Entertainment reporting and disability issues
Disability rights activists used to complain that only rarely did images of people with disabilities appear in entertainment media and when they did, they perpetuated a negative stereotype or were played by non-disabled actors. But that is beginning to change slightly.
A number of actors and comedians with disabilities are finding more roles in theatre, TV and film, so journalists who cover entertainment should be aware of these folks, as well as the political issues when disability and Hollywood combine.
Josh Blue, a comedian with cerebral palsy, won the NBC comedy show “Last Comic Standing” in 2006; Peter Dinklage, an actor who is a little person, has a multi-episode main character role on the F/X show “Nip/Tuck” this season; and Marlee Matlin, the Academy Award-winning deaf actress, is set to be featured in Showtime’s “The L Word” in 2007. In 2006 TLC launched a reality show called, “Little People, Big World,” which focuses on the daily life of the Roloff family. The parents are little people and they have four children, one of whom is a little person.
What actors and comedians with disabilities want is a fair chance to audition and compete for roles. The NY-based Non-Traditional Casting Project (NTCP), which began in 1986, tries to address problems of racism and exclusion of people from theatre, film and television.
"NTCP's principal concerns are that artists of color -- African American, Asian American, Caribbean Black, Indian (subcontinental), Latino and Native American; female artists; Deaf and hard of hearing artists and artists with disabilities are denied equitable professional opportunities; and that this exclusion is not only patently discriminatory, but a serious loss to the cultural life of the nation," said Sharon Jensen, Executive Director of NTCP. "Furthermore, this exclusion has resulted in a theatre, film and television industry that does not reflect the diversity of our society."
For more information on diversity in theatre, film and television, visit the NTCP Web site, http://www.ntcp.org/.
Beth Haller, Towson University, Towson, Md.