{"id":22574,"date":"2019-01-03T12:32:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T17:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22574"},"modified":"2019-01-10T12:45:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:45:44","slug":"local-playwright-challenges-perceptions-of-invisible-disability-with-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-playwright-challenges-perceptions-of-invisible-disability-with-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Local playwright challenges perceptions of “invisible disability” with comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

They locked eyes on the subway but, as is so often the case on public transportation, they swiftly looked away.
\nBut Morgan Frey knew the woman sitting near her had noticed her missing hand, and had noticed she was struggling to hold on as the train moved. Unfortunately, this was not a new experience for the 26-year-old Aurora woman, who was born a multiple amputee, as she went about her business.
\n\u201cThe lady looked at me, saw I was missing my hand, and I was wearing pants so she couldn\u2019t see my prosthetic legs,\u201d Morgan recalls. \u201cShe saw I couldn\u2019t hold on but didn\u2019t do anything until I accidently hit her with my bag.\u201d
\nShe apologized, but told the woman she couldn\u2019t hold on and the seated woman said she didn\u2019t notice.
\n\u201cBut, you looked right at me! I saw you!\u201d says Morgan, of the inner monologue that followed.
\nIn the year that just passed, Ms. Frey shared her story of growing up as a War Amp Champ as the War Amps celebrated its 100th anniversary. Now, at the start of a new year, she is looking forward to further opportunities of helping people open their eyes as she channels her experiences into a new play, which is set to open later this year as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival.
\nTentatively entitled \u201cBenefits Lapse\u201d, the play follows a woman named Jenna who is living with a disability. She\u2019s tasked with writing an essay for school and picks the topic of disability and begins a journey of learning about her rights \u2013 as well as the service gaps Canadians with disabilities face.
\n\u201cI learned a lot [while writing] and I felt like I should have known this information,\u201d she says.
\nUntil she dove deeper into her role as playwright, the foundations of Ms. Frey\u2019s knowledge of navigating life with a disability stemmed from her experiences with the War Amps. Becoming involved with the organization as an infant, the reality is she doesn\u2019t know life without the support the organization routinely provides to thousands of Canadians living with various physical challenges.
\nShe first became aware of being involved with the War Amps around the age of six or seven when she was fully able to appreciate the myriad programs they offer, including summer camps.
\n\u201cThese programs definitely helped because my parents were not expecting me to be born like this,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey provided a lot of emotional support, provided limbs and taught how to raise a kid who was missing limbs. The seminars were a big part of my life and my parents could go and meet other parents and see that it wasn\u2019t just them, that there were other people as well with kids.
\n\u201cIn school, I was the only kid, so it was nice to be around other kids, be able to say, \u2018I just gotta take my leg off!\u2019 and not have it be this weird thing. Kids in the program would say, \u2018me too\u2019 and it was nice to have other people understand. I could talk to my friends, but they wouldn\u2019t be able to understand.\u201d
\nMs. Frey requires two artificial legs and, as she grew, she often outgrew her prosthetics. New ones were needed every two years, which can be costly, as well as a challenge to break them in. She likens getting used to a new pair of prosthetics to getting used to walking on stilts, causing a particular challenge trying to climb the stairs.
\nNevertheless, she was an avid dancer and figure skater growing up. She once used a myoelectric arm that allowed her to hold paper and tie her shoes, but gave that up at the age of 14 when, frustrated by the weight of the prosthetic, she learned how to do all these tasks without it.
\nAfter graduating from high school, Ms. Frey taught dance for a year before going to Humber College for comedy writing and performance, later holding down a job in communications with the War Amps, but now she\u2019s back to her comedy and performance roots, ready to take on sometimes heady issues in her new play.
\n\u201cIt fits in with the Tree of Life Theatre Company\u2019s mandate [of fostering works with] a social or political issue, and growing up with a disability was a huge social issue that no one really talks about, or it is only viewed in certain ways. That is not how we are at all! I wanted it to be a comedy that will have people laughing, sometimes thinking, \u2018Oh, shit, maybe I shouldn\u2019t be laughing!\u2019 But that\u2019s okay \u2013 they learn!
\n\u201cMy play is about living with an invisible disability. Because I am so mobile \u2013 I used to dance and it doesn\u2019t look like I\u2019m missing both my feet \u2013 I just want people to be aware. I would like people to open their eyes, be aware, and not be in their own space. It is what it is. Like on the subway, you can be in your own little space, on your phone, but this woman wasn\u2019t, and she didn\u2019t do anything. That happens to me all the time on the subway and on buses. That is hard to convey in a play because you can\u2019t just build a bus!\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan Frey\u2019s play, tentatively titled \u201cBenefits Lapse\u201d is set to play at the Toronto Fringe Festival between July 3 and 14, just one of over 150 shows that will fill Toronto venues during the festival. A portion of ticket sales will benefit War Amps Canada. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frey hopes to spark important conversation at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-03-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5S6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 08:39:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}