Kate Hood knows the thrill of success and the sound of silence. Sydney-born Hood has been a “disabled actor, writer and director” for 20 years, including a long-running role in the TV drama The Prisoner. Then, in 2003, he was diagnosed with hereditary spastic paraplegia and became a wheelchair user. Suddenly, she said, “the door closed in my face.”
Ms Hood, 65, has slowly rebuilt her career, appearing in plays including Caryl Churchill’s Runaway Alone at Melbourne Theater Company in 2023 and becoming a member of the company’s advisory circle the year before. , reminded directors of their obligation to authenticity. Along the way, she earned a reputation as a passionate and effective advocate for actors with disabilities.
“We don’t see blackening anymore, but we see blackening all the time on TV, in movies, on stage,” she says. She considers herself lucky as she had trained in acting while living in New Zealand before becoming disabled. “People who are born with a disability have a hell of a chance of getting trained.”
Australian directors and theater producers are increasingly recognizing the need to cast disabled actors in disabled roles. But access barriers persist, with fear and misconceptions resulting in a lack of disabled actors auditioning. (The issue of accessibility is compounded by the ongoing pandemic, which continues to shut out immune-compromised creatives.)
Hood is currently appearing as Ani in the Australian premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cost of Living, which is playing at the Queensland Theater before moving to Sydney. Like Hood, Ani also developed a disability later in life. She became a quadriplegic in an accident and was abandoned by her husband, Eddie, shortly after doctors told her she would never walk again.
Preparation before taking on this role was important. Ms Hood flew from her home in Melbourne and traveled in a manual wheelchair. We have already airlifted two “electric” wheelchairs. One for personal use and one for stage use with features that suit you. Characters’ disabilities are treated as “dramaturgy.”
Hood: “Can a person with multiple sclerosis play a person with cerebral palsy, for example?” Photograph: Rhett Hammerton/Guardian
This co-production between the Queensland and Sydney theater companies is a collaboration between Polish-American playwright Martina Mayock and the key roles of Ani and John, PhD candidates with cerebral palsy, played by dancer Dan Doe. It is a cornerstone of authentic disabled casting because it insists on casting certain actors. . After performances in Brisbane and Sydney, Melbourne Theater Company will produce its own version of the production.
Hood supported Majok’s ethos, saying that casting agencies are just starting to look for actors with disabilities, but “don’t cast them too often.” She argues that if more disabled actors were trained, more actors would appear on stage and in film.
“Nida, Waapa, VCA do not accept assignments for students with disabilities, they do not train them. teaching…(but) the teachers there don’t know how to deal with the obstacles.”
Hood said there also needs to be a more in-depth discussion about whether an actor with a disability can play a character with another disability. “For example, could a person with multiple sclerosis play a person with cerebral palsy?” she asks. “Can someone who doesn’t use a wheelchair play the role of a wheelchair user?”
“We still have a long way to go.”
Bridie McKim, who has cerebral palsy, was a student at Nida when she won the role of Sabine in the television series “The Heights.” Photo: Jessica Fromas/The Guardian
Brisbane-born actor Bridie McKim studied at Nida while landing her breakthrough role as Sabine in the ABC drama The Heights. Her character’s disability was not specified until McKim was cast, but it was later named cerebral palsy because McKim had the disability. Nida was “incredibly brutal and intense,” says the now 26-year-old, who underwent the same training as everyone else.
Although she acknowledges that many disabilities are invisible, McKim doubted that any of her fellow acting students had a visible disability like hers. “There are some people who have experienced it[previously]but the statistics don’t match up considering we (people with disabilities) are one in five people in the population,” she says.
Alexia Derbas, equity and inclusion manager at Nida, agrees that the industry has “a long way to go, but increasing accessibility for students with disabilities is a priority”. At Waapa, 14 percent of students have a disability, executive dean David Shirley said. “Many students have felt excluded from performing arts institutions…this is undeniable. But things are changing.” A VCA spokesperson said the college is a “supportive and inclusive auditions,” but said there was “more important work to be done” regarding disability access on campus.
McKim: “As disabled people, we are used to thinking creatively to function in the world.” Photograph: Jessica Fromas/The Guardian
In a “perfect world,” McKim says, if a role has a specified disability, the actor would be matched with an actor with the same disability. “These actors were able to do their best work because they bring an authentic experience,” she says. “However, there are a limited number of trained and capable disabled actors…
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“Productions often say, ‘We can’t find anyone with this exact disability, so we’re going to hire a non-disabled actor.’ That idea is not ideal, so[actors with disabilities]have to rely on their own experience and… As disabled people, we are used to thinking creatively as people with disabilities, even though we always need the flexibility to play different identities, conditions, and disabilities that don’t match the world.
Mr McKim commends the Australian Casting Guild and ShowCast’s commitment in 2022 to create a dedicated platform to showcase performers with disabilities. More than 200 performers have registered on the site, said Angela Hissom, the casting director who led the effort. “I think this tool is working well because we’re seeing these artists auditioning for roles and quite a few winning those roles,” Hissom says.
“You need to take a leap of imagination.”
In May, after months of exploration, director Anthea Williams and the team at Melbourne Theater Company completed casting for their independent production Cost of Living, with the final role of Annie, a wheelchair-bound character with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Actor Rachel Edmonds was chosen to use the role. He also carried a cane during his main stage debut. Edmonds, a Melbourne National School of Drama graduate, was cast in the role of John last year, co-starring actor and para-athlete Oli Pidgey-Stratford, who suffered a spinal cord injury at birth and is now a quadriplegic.
Williams said about 10 actors were chosen to play Ani after two months of “open auditions” through MTC’s website, agents, social media channels and disability contacts. The actor had to recognize that he had a disability.
Anthea Williams says more actors with famous names should appear in films to raise the profile of actors with disabilities. Photo: Brett Boardman
“We didn’t ask them to tell us their diagnosis,” Williams said. He himself has lived with rheumatoid arthritis since he was 2 years old. “We allowed people to self-identify.”
Although Ani is designated as a wheelchair user, the actor may or may not be ambulatory, and those who have come forward include part-time wheelchair users and those who rely on other mobility devices. was. Some people who used wheelchairs in the past decided that this was not the right fit for them and declined the audition.
Williams argues that more productions should include actors with famous names to increase the visibility of actors with disabilities. For example, MTC cast Mystery Road star Aaron Pedersen to play Annie’s able-bodied partner Eddie.
She points out that many great actors have no formal training, and believes that the talent pool of actors with disabilities is important, even if the number is unknown. She is open to thinking about the different roles that people with disabilities could play.
“Personally, I felt that my experience of being a wheelchair user was important[to play Ani]because of the social barriers that can arise. We also know that we need to make a big leap forward.”
