VSA arts AMLI, St Paul.
PROPOSAL FROM VSA ARTS OF TEXAS

Title:  Actual Lives Performance Workshop, all levels 

Presenters beginning with the lead presenter:
	Celia Hughes, Executive Director, VSA arts of Texas
	celia@vsatx.org
512-454-9912 V
512-454-6298 TTY
512-454-1944 Fax

	Laura Griebel, Actual Lives company member, VSA TX Board President
	griebel@ev1.net

	Chris Strickling, Doctoral Candidate in English & Disability Studies, UT Austin
	cstrick@mail.utexas.edu
	512-894-7334

Type of session:  Workshop.  We suggest a format in which participants meet together for one session where they will learn about Actual Lives writing and performance structure through an interactive, participatory workshop.  A two-hour session would be optimum. 

Session Strand: Inclusion

Session Track:  All conference participants.
	
Session Description:  Starting with communication exercises, participants will move into writing personnel narratives and sharing them with the other participants.  Movement and music may be explored in the shared performances.  The Ethic of Accommodation, a core principle of Actual Lives, is demonstrated in the facilitation of the workshop. No writing or performance experience necessary.  

Content Description:  Actual Lives makes theatre from the raw material of daily life, with a focus on the lived experience of disability.  Based on the successful collaboration of deaf performance artist Terry Galloway with producers Chris Strickling and Celia Hughes in Austin, Texas, Actual Lives has become the first and only disability-focused performance ensemble in Texas.  For the conference workshop, participants will articulate their experiences in whatever expressive form they have, and workshop leaders will help translate those stories into performance. Using a blend of spoken word, movement, poetry, and whatever else works, Actual Lives captures the experience of living with disability and allows participants to have an authentic voice, while encouraging audiences to expand their notions of what disability really means. An excellent model for developing a theatrical presence for disabled adults can be replicated in any community; no need for previous writing or performance experience. 


Learner Outcomes:
Participants will gain information to conduct a writing and performance exercise in their organization. Participants will gain awareness about the real life experiences of people with disabilities.

Source of Information:  Actual Lives has been a program of VSA arts of Texas since the summer 2000.  Terry Galloway, Chris Strickling and Celia Hughes have conducted three weeklong workshops and staged readings that each developed into a full-length performance.  In addition, they and other company members have conducted two workshops with culminating performances at the School to Work Transition Conference in Taos, New Mexico (September 2001) and most recently, the Pac Rim Conference on Disability (February 2003).


