Theatres of learning disability
Subtitle: good, bad, or plain ugly?
By: Matt Hargrave, Senior lecturer in Drama and Applied Theatre, University of Northumbria, UK
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9781137504388
Subjects: People with disabilities and the performing arts
Description: "This is the first scholarly book to focus exclusively on theatre and learning disability as theatre - rather than advocacy or therapy. Matt Hargrave provocatively realigns many of the (hitherto unvoiced) assumptions that underpin such practices, and opens up a new set of critical questions. Stemming from a close engagement with the work of several very different theatre companies - including Mind the Gap (UK); Back to Back (Australia) - and unique solo artists such as Jez Colborne, this book shifts the emphasis from questions of social benefit towards a genuine engagement with aesthetic judgement. Hargrave examines the rich variety of contemporary theatrical practices in this field and spans a wide range of forms such as site specific, naturalistic and autobiographical performance. The book examines ways in which the learning disabled performer might be read on stage, and the ways in which s/he might disturb assumptions, not least about what acting or artistic authorship is. This is an important and timely study for all upper-level theatre and performance students and scholars alike, as well as a provocative contribution to debates within disability studies"--
Notes: Machine generated contents note: Prologue: Of moths and methods PART I: THE SURROGATE1.The end of disability arts: the legacy of the social model of disability and its impact on theatre practice 2. Pure products go crazy: the aesthetic value of learning disability 3. On quality: aesthetic judgements and the making of York Theatre Royal's Pinocchio 4.Genealogies: the cultural faces of learning disability PART II: A PROPER ACTOR 5. Nobody's Perfect: Mind the Gap's On the Verge as masquerade 6.The uncanny return of Boo Radley Conclusion.

Includes bibliographical references and index.