THE DISABILITY PROJECT PARTNERS WITH THE ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION

• Photo Album 1 January 23, Alzheimers Group
• Photo Album 2 January 23, Alzheimers Project
• Photo Album 3 December 19, Cardinal Ritter

When it came to determining who to ask to develop a theater class for people with early dementia, our skills and experience made us an obvious choice. The DisAbility Project has worked with people with a variety of cognitive abilities for over ten years. So we were delighted to step in when approached by Debra Bryer, Early Stage Coordinator from the Alzheimer’s Association in St. Louis, www.alzstl.org and Cheryl Woodruff, Coordinator for Caregiver Support Services at Cardinal Ritter Senior Services.The Alzheimer’s Association was founded in 1980 and is the world leader in Alzheimer research and support. The association offers frontline support to individuals affected by Alzheimer’s with services that include 24/7 information and referral hotlines, safety services, and education and support groups. The St. Louis chapter serves more than 65,000 families in the 38-county service area of St. Louis metro, eastern Missouri and western Illinois. Cardinal Ritter Senior Services (CRSS) provides services to improve the quality of life for senior adults by promoting and providing social, health, and housing programs and services in St. Louis City and County, as well as in St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin and Warren Counties. The mission of CRSS is to be a leader in providing an integrated continuum of quality social services, housing, residential care and health care services for the senior adult and is accomplished in a nurturing environment that recognizes every person’s dignity and provides security, advocacy, and independence.The classes are meeting twice a month to work with Artistic Director, Joan Lipkin, Uppity Assistant Director, Sarah Shimchick, Interns, Jo Firestone from Wesleyan University, Jessica Gibson and Kate Koch from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Sessions feature icebreakers, theatre games, singing, dancing, and conversation. Participants are also creating a short performance piece to premiere at the Alzheimer’s Association Volunteer Recognition Event. In addition to being fun and fostering community, our classes—among the first of their kind in the country—stimulate cognition in participants. Photographer Marian Brickner has documented the experience for a traveling exhibit.

LaRoy Smith getting a hug from an audience member at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy 2005

Mission

The Story of The DisAbility Project

Since 1996, That Uppity Theatre Company has focused on developing projects that bring together amateur performers with professional artists to create innovative material based on lived experience.  Co-founded by Joan Lipkin and Fran Cohen, The DisAbility Project represents one of the most comprehensive creative endeavors in the Midwest to address issues of disability and creativity.  Few organizations in the country have presented such a broad-based collaboration between disabled and able-bodied actors, artists, designers, activists, and other members of the community.

We rehearse most Saturday mornings in space donated by the Washington University School of Medicine’s Program in Occupational Therapy in the Central West End of the city of St. Louis.  Most rehearsals are open to the public.  Our season runs September through June, with performances throughout Missouri and Illinois.

People with disabilities are typically absent from representation and participation in our cultural landscape.  According to the 2000 Missouri Census, an estimated 17% of the population in the state experiences some form of disability, whether it is sensory, cognitive, or mobility related.  With over 55 million people with disabilities in the United States, it is the largest and most financially challenged population in the country.

The DisAbility Project brings awareness and sensitivity to issues in the disability community through a combination of art and advocacy that tours to a variety of audiences.  The project has performed for approximately 35,000 people to date, presenting at educational institutions, conferences, special events, festivals, religious and civic groups, and corporations.

Our group is comprised of people with and without disabilities who are diverse in age, race, ethnicity, class, occupation, education, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, and performance experience. 

Some of the challenges facing participants include spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, AIDS, alcoholism, asthma, cancer, Polio, stroke, epilepsy, blindness, brain injury, bipolar disorder, amputation, depression, and cognitive delay. 

Ensemble members engage in conversation, writing, sound, movement and theatrical exercises to create educational and entertaining performance pieces on the culture of disability.  Many people with disabilities are finding both a sense of community and an outlet for their talents in the project, while our artists without disabilities have had their worldview expanded.

Selected Performances Conferences:
Conferences and Fairs:
American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers
Assistive Technology Consumer Fair
Fair Housing (Equal Housing Opportunity Council)
Gateway to Diversity (Greater St. Louis Federal Executive Board)
International Society for Disability Studies
Missouri Business Leadership Network
Missouri State Convention of Student Council Associations
National Association of Dual Diagnoses
National Benevolent Association, 7th Annual HUD Conference
Parent-to-Parent
St. Louis Art Fair
United Church of Christ
University of Missouri-Kansas City Institute of Human Development’s AmeriCorps Missouri

Churches and Temples:
Central Reform Congregation
Christ Church Cathedral
Epiphany United Church of Christ
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis
Shaare Emeth
Union Avenue Christian Church
United Hebrew Congregation

Schools:
Affton High School
Athena Elementary School
Cathedral School
Crossroads High School
Glenridge Elementary School
Gotsch School
Hicroft Ridge Elementary School
Ladue High School
Missouri Fine Arts Academy
Missouri Scholars Academy
Nerinx High School
New City School
Parkway Central High School
Robinson Elementary School
Rose Acres Elementary School
Rossman School
Ursuline Academy
Visitation Academy
Whitfield School

Colleges and Universities:
Maryville University
St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley
St. Louis Community College at Meramec
St. Louis University
University of Missouri St. Louis
Washington University
Webster University

Additional Audiences:
Big Bear Creek Golf Course
Bi-State Development Agency
Food Outreach
Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis
Magic House
Missouri History Museum
Reuter’s Corporation
Schlafly Public Library
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra On-Stage, Powell Symphony Hall
St. Louis Zoo
United Access
Veteran’s Administration Medical Center-John Cochran Division

Joan Lipkin and That Uppity Theatre Company have been recognized with numerous honors, including: a Focus St. Louis “What’s Right with the Region” Award for Improving Racial Equality and Social Justice, a Missouri Governor’s Council on Disability Community Enhancement Award, a Missouri Arts Council Missouri Arts Award, a John Van Voris Award for Community Service, an Arts for Life Special Lifetime Achievement Award, a Human Rights Campaign Organizational Equality Award, a Distinguished Alumni Award from Webster University, a Woman of Worth Award, and a Visionary Award from Grand Center, Inc.

Joan’s Corner

Hello Friends (new and old)~ 
We are in our tenth season, we would like to highlight some of our recent milestones and events.  This past year was marked with many firsts.  We performed at the first annual Assistive Technology Fair in St. Louis at the America’s Center, which I co-chaired.  We also performed for both the military and St. Louis Zoo for the very first time, as part of their employee sensitivity training.  Other performance firsts included Schlafly Public Library, the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, Rose Acres Elementary School, and the International Society for Disability Studies Conference held in St. Louis this year. 

One of our most special performances was onstage at the Lorretto-Hilton Center at Webster University, where the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis usually performs.  On a snowy Monday night, we attracted over 600 people.  Many others tried to attend and didn’t stay because they were unable to find parking.  The performance was a homecoming of sorts for myself and project member, LaRoy Smith as Webster University is our alma mater. 

In addition to appearing in several new locations, we have expanded our performance repertoire significantly, creating several new pieces. “You Going to the Show?” is a new piece that I created with Ashley Nanney during a brainstorming session.  The piece satirically highlights many of the audience’s preconceptions upon entering a performance of the project.   The moral of the piece is quite simple: it is ok to laugh with us.  If the audience does not respond to the ensemble’s pieces in some way, we are not doing our job.
 
Since St. Louis has become a center for hip-hop and is the home of superstar Nellie as well as the St. Lunatics, Murphy Lee, and Chingy, we thought we would break onto the rap scene with our very own “DisAbility Rap.”  Although it has yet to go platinum, it has been a huge success with audiences.  The rap recounts famous individuals with disabilities who have made great contributions to history and urges people to abandon their preconceptions/misconceptions about the disability community, “If you want to know the truth, release your resistance.”

Another new piece developed by the group describes how disability can affect a non-disabled family member.  “Daddy, I Need You” is based on an ensemble member’s feelings after her uncle was in a paralyzing car accident.  She witnessed him giving up hope and wanted to express all the ways in which he was still needed as a father.

One of the other project’s members created “Swimming,” describing the liberating experience of moving easily in a pool as a person with Cerebral Palsy.  We have been doing a lot of playing with movement in the group and have developed two new movement pieces, “Jeremiah,” “The DisAbility Ballet,” “Ease on Down,” and a untitled piece about violence.

Love is in the air!  Barb Hamilton and LaRoy Smith, the project’s proud couple (LaRoy even presented Barb with a ring at a Saturday rehearsal), created a piece depicting the story of their meeting at a singles’ dance and their subsequent romance.  Meanwhile, Alison Chancellor, is looking for love…and other adventures that come with living on one’s own in her new piece, “Leaving Home,” portraying her desire for independence, while also giving voice to a mother’s very practical concerns for her daughter.  

We have been busy playing and performing and cannot wait to see what next season has in store for us!  Please think about playing with us, booking us, or helping to continue to make our work financially possible.

All best,

Joan Lipkin
Founder and Artistic Director
That Uppity Theatre Company

The DisAbility Project has performed for more than 20,000 people, ranging from children to academics to bus drivers, in settings from schools, to corporations and communities of faith.

We continue to gain recognition for our work.  In recent years, we have received the following awards:

- Special Recognition from the Recreation Council of Greater St. Louis
- Organization Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign
- Special Recognition from the Recreation Council of Greater St. Louis
- Outstanding Alumna Award from Webster University
- FOCUS ST. LOUIS What's Right With The Region Award for Improving Racial Justice and Social Equality
- Missouri Arts Award
- John Van Voris Award for Community Service
- Arts for Life Special Lifetime Achievement in Progress Award
- Governor's Council on Disability Inclusion Award for Community Enhancement
- Honorable Mention Community Enhancement Award from the Governor's Council on Disability

The Project has been featured in both American Theatre magazine, a national theatre magazine, and has a feature currently running about us on the St. Louis PBS affiliate, KETC Channel 9.

>> VSA Arts Playwright Discovery Program:

That Uppity Theatre Company is partnering with eighth grade students of Hancock Middle School, providing free playwriting workshops to create scripts for submission to the 2005 Playwright Discovery Program.

Uppity intern and George Warren Brown Social Work student, Beth Hill, will be working with students during their Communication Arts and Reading classes.Ms. Hill just finished her first semester at Washington University in social welfare after a fourteen years’ stint as a speech communication and theatre instructor at Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City, MO.

Prior to her time at Maple Woods, Beth taught at Southwest MO State University, Southeast MO State University and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where she received her doctorate in speech communication. Beth has worked with Missouri Repertory Theatre (now Kansas City Repertory), she performed with the Patchwork Company, a professional children's theatre company that was designed to perform for migrant farm laborers' children.

Beth has also worked with improvisational theatre, dance, dinner theatre, outdoor drama, and puppetry.

Peace,

Joan Lipkin
Artistic Director