“Follow your dreams, work hard, and tell the truth,” is James Sanders’ advice to young actors thinking of starting a theatre company - but he could just as easily be describing his life philosophy.
The past year has been busy for Sanders. He completed a cross-Canada tour of his hit play, “Skydive”, while being artistic director of his own theatre company, Realwheels. He is already hard at work on the next show, opening in early 2010. And the fact that Mr. Sanders happens to be a quadriplegic hasn’t slowed him down one bit.
“Starting Realwheels was crazy.” he says when asked about the challenges of forming the company. “I had no idea what I was doing, and, worse than being ignorant of how to get things done, I was too stupid to ask for help.” But with hard work the company took shape.
“There is a paradox in starting up an organization, in that it takes money to hire management and it takes management to earn the money,” Sanders says. The solution came through volunteer management at the outset, coupled with securing arts funding. The company is now in its sixth year.
Realwheels’ first production was, “Skydive”, a two-person play in which both actors fly high above the stage throughout the production. It is the story of two brothers who are polar opposites - one is a wild extrovert and the other is timid to the point of neurosis. In an effort to cure his shy brother of his phobias, Sanders’ character conceives of skydiving as a form of radical therapy. On the skydive, things go wrong, and what follows is a surreal choreography that takes place in suspended time, filled with flashbacks, dream sequences, and 80s music. As he flips and glides through the air, there is no evidence of Sanders’ disability.
“Skydive” was conceived as a collaboration between Sanders and Bob Frazer, two longtime friends who met as students at Vancouver’s Douglas College Theatre School. Born in 1970, Sanders had grown up with a strong interest in rock music and briefly envisaged a career in modeling, but a suggestion from his stepfather left him bitten by the acting bug. “He left a theatre school program on my bed,” Sanders explains. At his audition, Sanders was accepted on the spot.
It was during his time at Douglas that Sanders experienced what he terms the “transition to the next phase of his life,” after he suffered a spinal cord injury and became a quadriplegic. He doesn’t feel that it is relevant to discuss the specifics of his accident, however, because “it is inconsequential to my development as a person with a disability...it’s a very brief event in time.”
His positive attitude allowed him to accept his new reality in a healthy way. “At heart, I am an optimist, so in dealing with injury, rehabilitation, and the possibility of re-direction was all just part of life’s journey in maturity,” he says. He didn’t experience doubts about continuing his career in theatre at the time, and only ever questioned what the future held after his graduation as valedictorian from the Simon Fraser University in 1998, four years after graduating from Douglas.
“I have strong memories of the days and weeks that followed being filled with doubt, ups and downs, and wondering, “What the hell am I going to do next?” he recalls. But Sanders soon overcame the post-grad blues.
Good roles were scare, eventually giving him the idea of creating his own show. He and Fraser wanted to work together. When it came to finding the right project, Sanders says, “It’s an opportunity that all individuals have difficulty with, and being an individual with a disability, that challenge increases tenfold.” But a new technology developed by choreographer Sven Johansson gave them an idea.
“His inspiration aimed to remove gravity as a negative influence on a dancer.” Sanders says. “The ES Dance Instrument is a 21-foot long steel pole on a fulcrum at a third of its length. On the short end, an operator controls the wheel of the instrument that articulates the dancer, who is attached to the long end of the pole. Our use of the instruments came from the desires to explore our bodies, our dreams and our imaginations in ways we hadn’t experienced.”
The play opened to great reviews in 2007, and a national tour was organized for 2008 - 2009. The prospect of a tour tested Sanders in ways he had never experienced before. “Touring ‘Skydive’ was a huge learning curve for me as a producer, actor and husband. For months I was terrified of all the questions that went into putting on a tour, which then transitioned into fears as a performer, in that I had never had a run of so many shows.”
Sanders eventually became comfortable with his acting and producing roles, but being apart from his wife (he has been married since 2004) remained hard throughout the tour. “I was constantly challenged to find ways to stay connected to home,” he recalls.
Sanders is outspoken in his advocacy for the disabled. His attitude towards disability differs from that of the late Christopher Reeves and Rick Hansen, among others. He is a strong advocate of the “care” model for those with disabilities, versus the “cure” model many espouse.
Describing what he views as the harm of the cure model, Sanders says, “a frustrated individual unwilling to accept the realities...will subject themselves to experimental treatments with often tragic and fatal results. What’s profoundly more sad...is the harsh reality that our society is not embracing of people with disabilities, but rather simply accommodating at best.”
Sanders’ own view is that, “If we were all cured of anything that ails us, we would be void of challenge - challenge that often defines character. The human spirit that drives our existence then falls soft and silent and we lose our inspiration.” He has famously said, “I dream of a day where a wheelchair is no more unusual than a pair of eyeglasses.” His vision is for those with disabilities “to live barrier-free - both attitudinally and physically.”
Today, Sanders is excited to be working on his next show, titled, “Spine”. It will be a co-production with the University of Alberta, and once again, ES Dance instruments will play an integral role. “It will present more direct discussions around issues people with disabilities face - back to the cure-versus-care model.” He also keeps busy with other projects, such as a 2005 television special he wrote and starred in called, “A Perfect Note”. Is there a common thread in his work? He says, “it’s about trying to find love in the human connection.”
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