(bright chiming music)
(sustained musical tone)
(gentle rhythmic music)
- Identity Theater Company was founded in 2011.
I said, you know, we need more opportunities,
and more places for people
with disabilities to come
The disabled and the abled,
they can be in a show together.
They can work in harmony with each other.
People will start to be startled at first,
because we don't like change.
We don't like anything we're not familiar with,
but once we get used to it,
then it becomes...quote-unquote
I was told once,
"Cast the right soul for the part."
And I try to carry that with me.
(lively music)
I do have a disability,
so you would think I belong in the disabled world
or fit into the disabled community,
but yet I function...
so high that people
don't think I'm disabled.
So they try to put me in the normal world.
We feel the need in our society
to place people into
certain categories
so we know how to relate with them
and we know what to expect.
My quote from the play,
which I think sums it up, is
Because it is a trap.
(gentle music)
I have found the gay community to be
extremely judgemental.
I have found,
a lot of men,
when they hear I'm disabled,
that they can't get past anything else.
They can't see me
or they won't (swallows) see me.
They just think the word cripple
and all of a sudden they can't see that
I'm a whole person and disability
is just about this much of who I am.
(gentle dramatic music)
It's been hard.
It's been really hard.
(gentle dramatic music)
(sustained musical tone)
2006...
was an incredibly hard year for me.
Thanksgiving Eve I tried to commit suicide.
I ended up in a psychiatric ward
and (laughs) while I was in there I met
who I thought the love of my life is.
Two weeks later, after getting released,
he moved in with me.
I thought this was the man for me.
He was addicted to crack.
But it was through that
that I was introduced
to drugs
and to that world.
(slow dramatic music)
At first, I loved it.
I loved being a rebel.
Three months down the road
he got sent to jail for burglary
Lost my job.
Was getting evicted from my apartment.
Was losing my electricity.
I looked in the mirror one day
and I said, "Who is this person?"
I have actually gotten myself clean.
Got my life together
and have been able to
get my life back.
I used to say I hated being an addict.
It's another one of my identities.
(bright lifting music)
My hope for the future of Identity
is that we grow.
We become self sustaining, so that we can
do a semi-structured season every year.
Where we can afford to, you know
put on a full-scale production.
And my dream is to eventually become bicoastal.
Is to have an Identity out in L.A.
that would be able to
work with actors from both coasts.
Create this utopia,
where Identity is known
and respected
and given the funds it needs
to operate, so it can fulfill its potential.
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