The Journal

Issue date: 3/3/05 Section: News

Media Credit: RYAN RUMBERGER / The Journal Barbara Hamilton and LaRoy Smith perform Feb. 28.

With dance, humor and moments of drama, 18 performers from a local theater company came to Webster University Feb. 28 to show how people with disabilities are human.

The "DisAbility Project" at the Browning Theatre in the Loretto-Hilton Center drew a large crowd, nearly filling the auditorium.

Barbara Stewart of the Academic Resource Center helped bring the project to Webster as part of the accessibility committee's efforts to host a major community event.

"It was one of our new directions to make sure disability awareness is infused across the campus in everything we do," Stewart said. "Disability represents another part of diversity here on campus, and the university values diversity."

Before coming to Webster, Stewart founded the Belle Center, a program that works with young children and infants with developmental disabilities. Two of the performers in the show, Paula Maas and Bryan Jones, worked with Stewart as children.

The project is an attempt to use humor and entertainment to send a message of understanding, said Joan Lipkin, artistic director of That Uppity Theatre Company and director of the "DisAbility Project." In creating the show, Lipkin said she didn't want to lecture the audience, but rather use the performance to promote "equal parts art and advocacy."

"I think what is effective about our work is that we both entertain and educate," Lipkin said. "And in a sense, we seduce the audience through entertainment."

A Q-and-A session followed the performance. Audience members discussed how the show affected them and asked questions, like how to respond to people who use hurtful language toward those with disabilities.

"It's an opportunity to really extend the experience and have a different kind of conversation," Lipkin said.

The first part of the show is a performance piece and the second is more of an exchange. The openness of the second conversation can't take place without the performance, Lipkin said.

Webster alumnus LaRoy Smith is one of the actors. In one scene, he and his fiancé, Barbara Hamilton, recount how they met at a singles dance. Smith, who has multiple sclerosis and graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in media communications, said the audience was receptive to the message.

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