At 53, this visually impaired junior chef with lupus is pursuing her dream of becoming a stage actress

Odilia Ser is acting in a theatre performance – but unlike most performers, she does not need light to get around. 

She is blind in her left eye, and retains only five to 10 per cent of her vision in her right eye, with dark patches clouding her view. She can only make out bright, high-contrast colours and must angle her gaze carefully to avoid the blind areas.

She was 19 when her vision began to fade, and along with it, her dream of becoming an actress. So she put that dream aside, learnt braille, and took courses to enable to earn a living as a visually impaired person.   

Now, decades later, the 53-year-old, who also works as a junior chef in a hotel preparing ingredients for the chef, will make her stage debut at the Enabling Lives Festival, from Nov 30 to Dec 3. The festival, organised by SG Enable, aims to promote accessibility, diversity, and inclusion in Singapore.

She plays a foster mother to a boy with a disability in the ART:DIS play, The Human Condition. Performed in three parts, the play is based on verbatim interviews with people with disabilities about the struggles they face. 

LIVING FOR HER LOVED ONES 

Ser was in secondary school when she began experiencing fatigue and body aches. She saw a general practitioner, who prescribed painkillers: “It didn’t really help, but I just tahan (tolerated it).”

A few months into her studies at the National Institute of Commerce, a vocational institute, the then-19-year-old realised she could not see what was written on the whiteboard in class. 

Her parents then took her to the hospital. There, she found out she had systemic lupus erythematosus, or lupus – an autoimmune disease that explained her earlier discomfort, as its symptoms include constant fatigue and body aches.

Lupus can also cause eye damage. “The doctor told me that there was bleeding inside my eyes, the blood vessels there burst,” Ser said. 

“He told me I was likely going to lose my sight, that I may not be able to see anymore,” she added. “When I heard that, my world collapsed.” 

What broke Ser’s heart was realising that she couldn’t pursue her many dreams.

“There were so many things I wanted to do after I got my O Level certificate,”  she told CNA Women. “I wanted to learn to drive, I loved Mandarin so I wanted to write in Chinese, I wanted to become a deejay, work in the media, or perform on TV or on stage – all cannot do anymore when I found out I couldn’t see.”

Due to her deteriorating eyesight, Ser had to quit school. “Instead of going to school or spending money on my studies, for five years, I was either at home or at the hospital, and spending money on treatment.”

During this dark period of her life, Ser felt grateful for her parents, who took care of her and supported her physically, emotionally, and financially. 

“I am the youngest girl in my family, with two brothers and three sisters,” she said. “My parents were heartbroken when they knew of my condition, but they and my sisters were always there for me.

“I felt very down. I didn’t feel like there was anything to look forward to in life – but my family was so supportive, they motivated me to keep going and never give up, so I continued living for them.”

By her late twenties, Ser had lost most of her vision. She was still in pain and felt fatigued due to her lupus but medication helped to manage the disease. Determined not to succumb to fatigue or lead a sedentary lifestyle, she sought ways to improve herself and adapt to her illness.

With her parents’ support and the subsidies she received from the government as a visually handicapped person, she learnt braille at the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) and enrolled in courses there to make a living. She used to work as a telephone operator and a massage therapist. 

At SAVH, Ser also met her husband, a visually handicapped person who was a librarian there. 

“When I got married, I realised other life milestones I could still reach despite my condition,” she said. “I became a wife to a sweet man and a mother to a kind and understanding boy.”

Her son, who is sighted, is now 20. After he was born, Ser became a stay-at-home mum, supported by her mum and sisters. 

“My family is everything to me,” Ser said. “My husband, son, mum and late father, my sisters – they give me strength and energy to carry on despite my hardships.”

PURSUING HER PASSION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 

In 2023, Ser encountered something she had never thought possible: A play performed by people with disabilities. 

Chachambo: Taking Flight was a stage performance produced by ART:DIS, a non-profit organisation that develops people with disabilities through the arts. 

The play, set in 1960s Singapore, follows a visually-impaired girl who strives to revive an entertainment club. It featured the pioneer batch of ART:DIS’ performing arts training programme, BEYOND DIS:PLAY.

When Ser watched the play, which had accessible features like a narrator on stage providing audio descriptions, she was stunned. 

“I was so impressed and inspired. I never thought a blind person like me could be on stage and acting in theatre,” she said. 

At that time, Ser had returned to the workforce after nearly 20 years as a stay-at-home mum. Since 2020, she has been a junior chef in a hotel. 

The performance stirred something in her. “The interest I had for acting was suddenly alive again,” she said. “I told myself, I need to know how I can do it too, so I got my husband to send an email to the director.” 

The email was addressed to Peter Sau, ART:DIS’ head of artistic development in performing arts. The two met, and in May this year, Ser enrolled in the second cohort of BEYOND DIS:PLAY, which took place on Sunday afternoons. 

Despite the chronic pain and fatigue from her lupus, which Ser continues to manage with medication, she felt energised and refreshed after every training session, which can last five hours.

“My whole Sunday was for the programme,” Ser said. “But even though my weekdays were for work and I get very tired, I’m still so happy on Sundays – Sundays with ART:DIS are my special me time.”

The training includes vocal warm-ups and learning to express oneself. Ser described how Sau and the other directors, who are all trained in performing arts, adapt their methods to support performers with disabilities, such as Down syndrome, severe autism, and visual impairment. 

“Here, I didn’t feel like my blindness was a weakness – everyone worked with it,” Ser said.

The programme introduced Ser to acting techniques centred on body memory, using physical movements to retain steps, and experiential acting, where gestures evoke emotions, such as crouching in anguish or spreading the arms in joy.

One technique for managing a diverse cast with disabilities is getting them to help one another. For instance, a cast member with Down syndrome might guide a visually impaired actor to their next position. Similarly, someone with a visual impairment could prompt the next scene’s opening lines to help an actor with autism recall the script.

A lot of the teaching and acting has to do with synergy, trust, and empowering people with diverse abilities, Ser said. 

“It’s not about being efficient or getting things done in the fastest way possible,” she added. “It’s about meeting different people where they are.”

The trainees were assigned roles suited to their interests and talents, from actors to stage managers and prop designers. Ser was chosen to act. As she can’t see well and is unable to visualise stage cues, she senses her way through. 

“I feel very tense, scared, happy, excited, nervous – all kinds of feelings!” Ser told CNA Women about her upcoming debut. “I still can’t believe I’ll be on stage, performing in front of an audience. I never thought this could ever happen.

“Every day for my whole life, it was either surviving with my disability or living for my loved ones,” she added. “I never regret anything and I’m content with my life but with acting and performing, for the first time, I felt like it was for myself.

“I don’t want to let age or my condition stop me anymore.

“Thanks to such a supportive and kind community, even with my disability, I can still do a lot. I can still perform and become an actress, as long as I’m given the opportunity to do so.”