The Team

Actual Lives, as a flexible tool for developing autobiographical performance in a community theatre context, was the brainstorm of deaf performance artist Terry Galloway, who had used the page-to-stage format in various contexts since 1993. The Austin version of Actual Lives, which focused Galloway's model on disabled performers who created work about their lives, came to life through a tight collaboration between Galloway, writer and disability scholar Chris Strickling, and Celia Hughes, executive director of Access Arts Austin, a local non-profit organization dedicated to making arts accessible to people with disability (which later affiliated with VSA to become VSA arts of Texas). Galloway's intensely engaging energy, and her willingness to push the writing as far as it can go, galvanized the group. Strickling's ability to facilitate narrative development and her broad knowledge of disability made it possible to harmoniously accommodate many different kinds of disability. Hughes' community connections and years of theatre experience insured high quality performance in venues that provided a welcoming home to the work.

In August of 2000, the Actual Lives Performance Project of Austin, Texas gave its first public performance at the Vortex Theater, an alternative theatre space that was one of a handful of venues equipped to host an ensemble of disabled performers. We titled that show "Cripples in the House," as a way to suggest that our presence there was in no way apologetic. We weren't there to inspire anyone. Originally conceived as a one-week workshop, the project continues in 2007 as an ongoing contribution to the cultural dialogue about disability.