Heidi -- Consider Clara in Heidi, for example. Whoever is playing Clara needs to be able to get up and walk. And then they have to do it the next night and the night after that. Same for the Secret Garden. Obviously, there are other parts where it doesn’t matter if the person has a physical disability or not as it is not integral to advancement of the plot and perhaps it is there where casting directors should be looking to increase the opportunities.
One should remember Ida Lou Anderson --very short of stature, and twisted back who profoundly affected the way the US hears its news. She was Edward R Murrow's speech teacher and inspiration and of course Murrow's way of speaking provides the template for news anchors who follow him.
Apparently her voice was such that she could cast a magic spell over you and make you believe she was the character she was portraying.
It is that magic which theatre goers want when they go to the theatre. It is called as you have pointed out -- acting.
Yes, Nessa in WICKED is similar. There's a dull absolutism to the way certain censorious types think that doesn't allow for nuance or meaning, really. This stems in part from a chokehold they place on words and their meanings. It also stems from the Kendi notion that Intent is immaterial and only Impact matters. So seeing an able bodied person play a disabled character is BAD, even though the play requires that character to, as in the cases of Clara or Nessa or Colin, walk when they couldn't before. And it is the "magical " overcoming of the disability that they'd call inspiration porn. And then they'd get angry that the story denies a role to a disabled actor and lobby for a rewrite.
Heidi -- Consider Clara in Heidi, for example. Whoever is playing Clara needs to be able to get up and walk. And then they have to do it the next night and the night after that. Same for the Secret Garden. Obviously, there are other parts where it doesn’t matter if the person has a physical disability or not as it is not integral to advancement of the plot and perhaps it is there where casting directors should be looking to increase the opportunities.
One should remember Ida Lou Anderson --very short of stature, and twisted back who profoundly affected the way the US hears its news. She was Edward R Murrow's speech teacher and inspiration and of course Murrow's way of speaking provides the template for news anchors who follow him.
Apparently her voice was such that she could cast a magic spell over you and make you believe she was the character she was portraying.
It is that magic which theatre goers want when they go to the theatre. It is called as you have pointed out -- acting.
Yes, Nessa in WICKED is similar. There's a dull absolutism to the way certain censorious types think that doesn't allow for nuance or meaning, really. This stems in part from a chokehold they place on words and their meanings. It also stems from the Kendi notion that Intent is immaterial and only Impact matters. So seeing an able bodied person play a disabled character is BAD, even though the play requires that character to, as in the cases of Clara or Nessa or Colin, walk when they couldn't before. And it is the "magical " overcoming of the disability that they'd call inspiration porn. And then they'd get angry that the story denies a role to a disabled actor and lobby for a rewrite.