text of 250 plays by Asian American playwrights. It is searchable by author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theatres, and companies. The database also contains playwright biographies, details on productions, theatres and theatrical companies, as well as production photographs, selected playbills and other information related to the plays.
Black Drama
Contains the full-text of 1200 plays by black playwrights. It is searchable by author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theatres, and companies, including related resource and biographical information.
Contemporary World Drama
New work from Alexander Street Press existing playwright partners alongside work from up-and-coming playwrights from around the world, including recently produced world premieres and previously unpublished works from every continent.
North American Indian Drama
244 plays by 48 playwrights. More than half of the works are previously unpublished, representing groups such as Cherokee,
Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others
Twentieth Century North American Drama is a growing full-text database, currently containing 850 plays including the complete works of major playwrights as well as plays by emerging playwrights. Searchable by keyword, author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theaters, and companies. Additional information on playwrights, theaters, companies, productions and performances is included along with a selection of playbills, posters and other ephemera.
Drama Online
1550 plays: classic to contemporary; L.A. Theatre Works audio plays; Globe on Screen streaming video, more....
Explore this script discovery database brought to you by the National New Play Network, an alliance of non-profit theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays.' Search plays by using any number of options including cast size, play length, age level, genre, subject matter, gender or sexual identity and ethnicity. Some scripts are available in full-text.
If a play in NPX is not accessible via the databCarnegie Mellon Libraries check The CMU Library Catalog and/or request a play for the University Libraries play collection: contact Mo Dawley.
Play Index Online
Cites plays in published sources (1949-present) by subject, author, title, style, genre, cast type and more with plot summaries and musical, cast and scenery requirements. Includes one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio and television plays and classic drama. Links to selected full-text plays on the web.
Crip Camp (International Documentary Association) On Netflix
"Just down the road from Woodstock, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a parallel revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers. Steeped in the humor and music of the era, Crip Camp explores the universal experience of summer camp awakenings that would transform lives and shape the future of the disability rights movement. Told from the point of view of former camper Jim LeBrecht, the film traces the journeys of campers up to the present day, in this compelling and untold story of a powerful journey towards inclusion."
Deaf Jam (Kanopy)
..."the story of deaf teen Aneta Brodski's bold journey into the spoken word slam scene. In a wondrous twist, Aneta, an Israeli immigrant living in the Queens section of New York City, eventually meets Tahani, a hearing Palestinian slam poet. The two women embark on a collaboration/performance duet creating a new form of slam poetry that speaks to both the hearing and the Deaf.
Enter the Faun (Tamar Rogoff Performance Projects)
" The unlikely collaboration between a veteran choreographer and a young actor with cerebral palsy delivers astonishing proof that each and every body is capable of miraculous transformation. As Tamar Rogoff trains Gregg Mozgala to become a dancer, they discover that her lack of formal medical training and his fears and physical limitations are not obstacles, but the impetus for their unprecedented discoveries."
Generation A: Portraits of Autism and the Arts (Kanopy)
Examines "how creative therapies and art programs in music, dance, art, animation, and more are being applied to stimulate the brain, encourage meaningful connections and social interaction, enhance speech and language, and build self-esteem."
Invitation to Dance: Disability in 21st Century America (Kanopy)
Kino Lorber. " traces Simi Linton's first reluctant foray onto the dance floor at a party to present day when dance has become a central theme in her social life, activism, and work. Ultimately, the film is a never-before-told coming out story of disabled people staking their claim to "equality, justice, and a place on the dance floor!"
Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty Right Now (Kanopy)
"Sins Invalid witnesses a performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists. Since 2006, its performances have explored themes of sexuality, beauty, and the disabled body, impacting thousands through live performance. Sins Invalid is as an entryway into the absurdly taboo topic of sexuality and disability, manifesting a new paradigm of disability justice."
Who Am I To Stop It: Transformation After Brain Injury (Kanopy)
Cheryl Green and Cynthia Lopez. "A documentary film on isolation, art, and transformation after brain injury made by a filmmaker with disabilities from brain injury. It follows three artists as they navigate social isolation, stigma, and rebuilding their identities."
You Don't Need Feet to Dance (Kanopy)
Disabled African immigrant Sidiki Conde "manages to teach workshops for disabled kids, busk on the street, rehearse with his band, bicycle with his hands, and attend a naming ceremony, where he plays djembe drums, sings, and dances on his hands...proving to all You Don't Need Feet to Dance."
A New Kind of Listening: Disability Rights and the Power of Inclusive Arts (Kanopy)
Follows the collaborative work of the Community Inclusive Theater Group which " inspires cast members, some with disabilities and unable to speak, to be poets, actors and dancers."
A Community-Powered Learning Library and Alternative News Center For People Who Want To Change The WorldLinks to over 3000 films available online for free. The goal of this resource is "to provide citizens of the world with the information and perspectives essential for creating a more just, sustainable and democratic society." An extensive subject list allows you to focus in on your areas of interest.
For non-specific searches you might start by using keywords that express various concepts of interest paired with words like theater or theatre, performance, performance art, events, dance, music etc.). Ask for additional assistance: Mo Dawley.
Disability in the Modern World
Comprehensive and international set of resources to enrich study of disabilty in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.
At completion, Disability in the Modern World will include 150,000 pages of primary sources, supporting materials, and archives, along with 125 hours of video.
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full-Text
The online edition of the scholarly International Bibliography of Theatre.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database (formerly International Index to the Performing Arts)
Articles covering the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Coverage: 1864-current
For more article databases see Drama: Databases for Drama
Drama Online
1550 plays: classic to contemporary; L.A. Theatre Works audio plays; Globe on Screen streaming video, more....
Ontheboards.tv
High-quality films of full-length performances by current provocative artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms.
Dance Online: Dance in Video
...productions and documentaries with influential performers and companies of the 20th century. Includes ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, improvisational dance, and forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance;
search, browse, cite or bookmark videos to the moment; make custom clips, annotate and share them.
Theatre in Video
...definitive performances and documentaries in streaming video with leading actors, playwrights and directors covering a wide range of 20th century theatre history. Includes contemporary revivals of classic works, television broadcasts of New York productions, experimental performances and more; search, browse and bookmark scenes, monologues, and staging examples.
Disbilities Studies LibGuide Bow Valley College suggests these for more documentaries, multimedia content, educational podcasts and videos
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
Films on Demand
National Public Radio
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC Podcasts
Khan Academy Videos
CBC Ideas: Episodes Archive
University of California Berekely Videos and Podcasts
Stanford University on iTunesU
University of Oxford on iTunes U
Harvard University on iTunes U
University of Cambridge on iTunes U
Royal Societyor the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA): Videos
Curio (CBC)
National Film Board (NFB) CAMPUS
Center of Applied Drama and Autism (Akron, Ohio)
Seeks to discover the uniqueness of studeants through individual al collaborative applied drama such as theatre games, improvisation, role play, character study, voice and body work, mask work (Commedia dell' Arte); and Play Back Theatre. Other creative efforts include student-created puppet plays, playwrighting and video production with visual art, dance and music as key components in productions.
Back to Back Theatre
"Over the last 30 years Back to Back Theatre has made a body of work that questions the assumptions of what is possible in theatre, but also the assumptions we hold about ourselves and others. As an ongoing dialogue with our audience, each new project is an investigation seeking answers to questions raised in previous works. Our attention lies with design, light, and sound. The stories we pursue weave the personal, the political and the cosmic. We work to curiosity and interest in the live moment, to what sits within and between."
Back to Back Theatre is based in Geelong, Australia.
Published book: Helena Grehan and Peter Eckersalll, eds. We're People Who Do Shows: Back to Back Theatre: Performance Politics Visibility. Performance Research Books, 2013.