Meredith Aleigha Wells ’17, has discovered that limitation breeds creativity. Since graduating from UMass Amherst with a BDIC (Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration) in musical theater, Wells has found many ways to work in the field, despite a scarcity of roles for performers with disabilities and the constraints of COVID-19.
Wells identifies as a queer disabled musical theatre artist and writer. As a UMass sophomore, after about a year of unexplained symptoms, they were diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a form of autonomic dysfunction (dysautonomia). Wells’s symptoms including fatigue and dizziness vary day to day and they use a wheelchair most of the time.