Sorry it's a little hard to hear we were in a coffee shop! The focus of my conversation with Erica centred around the question:
What are the benefits of theatre for disabled and disadvantaged young people?
The key things I took from the conversation were:
- I need to make my question more specific they are very general - choose between disabled or disadvantaged avenue.
- Importance of creating a question that I am really interested in - I need to feel really passionate about what I am exploring.
- Recognising that my question is not a career choice - she did a drama degree and her dissertation was about German realist writers this does not mean she will only work as an actress in that area!
- We discussed going down the avenue of disability - she said this would interest her and other actors she knows.
- The topic is of the time as after London 2012 attitudes towards disability are shifting - good time to explore how theatre can have the effect that sport did.
- We discussed looking at it from the angle of social and personal acceptance and how theatre can enhance this.
- Being applauded for who we are no matter what - relation to world of being an actor - it is full of rejection and we have to come to a form of acceptance.
- Education of able bodied young people and inclusivity of breaking down boundaries.
It was an insightful conversation which also got me back to thinking where I am coming from in asking my questions. Erica highlighted how acceptance is something we look for as an actor always wanting to be picked from the crowd. A lot of my questions focus on accessibility and maybe this is because I want the industry to be more accessible to me as well as the young people involved.
Out of this conversation I developed these questions:
What are the benefits of theatre for disabled people in relation to personal and social acceptance?
How does engagement in and practice of theatre enhance personal and social acceptance of disability?
Hollie x
Hi Hollie,
ReplyDeleteI can see that you have been working really hard to develop your questions, I think the advice about being more specific is a good one, and something I will be thinking about myself.
I hope you don't mind, but I have some questions that may help you define them further?
Do you have a specific area of disability? Would you be looking at Physical disability? Learning disability? Do you have a specific group in mind? What do you mean by theatre, watching or creating?
I love your idea about enhancing personal acceptance, I think using theatre to to create confidence in someone to be comfortable with who they are is a really valuable idea.
Danni.