Ask David Dauber how he became involved with Actual Lives, Austin’s award-winning ensemble that makes “crip theatre with attitude,” and he’ll tell you, “I started as their number one fan.” His wife, Terri Stellar, had been with the group since its first production in August 2000. “We were dating, and she invited me to one of her performances. It was so great seeing people with different disabilities up on stage telling their stories but not in a way you’d normally see.” His involvement didn’t stop there. Dauber had loved performing when he was in high school. “I really wanted to get back into doing some acting. This was a great avenue for me.” So the fan turned actor. And for the group’s latest production, Bytes, Bits & Pieces!, Dauber is pulling double duty as both performer and director.
The Actual Lives performers are people with disabilities who develop material for the stage by first writing about quotidian moments in life. For Bytes, Bits & Pieces!, the themes run the gamut – from the influence of technology to anecdotes about body parts. One performer, missing the days when calculators were forbidden and people weren’t tethered to the Web, wrote a lament to the inundation of gadgets. Another performer wrote a send-up of the urine sample in a piece titled “To Pee or Not to Pee,” which will be presented in dueling simultaneity with a performer who happens to know Hamlet’s famous speech by heart. Dauber says: “There’s a lot of humor. Life is funny. We like to write about those small, strange things that happen as part of everyday, actual lives.” The result is a wide spectrum of experiences funneled into a dynamic performance including video design as well as a dance piece choreographed by Forklift Danceworks Artistic Director Allison Orr (The Trash Project).
Asked about the term “crip theatre with attitude,” Dauber says: “It’s a harsh word, but it’s true. We’re crippled people up there on stage. But if you lay it out for the audience up front, they know what they’re getting into. We’re not a politically correct bunch of folks.” Certainly not. They shy away from no topic, be it drug use or spastic limbs. Actual Lives allows people both with and without disabilities to discover and enjoy their common experiences. Dauber hopes people leave the theatre thinking, “Hey, that guy in the wheelchair who I held the door open for this morning, he’s just a guy like me.”
Actual Lives presents Bytes, Bits & Pieces! Friday, Sept. 25, at 8pm, and Saturday, Sept. 26, at 4pm, at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd. Only the Friday performance is ASL interpreted; both performances include real-time captioning and audio description. For more information, call 454-9912 or visit www.actualives.org.
This article appears in September 25 • 2009.