Best Theatrical Activism
Actual Lives
The title says it all: This is theatre of the real, the stuff of which life is actually made – love, sex, hate, fear, food, and brain injury. Actual Lives features the work of adults with disabilities performing their own stories from their own experiences. Led by deaf performance artist (and Esther’s Follies co-founder) Terry Galloway and occupational therapist/Ph.D. candidate Chris Strickling, what began as one weeklong workshop has grown into two theatrical productions per year and has become a model for similar programs around the country. The students enjoy a week of writing and workshopping their material, which culminates in a live performance for the public. The results are amazing, always deeply moving, interesting, insightful, and yes, quite often hilarious. Hearing (or reading the interpreter’s lips or the closed captions that run simultaneous to the show) these truly candid tales may just rock your world.
