by Sara Arenson

Sick + Twisted Theatre, Winnipeg’s disability theatre company, will soon be under new leadership. Debbie Patterson, its founding artistic director, will be moving on from her role. I had a chance to talk with Debbie recently about how Sick + Twisted lived up to her initial vision, the highlights and challenges of leading the company, and her decision to pass the baton.

Sick + Twisted came out of Debbie’s personal experience of becoming disabled. She soon realized that the stories our society tells about disability are prescriptive and limiting, focusing on tragedy or “inspiration porn”.

“I didn’t want to be anybody’s inspiration,” Debbie told me. “I just wanted to live my life. I didn’t feel like my life was over because I had a disability, which is the other story I had been told, you know, that your life is not worth living when you have a disability, and that certainly wasn’t what I felt.”

In contrast, Debbie has found disability to be a source of positive qualities like creativity and the bravery to take everyday risks, such as when she used a kick scooter as a mobility aid in public.

So Debbie, a long-time playwright, director and actor, set about creating an organization that would allow disabled artists to tell truthful stories from their lived experience. Sick + Twisted Theatre was born.

Over the 10 years it’s been in operation, the company has worked with over 100 artists, providing mentorship, performance opportunities and chances to develop new work. For Debbie, this work has been very much about relationships, about connecting with other disabled people and developing qualities like patience and acceptance. She is also pleased to see how artists who met through Sick + Twisted have gone on to collaborate on their own projects.

When asked about the highlights of her time with Sick + Twisted, Debbie spoke about their production of The Threepenny Opera (2019), which she found beautiful, challenging and groundbreaking in bringing together disabled and non-disabled performers.

“It was the first time we worked with Deaf actors in roles that weren’t written for Deaf characters. And just figuring out how to do that, how to feature Deaf performers in an integrated production was really satisfying.”

At times the work has been incredibly challenging.

“I guess I’m always doing things that I don’t know how to do. Like I’m always butting up against the limit of my abilities, and, and my ambition exceeds my ability. So I’ll say, well, let’s do this thing, and then I won’t really know how to do it, and I’ll have to figure it out. And pretend to a group of people that I know what I’m doing. Or you know, enlist them to help figure it out, like make them feel safe while we explore in the unknown together.”

For example, Debbie discovered that Sick + Twisted’s first Christmas panto was harder to produce than she initially imagined. “I didn’t know what we were doing. I thought we could devise it together and then present it, you know, in 2 months. It was kind of wild.” She felt the result was “pretty good” but also “pretty messy”.

As Sick + Twisted continues to grow, Debbie feels that she’s reached the limits of her own skills, for example in terms of the fundraising that will enable the hiring of more staff and more programming. The search for new leadership is well underway, with the company receiving 11 applicants from across the country and even one from the United States. Debbie plans to remain on the board for another year. In the near future, she plans to work on a few writing projects she’s had to put on the back burner.

Sick + Twisted Theatre has definitely lived up to her initial vision.

“It’s emboldened, I think, a lot of theatre makers with disabilities. You know, prior to Sick + Twisted, there was really no invitation into the theatre world. And I think Sick + Twisted has emboldened people to say, ‘No, this is our space and we’re going to make work here. We’re gonna show up, we’re gonna take up space here.’”

When I asked how she’s feeling at this stage, Debbie told me she feels “hopeful but daunted”. “The process of handing over the reins will be intense: getting everything out of my head and into someone else’s. But I’m excited to see where the new leadership will take the organization.”

Next up for Sick + Twisted: The annual Christmas panto, and in the spring, a show by the Ever Sick Collective, a group of Indigenous disabled creatives. Find out more at: https://www.sickandtwisted.ca/