Purple Spotlight: Chatting with Jordan Campbell about the Purple Stage & Representation – PART 2 | May 31, 2022 | By: Kyla Platsis
Welcome back Purple Pals! Keep reading to check out Part 2 of my discussion with Jordan Campbell about the Purple Stage and representation within the creative arts industry.
Positionality Acknowledgement
Before getting into the excitement that is all things Purple Stage related, I would like to acknowledge my own positionality. I am writing this post as an individual who identifies as neurotypical and I recognize the privilege that this can afford. I write this spotlight feature in an effort to further emphasize the need for neurodiversities to be represented in all facets of life, including and particularly in the arts. I would like this blog series to act as a means of calling out the dominance of ableism and the privileging of neurotypical identities. Throughout this post, I will be using both person-first and disability-first language in an effort to be inclusive of all of the potential preferences of our community. It is important to note that the language used should reflect the preferences of the individual(s) one is referring to.
McAskill (2018) states that “there is a crisis in our Canadian theatre landscape. Our theatres seem to value only one kind of neurotypical perception. There is a need to represent and include more neurodiverse realities, a need for more ways of being in our creative spaces” (p.41).
Resisting this notion that there is only one way to be, or that there is a “norm” to artistic expression at all, is another reason why Jordan wanted the Purple Stage to exist.
“That was really the motivation for it, I think. I just thought that what we were making in the classes [Purple Carrots] was so cool and interesting as an art piece and I wanted more people to see it. I wanted the artists to have more time to develop it”.
As the Purple Stage is intended to be a professional theatre company specifically for neurodiverse artists, it is imperative that the work be led by the neurodiverse community. I asked Jordan to speak further on what actions he takes to ensure that not only the voices and needs of neurodiverse performers are at the forefront of the Purple Stage, but that this company is also community-led.
“This is a really good question and that was really important to me especially with the first project. We did hire someone who had helped us with another Purple Carrots Project – his name’s Evan, he’s on the Autism Spectrum – to be on the Creative Team, run the lighting with us, and help on the technical side. We wanted to have someone on the leadership team from the community. The first project and the second project we did too was with a lot of the same artists…we just knew them really well from years of working with them so we really designed everything around what they needed and that’s a big part of it. We never really put this in place formally at the time cause it really just grew out of this one adult class I was teaching – but you know, I think they have to have done at least 2 or 3 classes with us [Purple Carrots]. At one point we described it [the Purple Stage] as kind of like Purple Carrots alumni go into this program – so they’re not just random people, it’s people that we’ve worked with, we understand their needs, we understand that they’re ready for this kind of thing because it’s also a very different focus than the Purple Carrots classes – it’s rehearsing, we’re making a show, the hours are longer, it’s a bigger ask from them”.
I asked Jordan to tell me a little bit more about the projects that the Purple Stage has already worked on.
“We’ve done two projects. Our first major project was in 2019, and that was a theatre piece that was really just a big extension of the Purple Carrots processing [in] class. We did an audition process and we had 6 artists so we worked for about 3 months”.
This theatre piece was called Here We Are and it centered on the dreams and desires of six artists.
“It was their own kind of vision of the world and there were songs, there was dancing…it was very much about their fantasies.”
It was imperative to Jordan to ensure that this performance reflected the intentions, goals, and desires of the artists.
“I was like ‘I don’t want this to feel like we have to clean it up and make it logical.’ I think it’s a little bit controversial in the theatre scene too. Some people – who are in the disability scene – are more like ‘well, we should treat them like [neurotypical] actors and we should make them sound like actors and they should do everything actors do’. I mean they’re not like neurotypical actors, they’re just not, and I don’t think they should be or should have to be. I think they should just do their thing”.
Jordan emphasizes that the Purple Stage is not teaching neurodiverse artists to be something they aren’t, or adopting the ableist practice of attempting to assimilate neurodiverse performers into neurotypical standards of what acting is. Instead, the Purple Stage is focused on highlighting the fact that art is expressed in a variety of different ways – it is diverse and broad, and there is no correct way to practice it. Just as the title of their first play asserts, neurodiverse artists are here, and they have always been. The entertainment industry better start making the room!
The Purple Stage’s second project was an art documentary entitled Are You My Friend? that was made entirely over Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think a version of the film is going to be shown at Pegasus Incredible Film Festival in the fall. It’s a disability arts film festival”.
This is something that Jordan expressed a lot of excitement about, as COVID-19 restrictions prevented the artists from being able to show their film to the public. You can find more information on the film festival here.
In terms of creating a new project, Jordan is feeling hopeful.
“If we get this grant that we just applied for, then we’ll probably do another in-person project in the fall, and I’m thinking a lot about what that will be. It really depends on the people. It’s all really built around the people”.
If you are interested in getting involved with the Purple Stage, visit the Purple Stage webpage on the Purple Carrots website or connect with Jordan personally at purplestageperformance@gmail.com to express your interest. Jordan also encourages interested participants to familiarize themselves with Purple Carrots, and consider joining classes! Though most recently the Purple Stage has mainly included artists aged 16 and up, Jordan shared that he hopes to open it up to Purple Carrots’ younger students in the future.
To conclude our discussion about the Purple Stage, I had one final question to ask Jordan that we ask all of our interviewees: what does leading a purple life look like to you?
“I think it means…I don’t know why what’s coming to me is just like honesty. Being really honest, being really real about who you are and what you need. You can’t fake it. I think what working with all these artists has taught me is you really can’t fake it. This is the real deal, this is really the work… there isn’t a lot of pretense or hiding or kind of social decorum sometimes. With this community, people are just really real and really honest. It’s about real relationships and real people and being really honest about what your limitations are, what are you doing, what are you able to do. There’s just nowhere to hide with this kind of community. I think it’s about radical honesty”.
What a wonderful way to wrap up our 2-part series on the Purple Stage. Thank you for reading and to Jordan for taking the time! Be sure to head to Purple Carrots’ Facebook and Instagram to show the Purple Stage some love and encouragement.
References
McAskill, A. (2018). Mobilizing a slow theatre movement through an atypique artist perspective. Canadian Theatre Review, 175, 41-46. 10.3138/ctr.175.008
