Disability and Sexuality: The Glass Box

Here's what I mean about becoming an "expert" on free Vancouver.

We spent the afternoon at a free "work in progress" called The Glass box put on by Theatre Terrific at the Roundhouse. It's a work in progress because it's still being tweaked.

It consisted of 3 people reading a script. One of the people is a woman in her 50s. The other woman is in her 20s or 30s who is a quadriplegic. She was injured in a diving accident that took place on a high school rafting trip. The third person is a man of an age I could not tell who has Down Syndrome. Jan Derbyshire is the Director.

How often do you think about sexuality and disability? It's usually either/or. One or the other but not the two together. If you're like most able-bodied people, I'm willing to guess next to never. Or if you do it's most likely in the negative as in a lacking, not a difference.

So, to have three people on stage, two with some form of disability, telling stories in a way that were about their sexuality, but more about their vulnerability, was a unique experience. I mean put up your hand if you think you don't have a disability of some form or another. Think about it and if you can't understand what I'm saying, then I'd say it's fair to say that your self examination has been minimal.

It's interesting to see three people telling their own stories and being able to see how much, in spite of their individual uniqueness, they have in common.

The play engages the audience in a way that can't help but turn the focus inward and gets us to think about our own sexuality while having the priviledge of hearing how other people's lives, able bodied or not, are really not all that much different when it comes to the vulnerability that is inherent in sexuality.

Have you ever asked yourself what you have in mind in terms of your future and sexuality? It was an interesting line in the play. Ever had to fill out a questionairre that tries to assess what your sexuality is worth, especially, if it has been irrevocably altered as a result of an accident? Not likely.

I'm not sure when the final product of The Glass Box will be complete or where it will run but if you get a chance, go see it.

Afterwards, we walked up to The Yale ordered a beer and sat in on the Sunday afternoon Jam session.

Cost of entertainment for the afternoon: $8.00 with beer including tip.
Enjoyment? Priceless!

A good line in the play: "Regrets are always a 10!" (on a scale of one to 10)

It's so easy to entertain oneself in Vancouver with next to no money. It's one of the best things about this place!

Attracted to the Hive 2

I have this little idiosyncracy. Well, okay, okay, I may have more than one actually, but for now, we'll focus on this one.

When it comes to research, I'm pretty good at finding out information when I need information, a task that has been made almost mindless, ironically, thanks to Google.

But, when it comes to "the arts" and "entertainment", I have this strange little way of being that rears its weird head in that I tend to base my decisions about what I want to attend based almost solely on intuition once I've read the smallest snippet of advertising about it. Therefore, if you're someone who needs to know all the details about what I've chosen beforehand, then you would be much safer to find out for yourself, or even safer if you stayed home.

Entertainment, like life, is risk. You might spend money and it might be crap. Or not! I'm willing to take that risk. In fact, I like that risk. Not every day mind you. But, every once in a while. Afterall, it's about the experience. It's about being invited into the ideas and perceptions of others who think more than most about playing with the mind and whatever freaky thoughts might enter it. God knows and so do you, if you're truly human, that can be scary, possibly dangerous, sometimes humorous and at its very worst, lethally boring. But, and this is absolutely key, it will be different than let's say, showing up at the office every day!

Last night was a good example. Hive 2. Part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival runs this year in Vancouver to June 14th. Apparently this Festival travels to a different city in Canada every second year and then returns to its base at the National Arts Center. They've been doing this for six years. They choose some of the hottest productions from independent theatre companies across Canada (although, this year, the Prairies for whatever reasons didn't make the cut).

Vancouver's Indie theatre scene, like the variety of cultural experiences in Vancouver in general, has exploded.

Hive 2 took place in a warehouse at the Centre for Digital Media at the Great Northern Way Campus which isn't really a "campus" yet! I'm not sure how to explain it. Dark. Big open warehouse-type space. Bar. 10 different groupings. Active theatre. Short. We showed up. We were led away to each contained experience. Wierd. Confusing. Different. Definitely, not Friday night in front of the TV.

Oh, and speaking of Oh, here's a little celebrity gossip for you. Sandra Oh of Grey's Anatomy and of the film Sideways was there with a friend. She looked liked, well, herself in a rumpled, sand-coloured raincoat and in true Canadian fashion, she was treated like you'd treat your next door neighbour. Actually, you'd be more friendly to your neighbour.

Why not attend one of the other theatre performances. You've got 8 days. Here's the Magnetic North site.