Today it is my dear Jane Austen's 240th birthday. (She happens to share it with one of my closest friends from first year at uni, Diviya, who then transferred to Nottingham - we've spent the last five years communicating via text and social media, trying to match schedules and meet up in person. Happy birthday, wifey! I miss you.) What these two wonderful women share is more than a birthday, though, because they've both inspired me to do things I never would've thought possible otherwise.
Diviya and I met as cautious chorus members for Opera Warwick's January 2011 (English) production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. She brought me out of my shell and taught me that my wheels had just as much of a place on the Arts Centre stage as her (appropriate to the style of the show) garishly coloured skirt and high heels. In fact, I believe our multicultural and multi-ability chorus grouping led directly to my current PhD study, because Diviya and my other friends instilled in me further the joy and importance of diverse casting. She also gave me the confidence to put myself forward as a candidate for the exec committee the following year, as Productions Manager - a role I find myself lucky to be reprising now that I'm back at Warwick. We're putting on Figaro again - coincidence? I think not! Trips to the Dirty Duck after rehearsals gave me some of my favourite memories of Freshers and are never to be forgotten, either, since they forged friendships which I hope will last a lifetime.
Similarly, thanks to Austen, I discovered that literature and the arts are the ultimate tools for accessibility - if they are taught in an engaging manner. Through her, I learnt that I too could jump over stiles (first in my dreams, and then in reality, with help from my determined mother) and share in the satisfaction of muddy jeans, if not quite petticoats...! I also found that, if you search hard enough, the touch of disability can be discerned in almost any individual's experience - Miss Austen's being a case in point. I've probably mentioned this before, if not here then on another of my blogs, but it is believed that she and her brother George communicated with some form of sign language, he having a hearing impairment and apparent learning difficulties. Yay canonical representation (albeit covert)! Thanks for furthering our cause, Jane, and continuing a tradition started by Homer and Milton but which hardly anyone mentions!
So, yes, that's my wordy birthday greeting for two of my favourites. It couldn't be more perfect that you share a day. I love you both and am so grateful for the impact that you have had on my life - in very different but also strikingly similar ways.
Thank you!
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