Still Point Theatre

It is hard to believe that those people winning critical acclaim for their role in a Still Point Theatre Collective Production would not so long ago have been incarcerated, ignored, abused or allowed to languish. That transformation is down to this revelatory arts and theatre group that has turned the focus from intellectual and physical disability into ability and crime into powerful expression – all this through the arts.

The teamwork, the joy, the smiles, the sense of achievement and the applause is positively transformative. The impact on the individual, their family and local community is extraordinary

Still Point Theatre Collective, a not-for-profit, was started in 1993 by Lisa Wagner Carollo, a singer and actor (Winner of Seeds of Hope Award, Chicago 2009). She wanted to show that people can achieve beyond their imagination through the arts. She and her Still Point colleagues prove again and again that when people, of any age, gender, background and ability, are valued, understood and given a voice - the results are transformative.

Still Point believes in the arts as a human right. No wonder. It is through the arts they are able to give people self-expression and free their creative energies. They put on shows and attract appreciative audiences aplenty. The impact? Lives reclaimed. People, once out in the cold back into society’s mainstream.

Through their outreach work they work with prisoners who use theatre as a way to share their story and as a tool for social justice. But Still Point’s impact stretches even further into communities, workplaces and health and social services – they are changing perceptions and how people deemed Intellectually disabled are actually performers, creatives, valuable workers and citizens.