Disabled students take centre stage at Copenhagen theater

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Disabled students take centre stage at Copenhagen theater

Mon Jun 9, 1:58 AM

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - In a run-down working class neighbourhood of

Copenhagen, a different kind of theatre has opened its doors:

The " Happy Theatre " , which claims to be the world's first

professional theatre school for the mentally and physically disabled.

Standing in the middle of a white room bathed in light from several

large bay windows, professional actress Anja Owe shows Carole, Emil

and other mentally handicapped students how to alter their voices for

best dramatic effect.

Observing the lesson, co-founder of the theatre Lars Thomsen, 31,

says he is already dreaming of one day seeing some of his young

proteges, all suffering from disorders ranging from autism to

psychosis, on the stages of mainstream theatres and music halls.

" Why shouldn't they be stars? Handicapped people can have many

talents. We are just trying to bring some of them into the light, " he

told AFP.

The school, inaugurated on April 30, today counts 11 students

suffering from mental disabilities, and between five and eight

physically handicapped students are set to join them in coming months.

Lapping up the sun during a lunch break, French-Danish student Carole

Cuisine, a mentally disabled 38-year-old with an impish, child-like

face, dreamily says she hopes the school will help catapult her to

stardom.

" It is really hard. I want to succeed and show that we have as many

qualities as others, even though we express them differently, " she

said.

The school's co-headmaster Jesper Michelsen, a 33-year-old actor and

director educated in the United States, agrees, insisting there is no

reason to try to hide his students' handicaps.

" It is essential that the students are conscious of their handicaps

and that they do not think they are Connery or , "

he said.

Instead, he said, " the handicaps contribute to something more, a

different artistic expression, a different approach, and they will

enrich the milieu of the theatre and the cinema. "

Over the next three and a half years, the students will undergo an

arduous programme aimed at kick-starting their acting careers and

propelling them into the limelight.

Even more grueling than the curriculum however will likely be the

wide range of prejudices they will encounter, " including from

professional actors who do not like the idea of seeing handicapped

people encroach on their territory and possibly take their work, "

Thomsen said.

" Our students are human beings. They are part of society and they

must naturally be present in the artistic and creative field just

like everyone else, " he insisted.

Thomsen acknowledges however that he too had his share of prejudices

when he began working as a volunteer on the project two and a half

years ago.

" I was worried that when the time came the whole thing would flop,

because this is a difficult profession to learn and I am neither a

pedagogue nor a specialist on their illnesses, " he said.

After he began working with the students however, he " discovered that

it's like working with normal actors, except they can pass from one

state of mind to another within the matter of a few minutes, from an

adult level to the level of a nursery schooler. "

But that does not mean they are treated with kid gloves. The more

than 200 applicants to the school were subjected to an intensive

selection process including three full days of tests in front of a

demanding jury.

They then participated in numerous exercises that you would find in

any traditional theatre school, including reciting texts and singing

and miming.

Only the most talented were allowed to stay on, with their home

municipalities footing the bill for their schooling and expenses.

Students who receive a diploma from the school will be offered a two-

year internship at the " Glad Teater " (the " Happy Theatre " in English)

where they will work side-by-side with other professional actors.

This way they will hopefully be more integrated in the overall

theatre community and avoid the stigma of working for " an isolated

handicapped theatre in a distant corner of Copenhagen, " Michelsen

said.

" Glad Teater " cooperates with theatre partners in Britain, Germany

and Sweden, and is part of the media group behind TV-Glad, the first

local television station in the world where mentally disabled

employees make shows for a mentally disabled audience.