ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author argues that the atypical body is not neutral. Whenever one or more individuals with physical, cognitive, intellectual, or sensory impairments “appear”—whether on the “stage” of daily life or on a stage in a theater—those bodies invariably signify more than the seemingly simple corporeal reality of “the body” itself. This chapter explores the director/choreographer’s dramaturgy of impairment in both inclusive and integrated performances. When the atypical body appears on stage, who controls the discursive border that helps frame any and all “performances”? The text will consider several examples of “border control” in both inclusive and integrated performance, examine the politics and cultural meaning involved in these theatrical/discursive framings of the atypical body, and discuss the [mis]representations and implications that arise with particular reference to Jérôme Bell’s Disabled Theater (2012). What is the relationship between so-called “mainstream” culture and notions of normalcy when viewed from within a politicized disability perspective which embraces the wide variety of human difference and which insists that those with disabilities frame and control their own borders? Precisely who controls the frame and directs the lens is central to this personal, political, and cultural perspective on the border between mainstream and disability cultures—an often unmarked and too seldom explored territory.
