Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre

211 Pages·2023·6.096 MB·English

by  Tony McCaffrey

Giving and Taking Voice in
Learning Disabled Theatre
Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre offers unique insight
into the question of ‘voice’ in learning disabled theatre and what is gained
and lost in making performance. It is grounded in the author’s 18 years
of making theatre with Different Light Theatre company in Christchurch,
New Zealand, and includes contributions from the artists themselves.
This book draws on an extensive archive of performer interviews, record-
ings of rehearsal processes, and informal logs of travelling together and
sharing experience. These accounts engage with the practical aesthetics of
theatre-making as well as their much wider ethical and political implica-
tions, relevant to any collaborative process seeking to represent the under-
or un-represented. Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre
asks how care and support can be tempered with artistic challenge and rig-
our and presents a case for how listening learning disabled artists to speech
encourages attunement to indigenous knowledge and the cries of the planet
in the current socio-ecological crisis.
This is a vital and valuable book for anyone interested in learning disa-
bled theatre, either as a performer, director, dramaturg, critic, or spectator.
Tony McCaffrey is a Senior Lecturer at the National Academy of Sing-
ing and Dramatic Art, Ara Institute, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has
been Artistic Director of Different Light Theatre since 2004 and is the Co-
convenor of the Performance and Disability Working Group of the Interna-
tional Federation for Theatre Research.

Giving and Taking
Voice in Learning
Disabled Theatre
Tony McCaffrey
Designed cover image: Paul McCaffrey for Different Light Theatre.
Different Light performer Josie Noble.
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2023 Tony McCaffrey
The right of Tony McCaffrey to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McCaffrey, Tony, author.
Title: Giving and taking voice in learning disabled theatre /
Tony McCaffrey.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022049562 (print) | LCCN 2022049563
(ebook) | ISBN 9780367539009 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367538972
(paperback) | ISBN 9781003083658 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Actors with disabilities. | People with mental
disabilities in the theater. | People with disabilities and the
performing arts.
Classification: LCC PN1590.H36 M325 2019 (print) |
LCC PN1590.H36 (ebook) | DDC 792.02/8087--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022049562
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022049563
ISBN: 9780367539009 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367538972 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003083658 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003083658
Typeset in Sabon LT Std
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
This book is dedicated to all the performers
and supporters of Different Light Theatre.

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Giving and Taking Voice 1
1 Setting the Scene: The Shadow Whose Prey the
Hunter Becomes 42
2 Community Theatre and Myths of Community 51
3 Dramatic Theatre and the Temporality of Learning
Disabled Theatre 84
4 Intertextuality and Intermediality: Performing
Responses to the Disabling of the City 114
5 Learning Disabled Performance Research:
Ecologies, Histories, Philosophies 152
6 From the Theatre to the After Party 179
Appendix: Chronology of Different Light Theatre
Performances, Presentations, and Participants 193
Index 197
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Kelsie Acton, ADSA, Margaret Ames, Cloé Anngow, Andrés
Aparicio, Simon Atkinson, Awakenings Festival, Meli Bach, Back to Back
Theatre, Alan Barnes, Adam Benjamin, Sara Brodie, Damian Bumman,
Glen Burrows, Dave Calvert, Marla Carlson, Marvin Carlson, Danielle
Carter, Verity Carter, Merrin Cavell, Felipe Cervera, Beth Cherne, Kyle
Chuen, Colette Conroy, Stuart Craig, Creative New Zealand, Christiane
Czymoch, Andrew Dever, Angelia Douglas, Janette Dovey, Ben Ellenbroek,
Peter Falkenberg, Rebecca Flint, Terry Fogarty, Free Theatre, Christchurch,
Katrine Gabb, Kim TePairi Garrett, Janet Gibson, Bruce Gladwin, Vibeke
Glørstad, Richard Gough, Sara Granath, Amiria Grenell, Inez Grim, Julia
Guthrey, Sarah H., Bree Hadley, Steph Hines, Theodore Hoffman, Nick
Hollamby, Hohepa Canterbury, Hemi Hoskins, International Federation for
Theatre Research Working Group on Disability and Performance, Tatiana
Josz, Amber Kennedy, Theresa King, Esa Kirkkopelto, Petra Kuppers,
Roslen Langton, John Lambie, Demarnia Lloyd, Stuart Lloyd-Harris,
Kate Maguire-Rosier, Alison Mahoney, Nanaia Mahuta, Neil Marcus,
Claire Margerison, Sofie Martinsdotter, Yayoi Mashimo, Mojo Mathers,
Marian McCurdy, Drew McLean, Ben Morris, Missy Morton, Rachel
Mullins, NASDA, Ara Institute, Alice Nash, Josie Noble, David O’Donnell,
Shawn O’Rourke, Andrew Oswin, George Parker, Louise Payne, Per.
Arts, Performance Philosophy, Performance Studies international, Ben
Piggott, Yoni Prior, Caroline Quick, Paul Rae, Peter Rees, Nicholas Ridout,
Salamanda Tandem, Yvonne Schmidt, Theron Schmidt, Michael Shone,
Elizabeth Sinclair, Tony Smith, Andrew Snell, Michael Stanley, Biddy
Steffens, Matthew Swaffield, Isaac Tait, Theater HORA, Catriona Toop,
Trisha Ventom, Mick Wallis, Natalie Walton, Jessica Watkin, Benjamin
Wihstutz, Moira Williams, Emma Willis, Carrington Wilson. Special
thanks to Marie, Mary, and Paul, and to Greta Bond, for her intelligence,
consideration, and generosity.
Introduction: Giving and
Taking Voice
The learning disabled artists are present
In contemporary theatrical performance, learning disabled people are
increasingly present as artists. They are no longer the voiceless to whom
voice must be given, neither are they required merely to be the ‘authentic’
voice of learning disabled experience. This presence is, however, still sub-
ject to negotiation between non-disabled and disabled participants and is
dependent upon networks of support, care, and collaboration. It is also
caught up in the complexities, ironies, and ambivalence that the role of the
artist implies. Learning disabled artists are finding and raising their voices
in theatre and performance, but questions remain that will be considered
throughout this book. How are learning disabled artists invited into, or
included, in theatre? How are they given voice, how do they give voice, and
to what do they give voice? What might be gained in understanding theatre,
ability, and disability by attending to the emergence of these voices?
This book focuses on voice, a very loose term that is capable of var-
ious interpretations. I have chosen it for its very imprecision and flu-
idity. The ubiquity, inadequacy, and instability of the term align with
the complexity of the shifting and slippery ideas of presence, identity,
selfhood, autonomy, and power that are in play in an analysis of learn-
ing disabled theatre. Voice and presence have meanings that are specific
to theatre training and performance, but these are inextricably linked
to representation in its political meaning. Any consideration of voice in
learning disabled theatre involves far-reaching questions of agency, iden-
tity, representation, presence, self-expression, personhood, and selfhood.
My experience is that there is a complex interrelationship between disa-
bled and non-disabled participants in the making and reception of such
theatre. Considering this interrelationship can teach us much about the
possibilities of co-creation, collaboration, and mutual care. There is cur-
rently an urgent need to understand and develop practices of interdepend-
ence in the face of ever-increasing social inequities and injustices and the
related cries of the planet: what Moten and Harney in All Incomplete call
‘The Socioecological Disaster’ (45).
DOI: 10.4324/9781003083658-1