“The Gospel at Colonus,” the 1980s musical that blends gospel and greek tragedy still resonates with people today; Why comic-con and comic books appeal to people with disabilities; We get the highlights from the first days of Comic-Con and how thousands of fake weapons get real inspections at the Con.
Comic-Con and beyond: Why many disabled people find comic culture relatable
Spend just a few minutes at San Diego’s Comic-Con, and it’s hard not to be impressed by the creativity of the thousands of cosplayers who flock to the convention center every year dressed as their favorite characters.
Cosplayers like Carly Shadrick, who uses a wheelchair. “I personally try to play my cosplay with my disabilities. So one year I went as Dr. Nefario from ‘Despicable Me’ on my red mobility scooter,” Shadrick said.
This year she fastened brooms to the side of her wheelchair and it became part of her costume for a character from Pixar’s “Inside Out.” A certain pink fellow made of cotton candy.
Shadrick wasn’t the only person with disabilities who made it out to this year’s Comic-Con. In fact, the convention has a Deaf and Disabled Services department to accommodate attendees with special needs. Among their services are American Sign Language interpreters and wheelchairs for loan.
Barry Webb volunteers with Comic-Con’s Deaf and Disabled Services. He participated in the cosplay fun too. Well, his service dog, Roxy, did anyway.
Barry Webb's cosplaying service dog, Roxy.
“This is our third year of volunteering and the Comic-Con people are just fantastic,” said Webb. “We get in the front of the line along with the wheelchair folks.”
After showing off Roxy the service dog’s red cape, Webb explained why he thinks comic culture is so attractive to people with disabilities.
“You go back to Daredevil. He was a blind lawyer and he had a disability,” Webb says. “It’s just, they don’t say no to anybody. So us people with the disabilities, they’re not going to say no to us.”
Gilles Stromberg is the illustrator and co-creator of a group of characters she calls the “Access Avengers” -- a team of superheroes who have mental and physical disabilities.
“I think there’s a lot of times when we’ve seen a lot of superheroes who are coming to the table with different identities, and some of them may be coming in with a disability,” Stromberg said.
Stromberg agrees that, in the world of comics, it’s not unusual to find a fictional character with a very real disability. Professor Charles Xavier has a wheelchair in the “X-Men” series, Iron Man lacks a functioning heart -- the list goes on. But, according to Stromberg comics can sometimes be one-dimensional when it comes to portraying people with disabilities.
“In my own personal perspective I see a lot of times we have writers and we have illustrators who are using disabilities as an accessory as opposed to reflecting the entire identity of someone,” said Stromberg.
Stromberg wants to see more -- and more accurate -- depictions of disabilities in comics, but still agrees that comic book culture as a whole is very welcoming. Stromberg has never made it out to San Diego’s Comic-Con, but has been involved in convention culture for a very long time. “I think there’s a lot of things in convention culture that are amazing when it comes to building community, especially with those with disabilities,” Stromberg said.
It’s that same comic convention culture that’s brought Katie Bertram of Albuquerque, New Mexico back to San Diego’s Comic-Con for eight years now. Bertram’s disability means she has to use an electric wheelchair to navigate the convention floor, but she says she’s been pleased with how much the convention organizers and volunteers take people like her into consideration.
“I’m very happy with them, always have been,” Bertram said. “I suffer from MS, so they make it easy with the rest and relaxation areas, that’s good.”
Bertram thinks many disabled people are drawn to comic culture because of its inclusive nature.
“I’m different and I’m accepted in this culture,” said Bertram.
As for her favorite comic book characters? They represent both a dream and a personal reality.
“I love Spiderman, I’m a Spiderman girl. Can’t move like him. But I like Professor X, how he has a wheelchair and is totally acceptable,” Bertram said.
Comic-Con 2015: Beyond 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
The release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is still nearly six months away. But Friday evening at Comic-Con International, some 6,000 people will cram into San Diego Convention Center's massive Hall H to catch a glimpse of the film's stars and director, and perhaps see some unseen footage from the film.
Thousands of fans have camped out in line for days to get in the door.
Yet, however much attention the Star Wars panel, and panels for fan-favorite television shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, received Friday, there are about 125,000 attendees who won’t get in to Hall H — or aren't even interested in trying. After all, there's plenty else happening at the annual geek gathering.
Southern California Public Radio’s Web Producer, Mike Roe, has been at this year's Comic-Con since Wednesday. He talked with The Frame host John Horn about what to see and do beyond Hall H.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On one of the challenges of attending Comic-Con — figuring out where to go and what you can get into
MR: It really depends on what you care about and where you want to spend your time. Do you want to invest a couple days camping out in the very front of Hall H and maybe get to see Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill and all the 'Star Wars' stars up there? Or do you want to take your time and go to some of the smaller panels where maybe it's a little easier to get into?
Then, if you don't get into the things that you like, you have to figure out, 'well, what do I do now?' There's going to be a lot of sad fans wandering around trying to find out what else they should see at Comic-Con.
What were some highlights from Thursday?
MR: One of my favorites, I expected this to be packed: it was William Shatner doing Captain Kirk in Ballroom 20. I just happened to wander over there and there was [only] about half the room full.
So you never know what people are going to be drawn to. You thought this was going to be a geek fantasy, but it didn't fill the room.
Also, I went and checked, in the afternoon, a new web series called, 'Con Man.' It was in Hall H; one of the biggest web series of all time because it's the third biggest crowd-funding [campaign] ever. It has all the stars from the classic cult TV show, 'Firefly,' as well as other geek heroes.
So that was a huge panel; and it actually ended with a gay marriage proposal, so you never know what you're going to see at Comic-Con.
On the costumes
MR: There's been a lot of really great cosplay. One thing that I thought has been really interesting this year is I feel like cosplay has expanded a lot beyond the classic comic book characters. It's not just Wolverine and all of those characters anymore.
I saw somebody cosplaying from 'Grand Budapest Hotel.' There are people cosplaying from Pixar movies. There are people cosplaying from just about everything under the sun.
Fandom has started to become much bigger and broader. Basically anything that people can be a fan of, they are here representing that.
'The Gospel at Colonus,' where Greek tragedy and gospel music meet in harmony
In the history of theater, there have probably been more surprising pairings than Greek tragedy and gospel music. Still, the combination offered up by the musical "Gospel at Colonus," a reinterpretation of Sophocles's drama "Oedipus at Colonus," is a unique blend of artistic styles that's resonating with audiences.
"The Gospel at Colonus" premiered in New York in 1983, created by influential, experimental theater director Lee Breuer and composer Bob Telson. Its original script was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was also nominated for a Tony, and now, after going through various productions over the years, it's running at the Ebony Repertory Theater in Los Angeles.
When Wren T. Brown, Artistic Director of the Ebony Rep, and Andi Chapman, director of the theater's version of "Gospel at Colonus," joined us at The Frame studios, we asked them about the first time they saw the original play which is an unlikely mashup of Greek tragedy and gospel music.
Interview Highlights:
Before we talk about the show itself, I want to talk about the audience for the show. I saw this show about a week ago, and the diversity of the audience — by race, age, gender — was unbelievable. Has that been true throughout the run?
Brown: Yes it has been, and in fact it's been the reality of our company and our shows. We're in the Mid-City community and we're the first and only professional African-American theater in the history of Los Angeles. So the work that we do, the work we attempt to do, and what we try to say to this large, 500-square-mile community is that we're another place that is a cultural destination. We've really drawn all kinds.
Wren, you saw the 1985 production of "Gospel at Colonus" at what was then known as the Doolittle Theater in Hollywood. I think that show starred a young man named Morgan Freeman? Well, he probably wasn't that young. What effect did that show have on you?
Brown: The production of "Gospel at Colonus" at the Doolittle in 1985 changed my life. It impacted me in such a way that I have never forgotten the property: the majesty of this work, the fusing of Sophocles and this wonderful Greek mythology with "Oedipus at Colonus," the translation of 1939 written by Robert Fitzgerald, and then so brilliantly adapted by Lee Breuer. That marriage of the pageantry of the black church and the pageantry of Greek mythology was stunning to me.
And then it was populated by some of the most gifted artists I had ever seen. It had always resided in my spirit and my heart, and so of course when we founded the Ebony Repertory Theater, it was always one of the major works that we would need to produce.
Andi, this is your first time direction a full production with the Ebony, so you decided to start with something really modest?
Chapman: Yes, and that's what I said to Wren. "Okay, 32 people...I'm up for the challenge."
What was the challenge? What were the biggest obstacles in getting it to the place that you wanted it to be?
Chapman: I mentioned to the actors that our measure of success would be the joy, the sense of community and togetherness, before it would be about the play itself. And we achieved that.
Greek tragedy's obviously been around for a very long time, and gospel music's also been around for a while. But the combination of these two today feels particularly timely. When you were working on this play, did you feel that?
Brown: Absolutely. I remember sitting at one of our early production meetings and our stage manager raised the question, "Why 'Colonus' now?" I responded to her based on the backdrop of the reality of events in this country, with what's happening with the burning of churches, the slaughter of those lives in South Carolina, and the reckless disregard for black youth and life.
We're facing all of these things with the first man of color as the President of the United States, and with what we're facing as a country from all those perspectives, it's propitiously timed. I felt that, beyond the journey of Oedipus, beyond the redemption that is being sought and that is achieved, it was vitally important to really go down to the bottom and examine where we are as a human group of people.
Andi?
Chapman: And the lifting up. I absolutely echo what Wren said. It's about lifting one another up. One of the characters says, "I was blind but now I see," and, in essence, Oedipus's journey and tragedy are what we all experience as human beings. We have to somehow find a way to lift each other up, and not tear each other down.
"Gospel at Colonus" runs until July 20 at the Ebony Repertory Theater.