Here are some posts from the Greenpage this week that might be worth your time:
Five Questions For Marty Taylor of Northland Church
Live Design: "1. How did you get involved in media production for Northland Church?
I began serving at Northland as a congregant in 1998 when I owned a production company in Orlando. At the end of a very long and diverse path, I ended up joining Northland as creative media director in 2006."New Pa. budget cuts film tax credit by 45 percent
Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/13/2009: "Pennsylvanians in the movie business are seeing a half-full glass this week. State legislators last week closed a $3 billion budget gap in part by reducing - but not eliminating - the Film Tax Credit program, trimmed from $75 million to $42 million for fiscal year 2009-2010."Tuesday at 3pm Is the Most Agreeable Meeting Time
Lifehacker: "Meeting scheduling service When is Good looked at 100,000 responses to 34,000 events logged to their service over 2 years and found that 3pm—specifically Tuesday at 3pm—seems to be the most agreeable time for a meeting."Broadway's 50 Most Powerful People
BroadwaySpace: "Who are Broadway’s most powerful people? We put the question to a handful of industry insiders who, on condition of anonymity, ranked Broadway’s movers and shakers for a final and decidedly unscientific list of 50. Is power the ability to get a show up with the scratch of a pen? Is it the person at the very top of the game, or the person you wouldn’t dare put on hold? We let everyone define 'power' for themselves and let the chips fall as they may."The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us
GeeksAreSexy: "Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices."
Are the Disabled the Last Thought in the Diversity Business?
Backstage: "Despite the presence of disabled characters on such TV shows as Fox's 'Glee' and 'Brothers' and AMC's 'Breaking Bad,' wheelchair-bound and other physically or mentally challenged actors on television—as well as film and stage—continue to be anomalous. Advocates for the disabled in the entertainment industry assert that the disabled are the last thought in the diversity business, though there are 56 million people (an estimated 20 percent of the population) with disabilities in this country. In addition to the relative invisibility and misrepresentation of the disabled in the media, advocates say the practice of hiring able-bodied actors to portray the disabled is by no means a thing of the past."
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So there is a major problem with this. Diversifying a cast just for the sake of diversifying a cast and bringing in wider audiences, or as protection against being called racist is ridiculous. If there is true need to actually have a character with some sort of disability then you move on to the next step.
There is a sort of metaphor between casting able-bodied actors in the roles of wheelchair bound characters, and the black-facing of actors back in the day to portray black characters. The visual element was the one that was deemed the most important and as long as the person looked the part all was golden.
With disabled characters though there are all kinds of skills and little things that are incredibly difficult to act if you do not have that disability yourself. For example I can tell from someone's sign language whether they are deaf or not. It's subtle but it exists. In the reverse my interpreters can tell from my voice that I'm deaf. It may not be obvious but there are those who can tell. So if the role is intended to be as realistic as possible then perhaps the best course of action is to actually hire said person.
Then of course there is the problem of abominations. Legally I am allowed by law to have an interpreter at all crew calls at the expense of my employer. The reality is, that would be dangerous and expensive. Then if you actually hired a deaf and blind actress for the "Miracle Worker" exactly how viable do you think that production will be? It would be a communication disaster and much of the artistic value would have to be sacrificed in the interest of making cues clear to the deaf/blind actress.
So it really should be determined on a case to case basis. The kid in glee, really should be wheelchair bound, but the deaf character on broadway needs to speak, so there you have it.
And to the disabled people of the country. Get over it.
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