Persons with disabilities take centre stage in inclusive theatre performance

A charitable trust on Sunday staged a theatre performance, “From Stone Age to Screen Age”, featuring a cast comprised entirely of persons with disabilities, in Chennai.

It also included sign language interpretation and live audio description, making the performance more inclusive for the audience.

“This is the first time we are showcasing a theatre performance with our members — including 14 people with locomotor disabilities, and speech and hearing impairments. In the field of media, we do not see more persons with disabilities acting. Since it is a commercial industry, they might not have the time to train and provide exposure. This is why we wanted to create a platform for persons with disabilities (to showcase their skills) with our CSR partner Fiserv,” says Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu of the YWTC (Yes, We Too Can) Charitable Trust.

The one-hour play was about the journey of human beings from the prehistoric period to the current age of social media, and its consequences.

“When working with persons with disabilities, I never felt they were any different from the artistes I worked with before. I didn’t restrict them to certain roles. They performed all types of roles today, despite having only a limited number of days for practice and rehearsal,” said Arivazhagan A., the director of the play.

Sathish Kumar, one of the artistes in the play, said the next step should be to provide opportunities for persons with disabilities to play characters that represent them. If a character in a film has a disability, it could be portrayed by a person with disability instead of a non-disabled actor, said Mr. Kumar.

Sridhar from Dummies Drama honoured the artistes.