“Just because a part isn’t written as disabled doesn’t mean you can’t have a disabled person act it,” says Jenna Bainbridge, shown here in DU’s recent production of “Side Show.” “In every aspect of life you are going to meet people with disabilities and they’re doing all sorts of jobs and doing all kinds of things. So who is to say that they can’t be in a movie or a stage play?” Photo: Wayne Armstrong
Jenna Bainbridge auditioned at schools across the country and found the best fit practically in her backyard.
Bainbridge—a sophomore voice major from Castle Rock, Colo.—received a DU Provost Scholarship, a scholarship from DU’s Lamont School of Music and a private scholarship.
While DU made good financial sense, the University also was a good fit for Bainbridge for its willingness to accept her as she is.
An actor. A singer. And a person with a disability.
“The whole reason I am going to school is to try and bring awareness to the fact that disabled actors and performers are [often] not cast and to try and break down those barriers,” Bainbridge says. “I want to go into major theater and movie companies and convince them that just because a part isn’t written as disabled doesn’t mean you can’t have a disabled person act it. In every aspect of life you are going to meet people with disabilities and they’re doing all sorts of jobs and doing all kinds of things. So who is to say that they can’t be in a movie or a stage play?”
Bainbridge became partially paralyzed from the waist down at just 18 months. To this day, doctors are unsure what caused the paralysis.
Today it hardly seems the energetic Bainbridge could be slowed down, but she is still partially paralyzed from the waist down and has a limp. Her disability didn’t stop her from making her theater debut at age 10, and it hasn’t kept her from excelling in numerous roles.
Bainbridge has performed in tick, tick… BOOM! and Side Show at the University of Denver and in seven productions by the Denver-based PHAMALY (Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League), including How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Urinetown and Beauty and the Beast.
But Bainbridge also has seen opportunities pass her by.
She’s been told that she wasn’t cast for several roles because “they didn’t think they could make a limp work.”
In her junior year of high school, Bainbridge auditioned for colleges at a national thespian conference in Lincoln, Neb. She asked representatives from the schools that didn’t call her back what she could do differently at her next audition.
“I had two or three schools tell me that the reason I didn’t get a callback was because they had a heavy dance emphasis at their school and they didn’t think I could do the dancing. Or they didn’t want to accept someone that couldn’t do the dancing and have to change the program for them,” Bainbridge recalls.
Besides her roles as student and performer, Bainbridge recently was named Miss Castle Rock 2011. She placed in the top 15 in the Miss Colorado pageant in June 2011 and plans to compete again next year.
Long term, Bainbridge says she’s waiting to see where life takes her, and she has some idea of where she’d like that to be.
“My dream would be to be on Broadway one day or to be a major actress and singer in movies,” she says.