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Art and activism : pioneering theater artists with disabilities /
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Collection Overview

Title:

Art and activism: pioneering theater artists with disabilities
Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement oral history series

Creator/Contributor:

Lewis, Victoria, interviewee.

Creator/Contributor:

Wade, Cheryl Marie, interviewee.

Creator/Contributor:

Cowan, Kathryn, interviewer.

Creator/Contributor:

Ehrlich, Esther, interviewer.

Creator/Contributor:

Bancroft Library, Regional Oral History Office,, issuing body.

Abstract:

Early years in Missouri and Texas; contracting polio at age three; receiving master's degree in literature from Columbia University; leaving teaching to pursue acting; rejection from Neighborhood Playhouse due to disability; moving to Portland, Oregon; joining the Family Circus Theater; moving to San Francisco, 1978; working on The Independent at the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley (CIL); joining Lilith Woman's Theatre; influence of Judy Heumann; CIL as consumer model system; developing first performance piece about disability; teaching theater to women with disabilities; writing No More Stares; moving to Los Angeles, 1980; Virginia Rubin as role model; developing work at Mark Taper Forum; power of disabled-only environments; Other Voices theater workshop; PhD in theater from University of California, Los Angeles; training in the arts for young people with disabilities; California Arts Council grant; Tell Them I'm a Mermaid; depictions of disabled people in theater, fighting stereotypes; accessibility issues in theater; casting and training issues for actors with disabilities in film and TV; Chautauquas: bringing together artists with disabilities. Supplementary material includes photographs, clippings, articles by Lewis, etc.
Family background; role of music and poetry; disabled children and the role of physical touch; acknowledging and surviving childhood sexual abuse; experiences in school; onset of rheumatoid arthritis at age ten; attitudes of medical establishment; mother's denial of disability; parents' alcoholism; returning to College of Marin, 1974, impact of more accessible campus; complexity of the disability experience; University of California, Berkeley's Physically Disabled Students' Program; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Judy Heumann; motorized wheelchair; becoming an activist; attending UC Berkeley; impressions of Berkeley's disability rights activists; decision to leave psychology program; joining Wry Crips, disabled women's theater group, 1985; Wry Crips goals: inclusion, education, empowerment; decision to leave Wry Crips, 1989; inception of Axis Dance Company; Axis' international recognition; working with Brava! For Women in the Arts; receiving National Endowment for the Arts Solo Theater Artist Fellowship; choosing to write about disability; the Corporation on Disabilities and Telecommunications (CDT); Professional Enrichment Project; creative process as writer; role of art in disability rights; mainstream media and disability; Ed Roberts.

Date:

2002 (issued)

Contents:

Actor, founding director of the Other Voices Project at the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles / Victoria Ann Lews -- Writer and performance artist / Cheryl Marie Wade.

Subject:

n-us---
Actors with disabilities -- United States -- Interviews
Women performance artists -- United States -- Interviews
Actors with disabilities -- United States
People with disabilities -- Drama
Women with disabilities -- United States
Women authors, American
Acteurs handicapés -- États-Unis -- Entretiens
Acteurs handicapés -- États-Unis
Femmes handicapées -- États-Unis
Écrivaines américaines
Actors with disabilities
People with disabilities
Women authors, American
Women performance artists
Women with disabilities
United States
Center for Independent Living.
Project Other Voices.
Wry Crips.
AXIS Dance Troupe.
AXIS Dance Company (Oakland, Calif.)
AXIS Dance Troupe.
Center for Independent Living.
Lewis, Victoria -- Interviews
Wade, Cheryl Marie -- Interviews

Note:

interviews conducted by Kathy Cowan and Esther Ehrilich in 2002 and 2003.
AUDIO/VISUAL MATERIALS RESTRICTED. Requests for use of original must be approved by the appropriate curator.
Interview transcripts also available online.
Victoria Ann Lewis interviews Also available on audiocassette (Phonotape 4046 C). No. 1, February 28, 2002 interview (video also available); no. 2-3, March 1, 2002 interview.
Victoria Ann Lewis February 28, 2002 interview Also available on videocassette (Motion Picture 1435 D).
Oral histories are made available for research purposes only. All publication rights are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Permissions Officer, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Type:

Drama.
Interviews.
Oral histories.

Physical Description:

1 volume (vi, 160 pages) : portraits ; 29 cm
3 audiocassettes
1 videocassette
1 portfolio

Language:

English

Origin:

California

Copyright Note:

AUDIO/VISUAL MATERIALS RESTRICTED. Requests for use of original must be approved by the appropriate curator.
Oral histories are made available for research purposes only. All publication rights are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Permissions Officer, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.