Blind theater troupe proves that acting is a state of mind

• Posted By: Marc Martin
• Posted On: 11:08 p.m. | March 4, 2012

She feared the worst at first.

What if she tripped? What if she fell? What if she ran head-on into a wall?

Blind for 16 years, Maria Perez still struggled getting around in her Santa Clarita home. And then someone came along and dared her to take the stage as an actress, under the lights, under the gaze of an audience.

“There’s no way,” she thought. “No way I can do it.”

That was two years ago, when she first joined Theater by the Blind, a troupe of all-blind actors who put on a show despite their disability. On March 10, Perez and eight other actors will present “Private Eyes,” a love triangle drama of deceit.

And Perez, 36, will take center stage as the lead character, a feisty, sneaky actress named Lisa.

“I’m subtle, reserved, nothing like her,” Perez said.

For many in the theater company, each script offers just that: a chance to escape and transform into pixies, army sergeants, football players and ruthless dictators.

Offstage, they each have their own real-life dramas of how glaucoma, detached retinas or gunshots robbed their sight — at birth, as teenagers and as adults.

Read the story by Esmeralda Bermudez

For more information in CRE Outreach