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For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Rolling the Boards: The interplay of representation and recruitment in disability casting in UK theatre and television Jessica Margaret Parrott A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre Studies University of Warwick Department of Theatre Studies September 2019 2 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Declaration 5 Abstract 6 Abbreviations 7 Chapter One: Introduction 8 Wider context and societal links 9 Central themes 11 The power of embodied examples 12 Gaps and binaries 14 What constitutes representation? 16 Mainstream vs. Disability Arts 17 Choice of productions 19 Structure 20 Chapter Two: Contextual Review 25 Models of disability and related theories 25 Disability and Employment 33 Theatre, Television and Employment 47 Disability, theatre and television (and employment) 52 Chapter Three: Methodology 60 My self-situation and its implications 60 My project’s situation and its implications 64 Methodology in theory – designing my study: theoretical bases 64 Methodology in theory – designing my study: constituent components 70 Methodology in practice – conducting my study 79 3 Chapter Four: ‘What? Who? No! She!’ – Touretteshero’s Not I as a rallying cry for representation and a symbol of positive potential in theatre 90 ‘Whole body like gone’ – some background on Beckett in relation to disability 91 ‘Sudden urge to tell’ – Figuring the character of Mouth as neurodiverse 94 ‘[G]esture[s] of helpless compassion’ – Auditor as a powerful symbol of accessibility 105 ‘Out, into this world!’ – a potential map from Mouth into the future of employment opportunities 113 Chapter Five: ‘This hideous chair with wheels!’: The implications of positioning Nessarose as the driving force behind Wicked (the musical) 117 ‘See that tragically beautiful girl, the one in the chair?’ – An exploration of Nessarose’s representational significance to consider whether she could be more than metaphor 121 ‘Longing to kick up my heels’ – the significance of walking for Nessarose and considerations of casting 136 Chapter Six: ‘[She is] not a specimen, she’s a mother!’ – the possibilities of adaptation and new writing for disability representation and casting in Call the Midwife 153 ‘I lose my train of thought sometimes’ – Delia Busby’s traumatic brain injury and the complexity of casting in the representation of acquired and/or hidden impairments 156 ‘What if we can’t manage her?’ – Penny Reed as a positive example of a disabled mother 173 ‘And if she is loved, I can go on living’ – Jacob Milligan as a positive example of a disabled father and partner 187 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 212 Bibliography 223 4 Acknowledgements ‘I’m good at my job. Very good at it. I know how to look after my patients. All of this, Nonnatus, Poplar. Terribly good at all of it. But losing someone? Nope. Not good at that at all.’ – Patsy Mount, Call the Midwife, Series 6 Episode 2. This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my seventeen special people, including the five ‘lost’ over the course of writing. The project gave me a reason to keep trundling along, but the thought of you all made me want to do it well and make you proud. ~ I must first offer thanks to my interviewees for their kindness, patience and generosity of both time and thought. I hope this project does justice to their perspectives. Particular gratitude goes to the casts and production teams of my three central analyses, Touretteshero’s Not I, Wicked (the musical), and the BBC’s Call the Midwife. Heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors, Dr Wallace McDowell and Dr Deborah Dean, for their thoughtful and thought-provoking input, stringent standards, and staunchly steadfast support, throughout what has been a rollercoaster for all of us. To Dr Yvette Hutchison, for solidarity in navigating scholarship alongside ‘disability life’ since undergrad. To my support system, both at uni and at home, for continued academic and personal assistance. To my fellow PhD cohort for ensuring my inclusion in the community despite not always being on campus. To Eileen Irvin for over a decade of friendship, and practical support with methodologies. To my family, particularly my mother (Dr) Bev Chambers, without whom this project and indeed any university education would have been impossible. And, from JMP to KMP, for being there and being you. I share this thesis with you all with love. 5 Declaration I confirm that this thesis is all my own work and has not been submitted for a degree at another university. Early empirical findings were given in a paper to the Body Productive conference held at Birkbeck College, University of London in December 2018. 6 Abstract The prevalence of conversations about disability casting in public discourse, and journalism, is not matched in scholarship. This is the case regarding considerations of disability in relation to performance work more generally. This thesis addresses this academic absence in the country-specific context of the UK theatre and television industries. The discussion ranges from individual conventions, such as ‘cripping up’ (Kaite O’Reilly qtd. in Komporály 2005) or ‘disability drag’ (Siebers 2004), the casting of non-disabled performers as disabled characters, to wider examinations of disability as an employment issue in theatre and television. Utilising a multidisciplinary approach, its focus rests on the interplay of productions’ representational qualities with the recruitment and labour processes behind them. It spans theatre and performance studies and disability studies, and incorporates aspects of industrial relations, combining the sociological slants on performance of Goffman (1956, 1959) and Garland- Thomson (1997, 2009), with the occupational perspective of Dean (2005, 2007, 2008a and 2008b), and humanities perspectives of Graver (1997) and Hadley (2014). This framework queries the paradox of disability’s inherent, quotidian performativity and its relative absence in professional arenas of performance. From here, the thesis details a study situating interview contributions of disabled and non-disabled practitioners across the sectors, within text- and performance-based analysis of three shows: Touretteshero’s production of Beckett’s Not I (2017, 2018), the West End megamusical, Wicked (2006-present), and the BBC period drama, Call the Midwife (2012-present). These examinations outline the current position of disability as an employment issue in UK theatre and television, along with its place within the wider sociopolitical context. The thesis expands particularly on Dean’s (2005, 2007) positioning of professional performers as formal and informal ‘proxies’ for the public they represent, to add disability as a category in this formulation of the socioeconomic functions of performance work. 7 Abbreviations AM: Access manager CA: Casting assistant CD: Casting director D: Director DS: Drama school NCD: National Creative Diversity P: Performer Pr: Producer W: Writer 8 Chapter One Introduction ‘We are only as powerful as the stories we tell. We have not always been able to tell them.’ – Emilia, by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm Disabled people form eighteen percent of the working age population in the UK (Papworth Trust 2018 10). The narratives of this wider society are chronicled in, and constituted by, literature, theatre, television and film, in which we are frequently represented as characters (cf. Mitchell and Snyder 2000). However, these two statements are not often connected, as disabled performers and practitioners continue to be under-represented as workers in the creative industries. Moreover, the nature of the representation provided can have a significant impact, both on performers’ careers and the lives of other disabled people. As crystallised in the epigraph to this introduction, the central concern of this thesis is the connection between the stories that are being told and the people who tell them. It explores the disjunction between, and interplay of, representation and recruitment in disability casting – terms which are defined below. Combining in-depth interviews with disabled and non-disabled practitioners and other significant professionals with text- and performance-based analysis of productions (two theatre and one television), it situates disability as an employment issue within UK theatre and television. In examining this interplay of representation and recruitment in the context of disability casting, the study has at its heart the conception of performance as an occupation, which, as Dean suggests is an important and useful site for the study of social inequalities and employment. Performers’ work represents us to ourselves through a variety of media and therefore their working realities (how, why and when they get jobs) represent more than their own experiences as workers. (2008b 8) It explores conventions ranging from the practice of casting non-disabled performers as disabled characters (cf. Johnston 2016; Black and Pretes 2007; Kuppers 2007), 9 colloquially termed ‘cripping up’