User:Quinnfelisa/Theatre and disability

"Hi, Are You Single?"
Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with IAMA Theatre Company, "Hi, Are You Single?" is a one-man show starring and written by disabled actor Ryan J. Haddad and directed by Lauren Savia, which ran from March to April 2022. This show follows the adventures of Ryan, a gay man with cerebral palsy, as he navigates love, inaccessible gay bars, and Grindr. Its run included three open captioned performances, three ASL interpreted performances, and two audio described performances. In a review by Tavish Young, the show is remarked to be an intimate look at the intersection of identities when it comes to love. Young also states that the show is a candid look into sensuality and disability where Haddad addresses and engages with the audience multiple times throughout the production.

"Wicked"
Wicked is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. It has been running on Broadway since 2003, and has launched multiple national tours and productions worldwide. In the musical, the character of Elphaba has a sister who is in a wheelchair named Nessarose. She was disabled at birth due to a congenital birth defect, and goes through the production inhabiting the role of villain. Over the course of Wicked's run, it has not cast a physically disabled actor in the role of Nessarose. Recently, however, in the announced movie adaptation of Wicked, director Jon M. Chu has launched a search for an actor who is a wheelchair user to be cast in the role of Nessarose, whether they are ambulatory or non-ambulatory. This movie is slated to start filming in the summer of 2022.

"She Kills Monsters"
She Kills Monsters is a play written by Qui Nguyen that revolves around an adventure involving family and the popular fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons. It has had numerous productions at universities and regional theaters, and an Off-Broadway run in 2011. One of the characters by the name of Kelly/Kaliope is said in the stage directions to have cerebral palsy when she is her real-life self, but able-bodied when she is her Dungeons and Dragons character. Notably, there have been productions of this show that have cast disabled actors in the role of Kelly/Kaliope such as the University of California, Riverside in 2021, and Mount St. Joseph University in 2021.

"The Phantom of the Opera"
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart that premiered on Broadway in 1988. It is the longest running musical in Broadway's history, totaling over 24 years. It centers around the masked character of the Phantom, who inhabits and haunts an old Parisian Opera House in the 19th century. It is discovered throughout the production that this character keeps himself masked due to the fact that his face is disfigured, scared of any judgement from the people he encounters. In the last scene of the musical, his romantic interest, Christine, takes off his mask and the extent of his disfigurement is revealed to the audience. In this moment, the intricate make up that is put on the actor for every production is showcased.