Ep 69: Theatre
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Today’s episode is all about theatre with Jason Dorwart and Samuel Valdez. Jason is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater at Oberlin College and he recently directed a play by John Belluso titled Body of Bourne about WWI era essayist, pacifist and disability rights advocate Randolph Bourne. Samuel is an actor, playwright, and director who has worked with several groups around San Diego such as Sledgehammer Theater, Chronos Theater, Los Amigos del REP, and currently his own performing arts bi-national company CARPA San Diego. Both Jason and Samuel share how they became involved in theatre and the work that remains in making theatre more accessible and inclusive of disabled people.
Transcript
Related Links
Adkins McRae, Talleri and Mickey Rowe. (May 26, 2019). Nothing About Us Without Us: Innovation, Creativity, and Inclusion in Professional Theatre. How I Round.
Alick, Claudia. (May 28, 2019). Producing with a Disabled Lens. How I Round.
Artability Artist Spotlight: Samuel Valdez
Calling Up Claudia Alick
Child, Andrew. (February 10, 2020). Part 3: Making Theatre Spaces Safe and Accessible. Broadway World.
Dickson, Andrew. (August 18, 2011). Lynda Radley on Futureproof: a freak show about selfhood not sisterhood. The Guardian.
Flynn, Isabel. (January 27, 2020). ‘Access is a human right’: how deaf and disabled people are transforming theatre. The Guardian.
Gardner, Lyn. (January 28, 2020). Battersea Arts Centre becomes the world’s first fully relaxed venue. Stagedoor.
Hartblay, Catherine. (2020). I Was Never Alone or Oporniki: An Ethnographic Play on Disability in Russia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hunt, Nigel. (June 22, 2019). Seeing music: Groundbreaking deaf musical The Black Drum aims to astound audiences. CBC News.
MacPhail, Katherine. (April 12, 2019). Jason Dorwart, Director of “Body of Bourne.” The Oberlin Review.
Valdez, Samuel. (April 25, 2018). The struggles & successes of building an inclusive arts/activist community on the border. AlternateRoots.
About

Jason Dorwart, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater at Oberlin College, and recently directed the late John Belluso’s Body of Bourne about WWI era essayist, pacifist and disability rights advocate Randolph Bourne. He has also worked as a dramaturg, director, editor, and PR/Communications Director for various theaters and nonprofits. Jason teaches Theater History, Disability Studies, Improv, Critical Theory, and Dramaturgy. Jason’s work has appeared in Focal Press’s Acting for the Stage: Succeeding as a Creative Professional, TheatreForum, where he also served as Lead Editor, The Denver Post, The Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Dis-eased: Critical Approaches to Disability and Illness in American Studies, Gale Cengage’s Disability Experiences: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Other Personal Narratives, and in a chapter on disability, anxiety, and performance on Cutthroat Kitchen for McFarland’s forthcoming book, The Food Network: Essays on the Televised Performance of Cooking. His dissertation in Drama & Theatre was awarded the 2017 University of California San Diego Chancellor’s Dissertation Medal for Arts & Humanities. Jason is also a stand up comedian and an former actor in Phamaly Theatre Company. He and his wife, Laura, live in Ohio with their two-year-old daughter.
Find them both on Twitter at @HamOnWheels and @laurawritesit.

Samuel Valdez graduated from San Diego State University in 1991 with a B.A. degree in theater arts. He is an actor, playwright, and director who has worked with several groups around San Diego such as Sledgehammer Theater, Chronos Theater, Los Amigos del Rep., and currently his own performing arts bi-national company CARPA San Diego. He is currently on the National Performance Network/Visual Arts Network (NPN/VAN) board and the Alternate Roots Executive Community (board). At the beginning of 2016 he was given the Ashley Walker Social Justice award by the City of San Diego for his community theater work.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samuel.valdez.33
And HE Became MAN by Samuel Valdez
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Credits
Cheryl Green, Audio Producer and Text Transcript
Alice Wong, Writer, Audio Producer, Host
Lateef McLeod, Introduction
Mike Mort, Artwork
Theme Music (used with permission of artist)
Song: “Hard Out Here for A Gimp”
Album: NO BIG DEAL
Artist: Wheelchair Sports Camp
Music
“Algo Rhythm Natural,” “Fantasy,” “Squirrel Commotion,” and “Trundle” by Podington Bear. (Source: freemusicarchive.org. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommerical 3.0 International License.)
Sounds
“VOCODER countdown” by Jack_Master. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.
“8 Bit Beeping Computer Sounds” by sheepfilms. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.
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