According to Collaboractions, a Chicago theatrical cooperative intent on making art for and by everyday people, “theater permeates all aspects of life”. You can nudge that thought just a little harder and say life is theater. Following their mission of inclusion, broad access and social action, the group’s works embrace voices that rarely receive the exposure and amplification they warrant.
Since 2016, the collective has been presenting Peacebook, a festival made up of short works about peace and peacemaking. When folded into other key values of the organization that wrap in community engagement and the cultivation of knowledge, the theater they make can take on unexpected depth and dimension.
This year’s festival may be virtual, but the shift to the digital dimension doesn’t seem to have limited the impact of their work. Serving as the perfect nourishment for our arts starved landscape, the ten video performances comprising 2020’s roster aired on October 17th and will run through November 14th.
I Used to Write with My Left Hand by Luzzo, and The Dance … Never Give Up, by Matthew LaChapelle have nothing in common other than that they both show how it’s possible to reach self-actualization and inner peace despite the challenges of being different.
As we watch the artist’s hands, fingernails painted a beautiful pale lavender, while he writes on a blank sheet of paper, Luzzo’s opening seems to carry elements of a children’s fairy tale. First, he attempts to write with his left hand before switching to his right in frustration. While he’s writing, he’s talking, letting us in on the details of his life. We learned earlier in the introduction that his story will contain sexual assault, suicide and violence and that it all begins in 2005 when he’s nine years old. It’s the human details that reveal the power of relationships and that give the story’s like Luzzo’s their heart. His shows how similarly families can behave when faced with the difficulty of differentness. How fathers can be so repulsed by effeminate sons that they respond with physical aggression. How the suicide of one gay adult cousin affects another cousin who, even though early in his adolescence, already accepting of his sexuality. How reconciliation is frequently accompanied by forgiveness, understanding and empathy. Full of intelligence and maturity, Luzzo accepts the loss of his cousin with surprising grace. Only ten minutes long, I Used to Write with My Left Hand is the kind of restorative we all need to show the capacities of the human spirit.
Matthew LaChapelle’s ebullience and charisma almost made you think you were watching a guy doing stand-up in The Dance … Never Give Up. In this case, outward demeanor hides the seriousness of the topic. We make assumptions about others who live with discernible challenges. Usually those assumptions are wrong and it’s the people marked by their limitations who must navigate through our ignorance and bias. Matthew’s story couldn’t more universal. A high schooler goes to a dance full of excitement and expectation. Downs Syndrome doesn’t negate the soul of a teenager. When a bully confronts him by saying he looks funny and then attacks him by pushing him down, he’s naturally shattered. But it’s only momentary. A friend comes to his rescue and makes the dance better than he could have ever dreamed. It’s the way he talks about the second, more important rescue, the one that had him dig within himself and tap into his own courage, that makes you appreciate the power of proactive nurturing.
Collaboractions Peacebook Festival
October 17 – November 14, 2020
