“I’m one of those people who tends to go into a room and notice what is not represented, as well as what is represented,” says Joan Lipkin, artistic director of That UPPITY Theatre Company in St. Louis, Missouri. “I noticed, so often, when I would go to the theatre, I would rarely see people with apparent physical disabilities onstage. It just seemed like a population that wasn’t represented very much, and so I became more interested in what that was about. I was interested in seeing what it would be like to look into the lives of people with disabilities, and have them create work about their own lives.”
That interest led to the creation of The DisAbility Project, (www.disabilityproject.com), an ensemble that engages in conversation, writing, sound, movement, and theatrical exercises to create and perform material that is relevant to members of the disabled culture. The group is comprised of everyone from college students to lawyers, actors, and researchers. While the majority of the people in the ensemble have disabilities, such as spinal cord impairment (SCI), blindness, and multiple sclerosis (MS), it is comprised of a few people without disabilities, as well. “I wanted to have an integrated company, so that, no matter who we were performing for, whether it was people with disabilities or people without, they would somehow be able to find a point of recognition and identify with what they saw onstage.
Preach-free Zone
With equal measures of art and advocacy, the project aims to both entertain and educate. “The cornerstone of our work is humor,” Lipkin says. “We think that humor is a great equalizer. We consider ourselves to be a ‘preach-free zone,’ and we know that most people are afraid of disability itself. It makes them uncomfortable. Often, the audience may be uptight about coming to see us. They don’t know what they’re going to encounter. They’re afraid they’re going to be made to feel guilty, or perhaps uncomfortable about their own physical capabilities. We try to take away that concern right away. When we show that we can laugh at ourselves, we encourage them to laugh with us. It dispels a lot of the anxiety on the part of the audience.”
In a piece called “Parking,” the battle between disabled and ambulatory drivers is depicted as a Clint Eastwood-style western, complete with a band of vigilantes called “the Quad Squad,” which eventually reclaims the disabled parking space. “It’s so unexpected that project participants would do something like this, that the audience just finds it very funny. We take a situation that’s difficult and we extend it theatrically, in a way that we can find humor in it.”
In another vignette, entitled “Coffeehouse,” patrons with disabilities attempt to convince the business’s owners that the building should be made accessible to them. “We’re trying to point out things that people without disabilities might not ever think about,” explains Lipkin.
The ensemble has performed for a variety of audiences, including schools and churches. Lipkin acknowledges, though, that some pieces that are appropriate for one audience may not be right for another. “There are some pieces that we don’t do for certain audiences,” she says. One such piece in the presentation, entitled “Go Figure,” which relates the real-life experience of a quadriplegic woman, paralyzed from the neck down, who searches for love and physical intimacy following her accident.
“It’s about how she tries to find a partner, romantically, and she’s very funny about it.” For example, the main character puts an ad in the newspaper that describes her as an energetic woman on wheels, and a respondent to the ad claims that he thought she was just a woman who drove around a lot.
In addition to the humor, there’s deeper meaning to be found, as well. “It’s really about how she meets a man after her accident and they fall in love. It’s about how she connects with him, on a spiritual, psychological, and physical plane, and that’s not a piece that we do for children. We do it for adult audiences, and not all adult audiences. There’s nothing graphic about it, but some people are offended by the idea that people with disabilities have sex lives.”
A piece called “Hello” features a little girl who wants to play and talk with a man who uses a wheelchair. “The girl’s mother is uncomfortable when she sees this man, so she sneaks behind her mother’s back and develops this relationship,” Lipkin describes. “It’s really very funny, and also very tender. While kids may appreciate the piece, it’s also meant for adults, as they are often the ones who struggle with shame and discomfort around disability.”
An Open Dialogue
While her ensemble is spreading important messages like the ones mentioned above, Lipkin’s own narration enhances them. “I provide a narration that weaves the pieces together,” she says. “I watch the audience, and I’m gauging their reaction as I’m up there, so I’m able to soften or reinforce certain things accordingly. I’ll give a context, so that things don’t seem so stark when we do them. I think that, in some ways, I become the eyes and ears, and the heart of the audience, and make it easier for them to take in what we’re giving them. We have found that to be a very effective device.”
After every performance, the ensemble opens up a dialogue with the audience regarding disability. “We consider it an important part of the experience; it breaks down barriers.” Performers introduce and talk a little bit about themselves, and a question and answer session commences. “We contextualize the disability as another aspect of somebody’s life, rather than being the only thing.”
This is especially important when talking to kids. “They ask ‘What happened to you?,’ and sometimes we tell them that nothing happened, that some of the performers were born this way, and that it’s normal for them,” says Lipkin. In other cases, they’ll take the time to explain the nature of a particular accident or disease that caused a performer to aquire a disability. “Kids are not embarrassed to ask questions. That’s why we tell them what the situation is. We just make it normal; we don’t act like there’s an elephant in the room that we’re not going to talk about. We’re trying to create dialogue, and I don’t think that you create dialogue by censorship,” Lipkin stresses. By contrast, adults seem to internalize the performance. “They tend to tell us what was meaningful for them.”
Moving Performances
Presently, with the help of funding from the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, the ensemble of The DisAbility Project has performed in front of nearly 20,000 people throughout Missouri and Illinois. “We do anywhere from one to three performances a month, usually from September through June.”
Though the ensemble has performed for crowds as large as nine hundred to one thousand people, they don’t often perform for groups of less than a hundred people. However, smaller groups are sometimes invited to watch rehearsals. In the past, groups of physical therapists, conference attendees, and even those with recent SCIs have been spectators.
“People with disabilities are really moved by seeing our work. Sometimes, during the dialogue, they begin to cry. They’ve never seen their lives represented in a way that feels truthful and respectful and loving onstage, let alone in the mainstream culture.”
Audience members are not the only ones who have been moved. In recent years, The DisAbility Project has won several awards, including the Missouri Arts Award, a Community Enhancement Award from the Governor’s Council on Disability and the Arts for Life Special Lifetime Achievement in Progress Award. Additionally, a documentary about the project has been filmed, which features both pieces of the presentation and the stories of some of the people who appear in them. If you wish to see it, please contact: That Uppity Theatre Company, 4466 West Pine Blvd. #13C. St. Louis, MO 63108. You can call them at 314-534-1454 or fax them at 314 534-6591. Or, you can email them.
Lori A. Wood is a frequent contributor to Orbit.
