Abstract
This essay presents accessible training methods for students with disabilities in college acting, voice, and movement courses. It presents teaching strategies selected from a survey of prominent professors, as well as from actors with disabilities that have worked professionally and completed an actor training program. This paper presents some valuable perspectives on a largely unexplored topic and offers multiple approaches, including ways to adapt popular acting, voice, speech, and movement pedagogies for the greatest variety of students, ways to effectively communicate with college students with disabilities, ways to apply Universal Design for Learning in practice-based theatre courses, and responsible strategies for portraying disability identity during in-class scene work.
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This essay is based on the author’s dissertation, The 19 Percent: Disability and Actor Training in Higher Education. University of Colorado Boulder, 2013. All research has been IRB approved. Thank you to Oliver Gerland, Beth McGee, Beth Osnes, Tamara Meneghini, and Cecilia Pang.
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Bella Merlin, e-mail message to author. May 10, 2013.
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Nick O’Brien, e-mail message to author. May 9, 2013.
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Nick O’Brien, e-mail message to author. May 9, 2013.
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Robert Cohen, e-mail message to author. May 9, 2013.
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Robert Barton, e-mail message to author. June 1, 2013.
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For more information about the Alexander Technique, see Body Learning: An Introduction to the Alexander Technique by Michael J. Gelb, and How to Learn the Alexander Technique by Barbara Conable.
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Michael Lugering, e-mail message to author. May 20, 2013.
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Rocco Dal Vera, e-mail message to author. May 13, 2013.
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Lindsay Marie Giraldi-Palmer, phone interview with author. May 13, 2013.
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Lindsay Marie Giraldi-Palmer, phone interview with author. May 13, 2013.
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Jill Summerville, e-mail message to author. May 27, 2013.
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Jill Summerville, e-mail message to author. May 27, 2013.
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Jason Dorwart, Skype interview with author. May 17, 2013.
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Jason Dorwart, Skype interview with author. May 17, 2013.
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Jason Dorwart, Skype interview with author. May 17, 2013.
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Ike Schambelan, e-mail message to author. September 25, 2010.
- 18.
Regan Linton, e-mail message to author. May 16, 2013.
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Regan Linton, e-mail message to author. May 16, 2013.
References
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McNish, D. (2018). Training Actors with Disabilities. In: Fliotsos, A., Medford, G. (eds) New Directions in Teaching Theatre Arts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89767-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89767-7_9
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