A Catalyst for Rethinking and Rescripting Understanding of Disabled Performances

Abstract

This article proposes a way for theatre scholars, critics, and artists to complicate and rethink how disability is understood and depicted onstage. It asks that the signification of disability be complicated to embrace a disabled lens and understanding. Most theatre theory has focused on the non-disabled experience as the norm. Here, I propose a tool to support scholars, critics, and artists in growing their understanding of what disability does and can mean onstage. Within this writing structure, I invite you, the reader and receiver, to also consider how writing can reflect different processes of thinking and articulation. This article is written in an experimental form to support the reader’s desire and pathway to learning more about how we can rethink and rescript what disability can mean onstage, and open up new ways of considering a fuller, wider perspective that embraces larger nuance.