Disabled Theater. Edited by Sandra Umathum and Benjamin Wihstutz. diaphanes

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1 Disabled Theater Edited by Sandra Umathum and Benjamin Wihstutz diaphanes

2 Printed with the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft First Edition ISBN diaphanes, Zürich-Berlin 2015 All rights reserved Cover design: Katrin Rixen Prepress: 2edit, Zürich Printed in Germany

3 Table of Contents Prologue Disabling the Theater 7 Gerald Siegmund What Difference Does It Make? or: From Difference to In-Difference Disabled Theater in the Context of Jérôme Bel s Work 13 Benjamin Wihstutz And I Am an Actor On Emancipation in Disabled Theater 35 Yvonne Rainer The Difference between Death and Disability 55 Scott Wallin Come Together Discomfort and Longing in Jérôme Bel s Disabled Theater 61 Interviews with the actors of Theater HORA On Acting and Spinning 85 Sandra Umathum Actors, nontheless 99 Kai van Eikels The Incapacitated Spectator 117 André Lepecki Yes, Now, It s Good Theater 141 Interview with Jérôme Bel It s All about Communication 163 Kati Kroß Christoph Schlingensief s Freakstars 3000 Consistently Abused and Forced to Portray Disability! 179

4 Lars Nowak Disabling/Enabling Photography On Freak Photography and Diane Arbus s Portraits 201 Yvonne Schmidt After Disabled Theater Authorship, Creative Responsibility, and Autonomy in Freie Republik HORA 227 List of Figures 241 Contributors 243

5 Prologue Disabling the Theater Throughout his career, Jérôme Bel has challenged theatrical norms and conventions in contemporary dance. In 2012, he created Disabled Theater, a production that involves eleven actors with cognitive disabilities from Theater HORA in Zurich, one of the foremost inclusive theater companies in Europe. It performed at numerous festivals, traveling to South Korea, Brazil, the United States, among other places. It was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2013, as one of the season s ten most remarkable productions, where Julia Häusermann won the best up-and-coming actor award for her outstanding performance. In spite of international recognition and success, the piece sparked much controversy. Audiences and critics either praised the stage presence of the actors and the concept of Disabled Theater, or they accused Jérôme Bel of holding the members of HORA up to ridicule and exposing them as amateurs, freaks, and exotics. Representatives from inclusive theater groups and from Disability Studies voiced the majority of the criticism. They reproached Bel, who until then had never worked with disabled actors, for reducing the performers to their disabilities (instead of working seriously with them) and undermining the standards of companies such as HORA. What emerged from these arguments was the collision of completely different conceptions of theater, art, and aesthetics. Our involvement with cognitively disabled actors on stage is not new. Having dealt previously with this issue in the context of the work of artist and director Christoph Schlingensief (who died in 2010), we were invited to two events that focused on Disabled Theater in spring 2013: a symposium on theater and disability, hosted in the context of the Berlin Theatertreffen, and a panel discussion following a performance of the piece at Rote Fabrik, Zurich. The polarizing discussions at both events, as well as numerous conversations with actors, dancers, directors, friends, students, and theater studies colleagues made it clear to us that we could not remain indifferent about this production. Each argument or opinion seemed to provoke immediate objections, a No or Yes, which convinced us of the need to review, or even reformulate, existing positions regarding the piece. These persistent inconsistencies and ambiguities, in ourselves as well, gave rise to the idea for this book. Bel s production refuses to indulge in political correctness. It neither avoids, nor seeks to solve, the difficulties facing theater with and by disabled people. Some may find this problematic. This book, however, 7

6 looks at the problem not as a negative, but rather as an opportunity for discussion. We pursue two objectives, in particular: on the one hand, we aim to create a forum for heterogeneous positions. In addition to contributions on Disabled Theater from ten authors, we included interviews with some of the actors and Bel himself, as well as statements from all eleven actors, quoting their responses in Disabled Theater to the question, What do you think about this piece? On the other hand, this collection extends beyond Bel and HORA s production, in that it focuses and sheds new light on fundamental issues concerning the relationship between aesthetic, social, and political aspects of the performing arts. Under what circumstances, for example, can we speak of a good performance, of skilled acting, of virtuosic dancing? How can we escape the ideology of ability? And to what extent does the discussion of aesthetic judgments and the disclosure of their criteria imply a political dimension? Thus, Disabled Theater, as both the title of the production and of this book, is not just a reference to theater and disability, but also a critical examination of theater as an institution and a dispositif. Our intention, in other words, is disabling the theater calling theater s conventions and norms into question, preventing theater from working, or, to quote our interview with Jérôme Bel, taking power away from theater until the point where it resists. This perspective implies that no theatrical rule or logic is taken for granted, or, rather, that these very rules, norms, and conventions are being deconstructed and hence, made visible. In this regard, Disabled Theater does, in fact, disable the theater. Eleven actors with cognitive disabilities appear as themselves before a mostly non-disabled audience and do nothing particularly sensational. They merely respond to six different tasks: (1) standing in front of the audience for one minute, (2) telling their name, age, and profession, (3) identifying their disability, (4) presenting a dance solo they have prepared to a song of their own choice, (5) saying what they think about the piece, and (6) bowing to the audience. Their engagement with these tasks raise questions that are linked to a broader discussion of theatrical standards and expectations. For instance, what sort of relationship exists between the performing arts and the achievement principle of neoliberal societies? Is there such a thing as an aesthetics of disability and, if so, to what extent could it be understood as a political aesthetics, or an aesthetics of resistance? Under what circumstances can the stage serve as a place of emancipation for socially marginalized people? By raising these questions, this book is simultaneously more and less than an anthology on theater and disability: it aims to trigger a debate at the intersections of politics and aesthetics, professionalism and dilettantism, identity and empowerment. 8

7 This volume would not have been possible without the generous support of many people to whom we owe our heartfelt thanks. To begin with, we feel obliged to all those involved in the production: the actors of Theater HORA, Urs Beeler, Michael Elber, and Giancarlo Marinucci, all who responded with great openness to us and to our project, offering help and advice whenever needed; Marcel Bugiel, the dramaturge for Disabled Theater, who, in many stimulating conversations, provided valuable insights into the disability theater scene. Also, we would like to thank Jérôme Bel both for his trust and for two extended talks in Berlin and Zurich, out of which the interview published in this book emerged. Judith Sieber transcribed these talks with great care and commitment. Further thanks go to all persons who supported our work, above all Adam Czirak, Erika Fischer- Lichte, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Melissa Ratliff, Katrin Rixen, Xavier Le Roy, Tino Sehgal, Simone Truong, Marie-Magda Wihstutz, Brandon Woolf, as well as the directing and dramaturgy students of Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Department of Theater Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, who in passionate and controversial discussions provided important and valuable suggestions. Our gratitude also goes to Jana-Maria Stahl, who made available to us the interviews conducted with the HORA actors in the context of her master s thesis, and Christoph Nöthlings for his translation of numerous contributions. Our appreciation of his patience and perseverance cannot be overstated. We are indebted to the research center Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits at Freie Universität Berlin, which provided a grant to cover printing and translation costs, and without whose support this book could not have been published. Last but not least, our thanks go to all the authors included in this volume who were ready to embark on this project with us. Sandra Umathum and Benjamin Wihstutz Berlin, November

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