Adam Pottle does not limit himself to a single writing style.
Born in British Columbia and based in Saskatoon, he is a children’s author, university professor, playwright, memoirist and leader in the deaf and disabled cultural community, among other things. His published work includes a memoir, several novels, a volume of poetry and two plays.
Such style changes are an essential part of his creative process.
“I have a very, very short attention span, so I tend to do what I call genre hopping. So I go back and forth from memoirs to children’s books to plays to horror novels and stuff like that,” Pottle told CBC.
“It helps me expand my toolbox and become a better writer.”
Pottle, who currently teaches communications at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, began writing in his teens, producing what he describes as imitations of authors such as Stephen King.
Although his experiences as a deaf person have played a central role in his work over the years, this was not the case at the beginning.
“I never thought about writing about disability. It wasn’t on my mind at the time, and I think that was a result of internalized hostility toward the disabled,” he said.
“I tried to avoid the subject because if I brought it up, I would have to … think about my relationship with my family, my relationship with the world. And that was not something I was ready to do as a 16-year-old.”
While pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Northern British Columbia, he began studying leading figures in disability theory such as Rosemarie Garland Thompson, Sharon Snyder and David T. Mitchell. Pottle said reading these authors and others in the disability community opened his mind.
“These books have opened up completely new paths for me,” he said.
“I began to see the value of my own perspective. It was as if someone had recognized that there was a machine in my head that had been lying unused for a long time, and that machine had simply been turned on.”
A world first
On August 22, Pottle celebrates the release of his latest play, The Black Drumwith an event at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon. There will be a conversation with Heather Cant, artistic director of the Persephone Theatre, and the event will also be streamed on YouTube.
The Black Drum is published by Playwrights Canada Press and is the first musical written, performed and published entirely by deaf people.
Pottle said the creation The Black Drumwhich was first produced in Toronto, was more difficult than expected.
“I had no idea what the hell a musical for the deaf was because it had never been performed before, but it seemed like an exciting opportunity. And so I agreed to take part, not realising how much work and frustration would lie ahead for me over the next few years,” he said.
“I took The Black drum probably through at least nine or ten drafts before it was finally performed in 2019.”
The piece, performed in American Sign Language (ASL) and with sign music, is described as: “An epic fantasy about grief and healing (that) challenges the concept of music that we are conditioned to believe in and suggests that music is not just something you hear, but something you see and feel.”
Cant, who will co-host the event in McNally, said highlighting deaf and disabled artists helps bring to light the barriers they face.
“We have limitations in our venues and many other things that make it very difficult for artists with disabilities to participate and to participate actively on a regular basis, not just on a specialized basis, but on a regular basis in Canadian theatre,” Cant said.
She added that artists like Pottle are helping to make the theatre world more accessible.
“I think that the grandiose vision that Adam had with his staff The Black Drum are the kind of shows that people need to see to imagine a new way forward,” she said.
“Otherwise we will just carry on as before and exclude many people.”
The Black Drum was not the first time that Pottle wrote for the stage. Ultrasonica play exploring eugenics and the concept of normalcy, was produced in 2016. Pottle has also worked with Saskatchewan companies such as Sum Theatre in the past.
Some projects were more demanding than others. Pottle compared his writing process for Agreean autobiography published in 2019 by the University of Regina Press, to performing surgeries to release and expose the hostility towards people with disabilities that he had internalized.
“I find that in all my works, whether memoirs, novels or dramas, I am much more open, because writing the memoirs was basically like a vivisection on myself. It was painful at times, but it was also necessary.”
Pottle’s first foray into the world of children’s books also came with some unpleasantness. After the final revisions came back from the publisher, with images depicting a racist stereotype and a changed ending, neither of which he approved of, Pottle ended up urging readers not to buy his book. Attract media attention.
“I went on Twitter and told people, ‘I know this book is going to be under my name,’ but I asked them, ‘Please don’t buy it because it doesn’t tell the story I wanted to read. It doesn’t reflect my worldview, which is that everyone should be included,'” Pottle said.
“Apparently it was so unusual for an author to tell people not to buy his book that it just became a big deal.”
Pottle was allowed to publish another children’s book, Butterfly in the wind, in March of this year. He said it was a much better experience, with good communication throughout the process and the addition of a deaf illustrator.
In the future, he will focus on horror fiction. He wants to dispel long-held assumptions about disabled people in this genre, as shown by famous characters such as Freddie Kruger and Michael Myers.
“Horror has a troubled history around disability and I really want to try to subvert some of the stereotypes we see in the genre where disabled people are either… disfigured villains or victims,” Pottle said.
“They’re never the heroes. They’re never someone who’s a fully fleshed out three-dimensional character. And that’s something I want to explore further.”
The way forward
Cant said she hopes the McNally event will educate audiences on how theater norms can be subverted.
“People have a very concrete idea of what a musical is, and they also have – whether they know about it or not – concrete ideas of what it means to be deaf,” she said.
“This intersection doesn’t seem to come about naturally, I think, as a general thought process. But they do, they come about in a really beautiful way.”
Pottle currently writes his first drafts by hand in a blue spiral notebook with a simple pen. He said the act of writing lends a certain intimacy to his writing.
He offered some advice to deaf and disabled artists working on their craft.
“Don’t hold back. Be fearless. Be completely open. Don’t be afraid to show your whole self.”
Then there is the instruction manual, which is so important to his practice that he has written it down on a sticky note within sight on his desk.
“Don’t be afraid to be weird.”
