Beyond Victims and Villains: Contemporary Plays by Disabled Playwrights

by Victoria Ann Lewis (Editor)

“In the 21st century, the disability experience offers new perspectives on issues that promise to dominate the collective (un) diversity vs. unity; difference vs. normalcy; rugged individualism vs. it-takes-a-village political ideologies; right-to-die; healthcare as a for-profit industry; care-giving within families and across the boundaries of gender, race and class. “This anthology offers insights into the ongoing dialogue in our theatres about diversity, multiculturalism and universality, and the debates in our civic life about interdependence vs. independence. But in the end, I offer this anthology as a collection of irreverent, comic, terrifying and beautiful plays.”—Victoria Ann Lewis This anthology, the first of its kind, explores how disabled artists depict the world they inhabit with their disabilities. P.H. *reaks : a collaborative project developed by Doris Baizley and Victoria Ann Lewis (Los Angeles, CA)
Gretty Good Time by John Belluso (Los Angeles, CA)
The History of Bowling by Mike Ervin (Chicago, IL)
Creeps by David Freeman (Canada)
Shoot by Lynn Manning (Los Angeles, CA)
A Summer Evening in Des Moines by Charles Mee, Jr. (New York, NY)
No One as Nasty by Susan Nussbaum (Chicago, IL) Victoria Ann Lewis is the founder and past director of the Mark Taper Forum’s “Other Voices Project.” Emerging from the disability civil rights movement, the “Other Voices Project” is the only professional playwriting program for writers with disabilities in the regional theatre.

Genres: Plays, Disability

400 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointment for me. On one hand, I'm glad it's out there, and I really liked Lynn Manning's play. On the other, there is so much whitey-white racism & sexism (with a smattering of homophobia) in the half I've read so far that I can't finish it right now even though I started it last October and they're plays, which take no time at all to read. I just don't want to pick it back up. Question: why are so many disability works out there about straight white men asserting their masculinity by trying to get laid? so boring. What this book really made me want is a different kind of disability theater anthology, one with a better analysis of race, class, & gender and that moves beyond the typically represented phyiscal disabilities.

[Mikayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each of these plays do an amazing job at exploring the depths of the characters and the situations they are forced into. My personal favorite was Freeman's 'Creeps'. It is simply mind blowing!

He develops the characters independently from their disabilities and allows them to speak for themselves, while making a heavy criticism of the neurotypical society in regards of the treatment, expectations and care of the disabled.

[Mills College Library]

812.60809 B5739 2006