Can You Hear Me Now?

This week marks Calgary’s 4th Annual Disability Arts Festival, “Balancing Acts“. I never even knew we had one until this year! I attended the performances Monday evening. Looking at the line up for the rest of the week, it sure is a fun and worthwhile festival. The unfortunate part is, I am sure most of these events will be attended by people with disabilities, and not the general public, who really are the ones who need to see and experience it more than anyone. Although, it is fun to be able to laugh at ourselves and see situations we have experienced (me being a part of that “we”, as I certainly have lived my fair share, being a part of the System, having been around and worked with support workers, and having the audacity to leave the house with a cane, walker, wheelchair or scooter). You’d be surprised. There’s some odd people out there with some pretty bad attitudes. Then there are the caring people, who feel “bad” for you and want so desperately to help.

Both types were the subject of the first performance of the night - a play by “Inside Out Theatre Projects” called “Help UNwanted”. It was a series of vignettes that take a tongue-and-cheek look at how people with disabilities are treated, usually by well-meaning individuals who think they are helping, but are actually making it worse. Inside Out is a group of actors with disabilities themselves and they put on a great show, drawing from real life circumstances. They made fun of some of the stigmas attached to having a disability AND a life (i.e. SEX! Yes! It’s still a want and need, even if you’ve got cerebral palsy!). One vignette starred John, a severely disabled young man, re-enacting a situation that he experienced when he took a friend into Emergency when she needed medical attention and the nurses and doctors ignored his friend that was in pain, to make a fuss over helping John, who was fine. His speech impediment made it difficult for them to understand that, and they didn’t have the patience to try to listen to him explain. It was absolutely hilarious, yet sadly true.

One of the best parts of the play was near the end, when Ruth, the Artistic Director of Inside Out, re-enacted a Las Vegas scene. She had just played the slots and was holding her now empty change bucket and standing over to the side waiting for a friend. Ruth is blind, and she was holding her white cane. People were walking by and dropping change in her bucket and telling her “good luck” and “take care, honey”. She was humiliated. She was just waiting for a friend, and these people thought she was begging! She then stepped into the spotlight and went into a big spiel (Ruth has been a family friend for over 20 years, so I know this is true about her life): “I have a job and paid for my vacation here. In fact, I am an employer, I have people that work for ME. I am educated. I have a Masters in Education and a Bachelor of Social Work. I am the Global Television Woman of Vision recipient for June 2004. I own my own house. In fact, I am a multiple property owner. I am divorced. That’s right, just like ALLLLL of you out there, I am divorced!! (pause for laughter). I have two children from that 20 year marriage. That’s right, that means I DID IT at least twice!! And I enjoyed every minute of it! Now I’m going to head over to the bar because I need a drink. Yes, that’s right, I do THAT too!” Ha ha it was classic. Ruth is awesome and one of the most courageous people I have ever met. I think she has been blind her whole life, and when she wanted to take piano lessons as a youth, an instructor told her she’d never be able to do it. Well, she showed him. She plays wonderfully. When a Professor told her she may as well quit school now because she’d never be able to get her degree, she went on and got her Master’s. Never mind that she created the Inside Out Integrated Theatre Project 12 years ago, and she’s even a certified yoga instructor. I could go on and on and on, the woman is an inspiration!

The next part of the evening was a sneak preview of what’s coming up at the 4th Annual International Disability Film Festival, Picture This, February 14 - 18, 2005 at the Rozsa Centre (U of C Campus). They screened a couple short films and sneak previews. One film was called “Love Is Blind” and was a riot. “When a blind man comes home and walks in on his wife in bed with her lover, ‘love is blind’ takes on a whole new meaning”. Will he step over the lover’s clothes on the stairs? Will he hear him trying to escape unnoticed? Ahhh don’t forget that sense of smell. Ha ha it was great.

The final performance of the evening was a sneak preview of a show by Victoria Maxwell called “Funny, You Don’t Look Crazy!?!?”, the sequel to her previous show called “Crazy For Life”. In it she shares with us her struggles with mental illness and what it took to finally be diagnosed with manic depression, bipolar disorder and psychosis. She has been extremely proactive in her recovery process and is obviously doing very well. She tours the world with her one-woman act, an insider’s perspective on dealing with depression and other mental illnesses. Oh, and for the record, she learned the hard way that the psych ward at the hospital is NOT the best place to look for starting up a romance. Heh. (p.s. prior to her diagnosis, she was working as a TV/movie actress in Vancouver, and worked with the likes of John Travolta and JOHNNY DEPP!!!!)

I had my eyes opened to the fact that we even have something called “disability culture”. Who knew? The festival runs until Saturday, at the Big Secret Theatre in the Epcor Centre for Performing Arts. If you’re in Calgary and can make it down one night, it will be worth it! Short notice, I know, so just remember for next year I sure will. “Balancing Acts” creates a place for artists, stories and opinions that doesn’t really exist much anywhere else. It’s a space for artists with disabilities to tell their own stories (about what it’s like to live with a disability) in their own words. You will leave having been moved, educated, inspired… and you can’t ask for much more from art!