[Playwright John Belluso, a round-faced white man of thirty-something, with dark hair, and with glasses resting on his nose]
For those of you who didn’t get to see “The Poor Itch” at The Public Theater or for those of you who have secured tickets to upcoming performances of this deeply moving and beautifully rendered play, here are some comments and thoughts about “The Poor Itch” and playwright John Belluso:
Plot Summary:
“Ian is back from the war in Iraq without the use of his legs but with a full-blown case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and a year’s supply of Oxycontin. Now, he has to face the person he has become after the war. Left unfinished by the late playwright John Belluso, director Lisa Peterson and a company of designers and actors fuse together the final drafts of the script to create a thrilling, highly theatrical interpretation of this profoundly talented writer’s final work.”
-From the Public Theater Web Site
“We are thrilled about the casting of Christopher Thornton in “The Poor Itch”! It is still the exception to cast a disabled actor in a disability-specific role. Doing so here is a wonderful tribute to John Belluso as a disabled artist and activist. Oskar Eustis, Lisa Peterson and The Public Theater have demonstrated remarkable commitment to John’s work. They recognize and affirm that the life he created as an artist and the life he lived as an activist were inextricably joined.”
[A photo of Belluso with Sharon Jensen - deep in conversation]
“John Belluso was a unique writer in many ways. I think it’s fair to say that first, he was an activist, a guy with his eyes on the state of the world. He wrote from a political imperative, not only to wake people up to the full humanity - messy and all - of the disabled community, but to remind folks of the excitement of robust argument in the theater. But John was also funny and sexual and queer and outlandish and a lover of words in the extreme. For our birthdays he would read us poems. We miss him, and home to share with you a little bit of his terrifying and wonderful vision.”
-Lisa Peterson, Director, The Poor Itch
“John’s disabillity was the key for him to a political understanding that included a robust leadership within the disabililty community but also saw the interconnections between disability and radicalism and a broader progressive agenda. John’s great subject was interdependence, the way we all are deeply linked to each other in ways both material and spiritual, and he saw disability as giving a local habitation and name to that interdependence. He hated this war, and he loved the people affected by it, and the collision of those two ideals was crucial to the creation of what would have been his breakthrough play.”
-Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater
[Belluso with the late Barry Martin, choreographer and dancer. Martin, who died within a few days of Belluso’s deat, is a black man, wheelchair user and in this photo, and often in life, had a winning smile on his face]
[Dancer Alice Sheppard with Belluso, they are comparing cell phones. Sheppard, also a wheelchair user like John is sitting facing him]
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