Zabella’s Circle, presented by Arts for Humanity! and the Blue
Moon Players. At Center Stage Theater, Saturday, December 2. Plays
through December 9.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Schwyzer
somehow circumvents the whole set of assumptions and standards I
use to evaluate art. It’s almost impossible to predict beforehand
whether a show will have that kind of effect, and even after the
fact it can be hard to say why. In this case, though, I can answer
the question of why. This show didn’t need me to sit back and hold
up a yardstick; it called on me to shed my defenses as a viewer and
become present to the performers, who were in a state of full
self-expression.
This is not about abandoning standards when assessing work made
by artists with developmental disabilities, though Karsen Gould’s
Arts for Humanity! does work with performers with various abilities
and disabilities. This is about what happens when a human being
creates something of beauty where there was nothing — creates it
for no reason other than the joy of creating. Zabella’s Circle is
really a series of small, joyful creations, each one of them the
product of play, exploration, and openness among people.