'Gimp City' Shines a Light on Stigma, Struggles of the Disabled

[Guest guest]

'Gimp City' Shines a Light on Stigma, Struggles of the Disabled

By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer

May 6, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-

disabled6may06,1,7667795.story?coll=la-headlines-california

They bumped into one another as they tried to hit their marks. Their

wheels became entangled during a group scene. One of them missed her

cue because a prop blocked her path.

Things like that happen when a cast of wheelchair-bound actors takes

the stage for the first time to rehearse a play that shines a

spotlight on the challenges that the physically disabled face every

day.

But it was smooth rolling soon enough for performers in " There's Help

in Gimp City, " a play that tells the story of the struggles of a

paralyzed man — and of a society that sometimes seems to be afflicted

with a moral paralysis of its own.

Performed by a troupe that includes paraplegics and quadriplegics,

the play opens tonight at a theater near downtown Los Angeles for a

three-weekend run.

" We want to reach those who don't want to deal with the fact that

they can become just like us at any moment. You can be one step off

the curb away from this, " playwright Ernest Hamilton said.

Hamilton, 55, knows first-hand. His life changed in a split-second on

Sept. 6, 1978, when a flat front tire sent the car he was driving

careening into a ditch near Macon, Ga. The crash left the onetime Los

Angeles all-CIF football and basketball star a quadriplegic.

" There's a stigma to being disabled, " he said. " With the play, we're

confronting stereotypes head-on and dispelling them. "

Which explains the play's jarring, politically incorrect title.

" I chose it for shock effect, " Hamilton acknowledged. " I explain

that 'gimp' means 'Gee, I'm paralyzed,' and that it's not a slam. It

means you have to get up and move along with your life. "

Lead actor Goulet agrees with that. He was told that he was

paralyzed from the chin down after his neck was broken in a football

scrimmage during his senior year at his northern Minnesota high

school. After 16 years of nonstop therapy, the 32-year-old Sunset

Boulevard entertainment law firm employee can now walk short

distances with a cane.

In " There's Help in Gimp City, " Goulet portrays fictitiouswheelchair-

bound NFL player Tip , whose life spirals downward after he

breaks his neck in a football game and is paralyzed. He loses his

wife, his home, his family and, eventually, his life. An angel helps

Goulet's character backtrack and retrace his life in " Gimp City. "

" It's a harsh title. That was one of my biggest concerns. Granted,

the guy who wrote it is disabled. But when you're trying to sell

tickets it's going to be a hard sell to the general public, " said

Goulet of North Hollywood. " And my character dies. I asked if they

really wanted able-bodied people to see this, and they said they

wanted to be brutally honest. "

The able-bodied world can be brutal too. Goulet said he has struggled

10 years to break in to show business and " can count on my two hands

the number of auditions I've gone out on. " His goal now is to create

his own production company in which the disabled can work either in

front of or behind the camera.

The play shows how some people dismiss the handicapped as incapable

of doing anything. It depicts others, meantime, as unwilling to help

when the disabled genuinely need assistance.

In one scene, a wheelchair-bound man who has recently suffered a

paralyzing injury is partying with an old friend when his bladder

catheter slips out. His friend's response is disheartening. " Oh, man!

I'm drinking beer with you, not cleaning up after you. I'm out of

here, " he says as he stalks off.

That imagery rings true with actor Whitehead. He has used a

wheelchair since his car slid off the road and over a 150-foot cliff

in Pacific Palisades 19 years ago.

" We want to get people to understand some of the things you face

living a life in a wheelchair, " said the paraplegic, who lives in

Montclair and works at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation

Center. " We want to let them know the good and bad challenges you

face. "

Whitehead, 43, owned a small limousine service before his crash. " I'm

blessed, " he said. " I could have been killed. "

Those in wheelchairs " are just like everyone else, " he said. " It's

the person sitting in it that makes the chair. The chair doesn't make

the person. "

The play's " gimp " title is fine with him, Whitehead said. " People may

not like that term, but it doesn't bother me. This is a way of

bringing a good out of what some consider a slur. "

Actress Blanca Alvarado, 34, of Long Beach, a paraplegic whose spinal

cord was hardened by lupus, said the play should show that those in

wheelchairs " can still do a lot of things. "

Play director Glass, who is able-bodied, said he had never

worked with actors in wheelchairs before setting out to cast and

stage " There's Help in Gimp City. "

" This is my first experience, and it's been an eye-opener. These

people are solid, tough. We're conveying a message that even though

you lose your ability and have the same mind and even more

determination than you had before the injury, the world will not

accept you as normal or needed. "

Glass, of Hawthorne, went through nearly two dozen prospective actors

before filling the cast of 13, which includes able-bodied performers.

Many balked at working with actors in wheelchairs. " They took one

look and gave excuses of all types, " he said.

Mesisca, a 21-year-old USC theater arts student who is able-

bodied and portrays the angel in the play, said he has learned plenty

from his fellow actors.

" It's just amazing all of the simple things in life we take for

granted, " said Mesisca, of Arcadia. " The play is a serious call to

the nursing profession and to society as a whole. "

The play has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Commission on

Disabilities. It opens with an 8 p.m. performance today at the Scene

Dock Theater, 1029 W. 37th St. on the USC campus and runs Saturdays

and Sundays through May 21. Sunday shows are at 2:30 p.m.

Proceeds from the play will go to Personal Care Technology, a South

Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that trains home-care

providers for those with spinal cord injuries. Hamilton, the

playwright, formed it in 1991 after discovering there was a shortage

of skilled caregivers.

Hamilton was an ambulance company emergency medical technician at the

time of his life-changing car crash. So he says he knows what he

should not have done when he found himself lying on the pavement near

his wrecked car.

" I made the mistake of standing up. As many accidents I'd been to and

instructed victims to 'be still, don't move,' my stupid self stood up

and looked down at my car in the ditch. And then I collapsed. "

Hamilton's co-workers were in the rescue squad that came to his aid.

They cried as they strapped him to a backboard and loaded him into an

ambulance. " It was the same ambulance I'd driven, " he said.

Hamilton and Glass say a sequel to " Gimp City " could be in the wings.

" I'll go with the same guys if they'll do it again, " Glass said. " I

like these guys. I don't see them as injured people anymore. And I

don't think they do, either. "

[Guest guest]

I really hate the name " Gimp City " . What a turn off.

[Guest guest]

This may sound harsh to some or a little vain, but why is it that when folks

say or refer to " disabled " and their lives struggle that they are 9 times out

of 10 dipicting those disabled by accident not by birth? Plus, being born

disabled may or may not be a struggle as we SMA'ers do live lives. We only do

so differently.

I mean no disrespect to the their efforts to show their facet of life, I just

wish there were more on the lives of those born disabled.

Your thoughts?

Angie

PS - I also agree with you too ... wheelchair bound? NOT! The

wheelchair is bound to US, not us to it. Humph!

On Sunday 07 May 2006 00:06, wrote:

> It¹s sad to see that the LA times still uses words such as

> ³wheelchair-bound² -- someone who lives in LA should write a letter to the

> editor about it.

>

> On 5/6/06 9:33 PM, " Joy " <j0yeuxx@...> wrote:

> > 'Gimp City' Shines a Light on Stigma, Struggles of the Disabled

> > By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer

> > May 6, 2006

> >

> > They bumped into one another as they tried to hit their marks. Their

> > wheels became entangled during a group scene. One of them missed her cue

> > because a prop blocked her path.

> >

> > Things like that happen when a cast of wheelchair-bound actors takes the

> > stage for the first time to rehearse a play that shines a spotlight on

> > the challenges that the physically disabled face every day.

> > But it was smooth rolling soon enough for performers in " There's Help

> > in Gimp City, " a play that tells the story of the struggles of a

> > paralyzed man — and of a society that sometimes seems to be afflicted

> > with a moral paralysis of its own.

> >

> > Performed by a troupe that includes paraplegics and quadriplegics, the

> > play opens tonight at a theater near downtown Los Angeles for a

> > three-weekend run.

> >

> > " We want to reach those who don't want to deal with the fact that they

> > can become just like us at any moment. You can be one step off the curb

> > away from this, " playwright Ernest Hamilton said.

> >

> > Hamilton, 55, knows first-hand. His life changed in a split-second on

> > Sept. 6, 1978, when a flat front tire sent the car he was driving

> > careening into a ditch near Macon, Ga. The crash left the onetime Los

> > Angeles all-CIF football and basketball star a quadriplegic.

> >

> > " There's a stigma to being disabled, " he said. " With the play, we're

> > confronting stereotypes head-on and dispelling them. "

> >

> > Which explains the play's jarring, politically incorrect title.

> >

> > " I chose it for shock effect, " Hamilton acknowledged. " I explain that

> > 'gimp' means 'Gee, I'm paralyzed,' and that it's not a slam. It means you

> > have to get up and move along with your life. "

> >

> > Lead actor Goulet agrees with that. He was told that he was

> > paralyzed from the chin down after his neck was broken in a football

> > scrimmage during his senior year at his northern Minnesota high school.

> > After 16 years of nonstop therapy, the 32-year-old Sunset Boulevard

> > entertainment law firm employee can now walk short distances with a cane.

> >

> > In " There's Help in Gimp City, " Goulet portrays

> > fictitiouswheelchair-bound NFL player Tip , whose life spirals

> > downward after he breaks his neck in a football game and is paralyzed. He

> > loses his wife, his home, his family and, eventually, his life. An angel

> > helps Goulet's character backtrack and retrace his life in " Gimp City. "

> >

> > " It's a harsh title. That was one of my biggest concerns. Granted, the

> > guy who wrote it is disabled. But when you're trying to sell tickets it's

> > going to be a hard sell to the general public, " said Goulet of North

> > Hollywood. " And my character dies. I asked if they really wanted

> > able-bodied people to see this, and they said they wanted to be brutally

> > honest. "

> >

> > The able-bodied world can be brutal too. Goulet said he has struggled 10

> > years to break in to show business and " can count on my two hands the

> > number of auditions I've gone out on. " His goal now is to create his own

> > production company in which the disabled can work either in front of or

> > behind the camera.

> >

> > The play shows how some people dismiss the handicapped as incapable of

> > doing anything. It depicts others, meantime, as unwilling to help when

> > the disabled genuinely need assistance.

> >

> > In one scene, a wheelchair-bound man who has recently suffered a

> > paralyzing injury is partying with an old friend when his bladder

> > catheter slips out. His friend's response is disheartening. " Oh, man! I'm

> > drinking beer with you, not cleaning up after you. I'm out of here, " he

> > says as he stalks off.

> >

> > That imagery rings true with actor Whitehead. He has used a

> > wheelchair since his car slid off the road and over a 150-foot cliff in

> > Pacific Palisades 19 years ago.

> >

> > " We want to get people to understand some of the things you face living a

> > life in a wheelchair, " said the paraplegic, who lives in Montclair and

> > works at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. " We want to

> > let them know the good and bad challenges you face. "

> >

> > Whitehead, 43, owned a small limousine service before his crash. " I'm

> > blessed, " he said. " I could have been killed. "

> >

> > Those in wheelchairs " are just like everyone else, " he said. " It's the

> > person sitting in it that makes the chair. The chair doesn't make the

> > person. "

> >

> > The play's " gimp " title is fine with him, Whitehead said. " People may not

> > like that term, but it doesn't bother me. This is a way of bringing a

> > good out of what some consider a slur. "

> >

> > Actress Blanca Alvarado, 34, of Long Beach, a paraplegic whose spinal

> > cord was hardened by lupus, said the play should show that those in

> > wheelchairs " can still do a lot of things. "

> >

> > Play director Glass, who is able-bodied, said he had never worked

> > with actors in wheelchairs before setting out to cast and stage " There's

> > Help in Gimp City. "

> >

> > " This is my first experience, and it's been an eye-opener. These people

> > are solid, tough. We're conveying a message that even though you lose

> > your ability and have the same mind and even more determination than you

> > had before the injury, the world will not accept you as normal or

> > needed. "

> >

> > Glass, of Hawthorne, went through nearly two dozen prospective actors

> > before filling the cast of 13, which includes able-bodied performers.

> > Many balked at working with actors in wheelchairs. " They took one look

> > and gave excuses of all types, " he said.

> >

> > Mesisca, a 21-year-old USC theater arts student who is

> > able-bodied and portrays the angel in the play, said he has learned

> > plenty from his fellow actors.

> >

> > " It's just amazing all of the simple things in life we take for granted, "

> > said Mesisca, of Arcadia. " The play is a serious call to the nursing

> > profession and to society as a whole. "

> >

> > The play has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Commission on

> > Disabilities. It opens with an 8 p.m. performance today at the Scene Dock

> > Theater, 1029 W. 37th St. on the USC campus and runs Saturdays and

> > Sundays through May 21. Sunday shows are at 2:30 p.m.

> >

> > Proceeds from the play will go to Personal Care Technology, a South Los

> > Angeles-based nonprofit organization that trains home-care providers for

> > those with spinal cord injuries. Hamilton, the playwright, formed it in

> > 1991 after discovering there was a shortage of skilled caregivers.

> >

> > Hamilton was an ambulance company emergency medical technician at the

> > time of his life-changing car crash. So he says he knows what he should

> > not have done when he found himself lying on the pavement near his

> > wrecked car.

> >

> > " I made the mistake of standing up. As many accidents I'd been to and

> > instructed victims to 'be still, don't move,' my stupid self stood up and

> > looked down at my car in the ditch. And then I collapsed. "

> >

> > Hamilton's co-workers were in the rescue squad that came to his aid. They

> > cried as they strapped him to a backboard and loaded him into an

> > ambulance. " It was the same ambulance I'd driven, " he said.

> >

> > Hamilton and Glass say a sequel to " Gimp City " could be in the wings.

> >

> > " I'll go with the same guys if they'll do it again, " Glass said. " I like

> > these guys. I don't see them as injured people anymore. And I don't think

> > they do, either. "

> >

> >

> >

> > http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-disabled6may06,

> >1,140 5446,full.story?coll=la-commun-los_angeles_metro & ctrack=1 & cset=true

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > ---------------------------------

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