Artistic Statement
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Nicole Zimmerer
Artistic Statement
I am the playwright I needed when I was younger.
Growing up, I never saw people who looked like me on the stage. The only disabled characters were old grandmothers, dead by the end of the first act, or Tiny Tim, who only survived because of the grace of someone else. I didn’t see space for myself in the theatre, so, being the stubborn person I am, I have spent most of my artistic career making space for myself and my community.
I earned my BFA in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Houston before pursuing my Masters at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. While I was at Carnegie Mellon, I realized how vital it is to have disability representation in the arts. I wrote a role in my thesis play that required a performer that used a wheelchair and brought the first ever physically disabled actor to a Carnegie Mellon stage in its then 114 years as an institution.
Many of my characters are disabled. They are flawed and human. They don’t subscribe to the “victim or villain” stereotypes. And, most importantly, they have agency. They have thoughts and feelings, wants and dreams, and even hate. Because disabled people are, in fact, people. Go figure.
A friend once told me, “Nicole, you want to build a world without stairs.” While I don’t think ridding the entire world of a good chunk of its infrastructure is possible, the sentiment is true. Access is at the heart of it all for me. Whether giving opportunities to underutilized actors or connecting with audience members who have never seen themselves represented in traditional media, I believe everyone has a right to be in the room.
Growing up, I never saw people who looked like me on the stage. The only disabled characters were old grandmothers, dead by the end of the first act, or Tiny Tim, who only survived because of the grace of someone else. I didn’t see space for myself in the theatre, so, being the stubborn person I am, I have spent most of my artistic career making space for myself and my community.
I earned my BFA in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Houston before pursuing my Masters at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. While I was at Carnegie Mellon, I realized how vital it is to have disability representation in the arts. I wrote a role in my thesis play that required a performer that used a wheelchair and brought the first ever physically disabled actor to a Carnegie Mellon stage in its then 114 years as an institution.
Many of my characters are disabled. They are flawed and human. They don’t subscribe to the “victim or villain” stereotypes. And, most importantly, they have agency. They have thoughts and feelings, wants and dreams, and even hate. Because disabled people are, in fact, people. Go figure.
A friend once told me, “Nicole, you want to build a world without stairs.” While I don’t think ridding the entire world of a good chunk of its infrastructure is possible, the sentiment is true. Access is at the heart of it all for me. Whether giving opportunities to underutilized actors or connecting with audience members who have never seen themselves represented in traditional media, I believe everyone has a right to be in the room.