This week, Ellis will be part of the first audience to see Hayman Theatre\u2019s production of Teenage Dick<\/em> and its layered exploration of disability representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teenage Dick <\/em>is a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s Richard III<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>While Shakespeare\u2019s protagonist is a hunchbacked villain, Teenage Dick<\/em> is a 17-year-old schoolboy who lives with a spinal disability and experiences classroom bullying, which he attempts to neutralise by winning the election for class president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Presented by Curtin Theatre Arts and CCAT, the production is directed by celebrated Australian neurodiverse director and disability rights activist Dan Graham<\/a>. Taking on the lead role is Crystal Nguyen<\/a>, a Curtin Theatre Arts student whose stage career began 10 years ago with an appearance in Vietnam\u2019s Got Talent<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Award-winning playwright Dr Suzanne Ingelbrecht<\/a> is assisting Graham. Also a CCAT disability-rights researcher, but with a particular focus on creative practice, Ingelbrecht says that in the initial auditions \u201cCrystal blew Dan and I away with her talent and intuitive performing instinct\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Ingelbrecht, Ellis and Graham, Nguyen \u2013 who lives with the genetic disorder brittle bone disease and is a powered-wheelchair user \u2013 works passionately to challenge the stigma surrounding disability and self-expression through the arts. And belying her petite stature, she has a powerful, eloquent voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI continually discover new ways of taking ownership of my strengths as a disabled performer,\u201d Nguyen says. \u201cPlaying Richard is a big role to fill, and with Kate\u2019s support I hope I can do him justice \u2013 I continue to be in awe of Kate\u2019s artistry and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s referring to her role mentor, Kate Mulvany<\/a> \u2013 an award-winning actor who\u2019s enjoyed major Hollywood production roles since graduating with a Curtin degree in Theatre Arts. Nguyen says that working with Mulvany helped her to find \u201cthe human\u201d in the misunderstood character of Richard III. In fact, Mulvany won a Helpmann Award for her performance as Richard III, in which she chose to reveal her real-life spinal disability<\/a>, scoliosis (which the real King Richard III also lived with), by exposing her bare back to the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ingelbrecht believes that while the past five years have seen significant changes in how disability is represented on stage, those changes are just the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s been working with artists with disability for about 10 years, directing and facilitating creative development theatre processes, most notably with artists on the autism spectrum through her ensemble company, Fragmented Artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think one of the seismic shifts in recent times is the recognition that characters that have disabilities should be played by actors with lived disability experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It was Ingelbrecht who suggested inviting Graham to Perth to be a guest director for the Hayman Theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI came to know Dan years ago when we collaborated on a paper* about leadership accessibility in the Australian performing arts. We’ve been friends and allies ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was Dan who suggested we present Teenage Dick<\/em>, because he felt such empathy for the Shakespearean character Richard III. We gave the play to Katie (Ellis) to read and she was immediately enthused \u2013 and to have Dan, an artist identifying as neurodiverse, directing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But of course, being 2020, COVID had a leading role, and for two years thwarted the plan to fly Graham from Sydney to Perth. In the meantime, he continued his advocacy and support for neurodiverse performing artists, and has just received a coveted Winston Churchill Trust fellowship that will see him travel to the UK and the US investigating opportunities for professional performing artists with neurodiversity.<\/a> But right now, Graham \u2013 who describes himself as \u201ca method director and a perfectionist with a disability\u201d \u2013 is relishing the experience working with Curtin students and with Nguyen in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCrystal has a powerful authenticity. But I don\u2019t want the audience just to recognise that, and to leave happy that they\u2019ve had a nice night at the theatre. I\u2019m interested in exploring the human condition and for the audience to have felt<\/em> something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His views align with the sentiments of playwright Michael Lew, who has explained<\/a> that he intended the play to “re-examine tired tropes about the disabled, create stories for people we’re not otherwise seeing \u2026 “. Those motivations, in turn, link strongly with Ellis\u2019s exploration of \u2018disability culture\u2019 and representations of and participation by disabled artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ellis explains that there are deep-rooted historical factors \u2013 going back to biblical representations \u2013 that make the arts \u2018hostile\u2019 to disabled arts and media makers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNarratives that position disabled people as either objects of fear, pity or inspiration,\u201d she explains, \u201cand Richard III is a classic example of the obsessive avenger, a character who’s out to get the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe media still plays into those cliches of people with disabilities as either a source of fear or inspiration. They are still represented within charity models that we can give to, to make us feel better about ourselves, without thinking about the role we as a society play in disabling people who have impairments.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n She points out that over the past 20 years, research has highlighted the need for self-representation, agency, and access as part of an inclusive cultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cArts and media representation, employment, and participation play a critical role in the realisation of human rights for disabled people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ingelbrecht agrees that the arts have a responsibility to present more creative works that serve disability advocacy \u201cand to be more experimental in the form and type of creative works that explore disability and present to audiences\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are other research questions in the disability space, such as how technology can help disabled artists as well as disabled audience members \u2013 there’s a lot to be done on that score that we’ve barely looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And from his perspective, Dan Graham is hoping for \u201cthe time when diversity on stage is incidental, and truly reflects the world we live in\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hayman Theatre\u2019s season of Teenage Dick<\/em> is from Tuesday 11 to Saturday 15 October. To support accessibility and encourage deaf and hard-of-seeing audience members into the Hayman Theatre, the performance on Wednesday October 12 will be an AUSLAN-interpreted performance and the performance on Saturday October 15 will be audio-description supported. Buy your tickets online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Rhys-Healy-and-Crystal-Nguyen-in-Teenage-Dick.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kate-Mulvany-and-Dan-Graham.jpeg\")
Cultural representations are changing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Research and creativity with mutual interests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n