Our Faces, Our Selves

Self portraits via the police Identi-Kit
| by Giles Revell, Matt Willey and Matthew McKinnon
Michael Williams-Stark, Musician/Voice actor:

At the time of my birth, nobody gave me a trophy, but I was told I was the most severe cleft lip and palate case in British Columbia. I've lost count, but I've had around thirteen or fourteen surgeries. One can't be this handsome by nature. It takes a team of surgeons to build a beauty like this.

You learn very early on that the world can be a tough place when you have a facial disfigurement. People would drive by and scream things at me out of cars when I was three or four. I went home and asked my mom how come people were always yelling things at me. I can remember her lifting me up and holding me up to the medicine cabinet mirror and saying, "Well, here's where you're different than other people. You were born this way. Here's what happened." It didn't bother me much then. But as I became more of a social creature and went to school, or anytime I'd participate in anything new, there was some hurdle I'd have to jump over. I remember going to buy the latest Beatles album or something, and on my way up to Woodward's I'd consciously pick the route where I would run into the fewest human beings so I wouldn't get harassed. To have that kind of stress placed upon those little shoulders is a lot. You become world weary.

Once I taught my first workshop, I just knew. It was like being kissed by God. I got to use all the things I did for a living and combine them with my childhood to come up with this program, Making Faces. I knew right away that improv was a perfect tool, because to get through life you have to make eye contact and use your voice, and that's very difficult for people with a facial difference.

1 comment(s)

Francesco SinibaldiSeptember 20, 2008 15:29 EST

An evidence for you.

When everything
shines in the
light of October
there's a beautiful
seaside, and a
careful watcher: the
sun fades away,
and even a
strange man
arrives near a
fountain.

Francesco Sinibaldi

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