Play With Your Food

Not your ordinary thespians

Comments (0) By Quetta Carpenter Thursday, May 22 2003

When Kathy Tweet decided to experiment with her Improbable Theatre Company, the audition notice read: "Calling all drama kings and queens." She got seven kings and queens to be part of a collectively autobiographical narrative called Actual Lives: Candid Snapshots, which will be performed in the Herberger Theater Center's Lunch Time Theater series.

courtesy of ABIL

Reality show: Disabled actors share their Actual Lives.

Details

Thursday, May 22, as well as May 27 through 29 and June 3 through 5, at 12:10 p.m. Doors open at 11:40 a.m. (The Lunch Time Theater entrance is on Van Buren, between Second and Third streets.) Tickets are $5. Call 602-254-7399, extension 106 or 104, for details. Visitors may bring their own lunches, but $5 catered lunches from Paisley Violin can be ordered by calling 602-254-7843 by 9 a.m. on the day of the show.

Takes place at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 East Monroe

More About

Tweet is one of the founders of the company, which creates an opportunity to perform and write for people with disabilities. "We want to become an ensemble, and this is a marvelous way to do it," says Tweet, who did recruiting for Actual Lives at ABIL, a local disability advocacy group.

Cindy Brown, an accomplished theater director who has worked locally with many companies, including Theater Works, Writer's Circle and the now-defunct Planet Earth Theatre, also serves as the training and program coordinator for the AZ Office for Americans With Disabilities. She co-directs the project with Julie Peterson, another local director, actress and stage manager.

Brown says there were no auditions for the project, per se. "We just told them, If you'll come, if you'll write, if you'll commit to the rehearsal schedule, you have a part.'"

The group decided that it would limit rehearsal to three days a week to avoid strains on the actors' stamina. "This isn't about a polished, perfect piece. It's about learning about the lives of people who usually don't share their lives," says Brown.

"I love being a part of this group," says Tweet. "Once you get a taste of theater, there's something about it -- you're hooked."