DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre

So we are all about to go home for thanksgiving break and I’m realizing how close winter  break is coming along.  I forgot that over the summer I talked to my cousin about writing a  play over this semester and how we could produce it over winter break.  My cousin has spinal  muscular atrophy, which is a disease that detoriated the muscles in his spine, making it  incapable for him to walk, or have fullmotion of his spine, upper arms and neck.  So he loves  theatre.  He LOVES it.  And he wanted to write a play that he could be in, so he decided that    we would tackle the world of X-men.  Casting himself at Professor Xavier, I couldn’t think of  a better role for him.  We started to work on the script at his house one day and he was  confused about how to even start.  So we made a new storyline between Jean, Cyclops, and  Emma Frost (his favorite character).  I was trying to explain to him about all the things we  had to think about, like how many people he wanted in the cast, what he wanted it to be  about, and who the audience was going to be.  My cousin is a freshman at Crestwood high  school and he loves the world of teen titans, x-men, and avatar: the last Airbender so his  imagination is vivid and huge.  He wanted the play to be full of death and curse words in it  and I realized that we had to stop writing and talk about who our audience was.  Was he  hoping to write a play that all of his friends and other kids could come see?  Or was he writing  it for his older cousins and family to be impressed with?  Or did he not even care.  So I began telling him what he could and couldn’t say, strictly because of his age, trying to figure out what he could do so that people would take him seriously.  So now I’m thinking, how ignorant of me to think that because Brandon as a human being, and that alone grants him the utmost respect in an artistic setting, and no doubt should people take him seriously if he came onstage as Charles Xavier.  I began questioning whether or not I was worried about people taking him seriously because of his age, or because of his confinement to a mechanical wheelchair.  I had to think about it.

This is still uncomfortable for me because I haven’t figured out the right wording for it yet, but I began to think about the role that those who are considered “different” play in the world of art, and not just my cousin.  I thought about the men in mabou mines’ Dollhouse, and the actresses on Glee, Robin Trocki and Lauren Potter.  I thought it was amazing that they had found a hole in the fabric of this theatrical universe created and that they tore their way through it.  Because theatre should embrace all and every aspect of life; the beautiful, the different and the unknown or misunderstood.  This topic is so sensitive for me because I don’t have my head wrapped around it yet.  So I present myself with a question…How can we start to build a world where not only the sane and able-bodied actors and actresses can take the stage?  How can we introduce the reality of my cousin, Robin Trocki, Lauren Potter, and the actors of Dollhouse as way to spearhead a new age of theatre, an age full of understanding and new vantage points, an age absent of any pity for those who are different, but rather a celebration of it.  Also, what will the bridge look like that carries over our acceptance of our world into the world of theatre and who will lead it?

My cousin Brandon’s About Me on Facebook says, “I am an actor, artist, and a singer. I love american idol and I wish to be on it one day.I also love Glee!”.  Theatre created for everyone. How about, theatre created by everyone.  Maybe Brandon James, newly initiated X-Men, can show us the way.