Wheelchairs Conquer the Stage

Adopting different roles is the task of the drama students at the academy of visual arts in Ulm (adk). Four of them are disabled. Only in this small German city they can be trained professionally to become an actor – in the first integrative studies for disabled people in Europe.

01/05/2007

The hallway in-between the rehearsal rooms in the academy’s edifice is filled with tables and chairs; pinboards being attached between blue doors and yellow wooden beams show current theatre programs of German cities. One of the rehearsal rooms includes a small stage, spot lights are attached to white coated beams, black curtains frame the stage. „Romeo and Juliet“ is rehearsed.

The blond Juliet lies motionless on a claret blanket on the floor. Dead silence surrounds her. Suddenly, a high voice calls: „ Hey, miss! Miss?“ and a curtain rises. Julia’s wet-nurse enters the stage in a wheelchair. Startled, she stares at the girl’s body. She taps Juliet with a feather duster that extends her short arm: „She’s dead. Faded. Oh black day!“ – „O.K., that was good!“ shouts Kristina Maria Bock, a student of stage direction studies, „next scene.“

The wet-nurse, in real-life Jana Zöll, has OI, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. The short statured student can only move along with her wheelchair. Jana is able to attend this major thanks to an idea of Dr. Peter Radtke, who heads the „study group disability and media“ (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Behinderung und Medien, abm) in Munich and has been acting himself on stage for three decades.

He has OI as well and knows that the acting of disabled people is not taken for granted: „Thirty years ago, nobody would have thought of letting someone like me on stage“, he declares. His theatre career began when he was appointed as prompter. „ Indeed, I fitted under every table and in every cupboard.“ He had to appropriate everything he knows today. „Frequently, there were situations on stage during which professional training would have helped me. Due to this, the idea of something similar for disabled people grew.“

With the intention of introducing integrative studies, Radtke knocked at the doors of several acting schools and fell on deaf ears. After all, he met the director of the „adk“, Ralf Rainer Reimann, who launched the project. The integrative studies have existed for four years now. This year, the first professionally trained, disabled actor in Europe, Jan Dziobek, will graduate from the officially recognised vocational college.

Now, the wheelchair user was admitted to „Central Stage, TV and Film Communications “ (ZBF) for actors. Radtke knows from his own experience how hard this is without an official recognition. „ Despite the training, there are only a few offers for disabled actors because of the theatres’ costs that come along with a disabled person; e.g. the pay for his assistant. Further, role offers are limited.

„Various conservative theatres that do not want to cast roles with people of so called fringe groups can still be found,“ criticises the prospective stage director Kristina Maria Bock. She sits with Jana Zöll on a bench in the sun outside the adk-building to take a break: „I dislike clichés. I judge people according to how they play on stage and act."

Radtke is aware of the exception especially disabled people constitute. „Some directors predicted that I would never act on bigger stages.“ Although the audience hardly ever denied him as an actor, some directors did not want to ask too much of the spectators. „I proved them wrong after all by acting on bigger stages.“ For example, he mimed the captain in Georg Buechner’s „Woyzeck“ at the national theatre of Zurich or was on stage at the „Burg-theatre“ in Vienna. „It only works if one really loves the job, is talented and promoted.“ Thereby, harmony among stage colleagues plays an important role.

„Of course, it is different working with a disabled person“ notices Bock, „I am already in a kind of attention posture because of Jana - after all, she has brittle bones. For instance, I have to observe how far I can let her roll back so she does not bump into something.“ However, Bock also considers the positive consequences of having a disabled person in the group because contact anxiety disappeared and tolerance crept in. According to Radtke, theatre acting possesses an „eerie integrative effect“ as disabled actors are not favoured. „One depends on the right effort of the colleague – disabled or not – everyone is where he is supposed to be and is needed.“

The wet-nurse delivers the waiting Juliet a message of Romeo’s desire to marry the latter. Juliet receives her and pushes her wheelchair stormily across the stage – there, both have to pay attention: „Jana, you need to brake earlier. Otherwise, you will lie in the stands.“ And then, Juliet gets an idea: „ May I include the brakes? I could shift them agitatedly back and forth, when asking about Romeo.“ Along with the director they both give it a try. All of the sudden, the auxiliary agent becomes part of the staging.

REHACARE.de

- More about the adk Ulm at: www.adk-ulm.de