Two productions address disabilities, racism

Interethnic racism and the stress of caring for a child with disabilities are not generally dinner party conversation starters. As one director said, it’s not civilized to talk about in polite company.

This month, two student directors in their second year of the directing MFA are bringing what’s often swept under the rug into the unforgiving stage lights of the Hemsley.

“A Nervous Smile,” which treats disability in society, and “Yellowman,” a two-person play dealing with interethnic discrimination, will run in repertory from Thursday, Nov. 15, through Sunday, Dec. 9.

Talish Barrow will direct “A Nervous Smile,” first performed at the Humana Festival in 2005. Playwright John Belluso used a wheelchair until his death of unknown causes in 2006.

Belluso worked to change public perceptions about people like him. In one interview, he said, “Everyone, if they live long enough, will become disabled.”

“This is a marginalized group that any of us could join at any moment,” Barrow says. “That’s something not a lot of people like to look at very closely.”

“A Nervous Smile” centers around caregivers of children with cerebral palsy. The main characters, stressed and drained after years of caring for their disabled teenage daughter, contemplate abandoning her at a local hospital. It’s a situation drawn from a true event Belluso read about in New England.

“I would bet that people are going to be upset by it, if we do it well,” Barrow says.

To address some of the tough questions following the performances, theatre research Ph.D. candidate Martine Green and theatre research masters student Erin Hood are putting together a panel from the McBurney Disability Resource Center. McBurney head Cathy Trueba will sit on the panel.

Green said there are 40 UW students with mobility challenges registered at McBurney, which has been promoting the play in-house. Performing a play that deals with disability on any level highlights other related issues.

“Accessibility into different buildings is already boiling on campus,” Green says. “Especially with the construction, routes that would’ve been accessible become problematic.”

Tackling uncomfortable topics is one of the University Theatre’s themes this year, exploring the underbelly of what appears benign and wholesome. University Theatre Director Tony Simotes said the mission is to do theatre that is not “safe.”

“These are two wonderful theatre artists who bring with them two very daring plays,” Simotes says. “They make people think about what choices we make. They’re not easy plays; they force you to look at yourself.”

Sheri Williams Pannell will direct “Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith, a female African American playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist. The play tells the doomed love story of an African American couple in the South torn apart by racial hatred, alcoholism and family intolerance.

Light-skinned Eugene is accused of being weak and privileged because of his mulatto skin tones. Instead his skin color is a source of humiliation and shame, separating from his dark-skinned beloved, Alma.

This type of racism will be addressed in a post-play discussion panel that includes Diversity Education Coordinator Seema Kapani, whose areas of interest include social justice and social change and “intercultural conflict transformation.”

Call 262-1500 or visit University Theatre for more information or a complete show schedule.