Senior Lindsey Carey wants society to have an attitude adjustment and whatever Lindsey wants, Lindsey gets.
     The energetic, versatile performer is presenting her bachelor’s degree in acting requisite senior project this week at the Stables Theatre.
     “Uplifted” is a variety show using the arts as an expression of activism. A powerful night in defense of women’s struggles, Carey herself stars in a self-written, one-woman show exposing the perils of domestic violence in relationships.
     “Soar” concerns a young entertainer, Polly, who exploits traditional modes of performance to bury the horror of her experience with relationship abuse.
     “She uses various vices, sign language, song, dance, Shakespeare as well as a comedic, semi-dramatic storyline to beat around the bush,” Carey said about the show via telephone.
     “You really don’t know what she’s talking about at first. You know it’s about a boy and a relationship and with each storyline, it becomes less funny and more serious,” said Carey. “She’s in an emotional, psychological and physically abusive relationship which ends on the night of her rape. She reflects on how she’s overcome it, how it does not consume or define her.”
     The inspiration for “Soar” and the entire endeavor of “Uplifted” stemmed from an intersection of Carey’s two interests, her major in acting and minor in women’s studies, as well as her own personal experience with this issue.
     “I’ve been very interested in women’s struggles with violence, in wartime, personal relationships, all different areas,” Carey said. “I wanted to understand and research why this violence happens.”
     The creative writing process has been novel for Carey, who has been working on writing the script and coordinating the production of “Uplifted” for nearly two years.
     “I’ve never written a script, though I’ve done a lot of plays and analyzing of scripts. The show started with [a] diary about my own trial with domestic violence. Then I started writing dialogue and stage directions. I just didn’t want to tell my own story,” said Carey. “I did interviews with other strong women in a group and asked them, ‘If you could reflect emotion, how would you reflect it by using art?’”
     “I wanted to stretch myself as an artist,” she added.
     Yet the actress and academic was adamant that “Uplifted” not focus only on a negative portrayal of men in discussions of relationship violence, but more on motivating the action to take action to end it.

     “Polly bashes behavior, not men,” Carey said. “Though some men let anger out on women, I did not want the show to become a bashing of men.”
     “I’m using the performance as more of a stepping stone for awareness through the arts, since art is a reflection of life and what we do,” she explained “Uplifted,” directed by Amy Repak and produced by Ashley Walden, has been a collaborative effort between the theater and women’s studies departments.
     “They’ve been so helpful with advertising, allowing me to come to their classes to promote the piece, discussing the show and getting in to the process,” Carey said.
     Carey sees the performance as a means to motivate change by bringing together local talent as her opening acts.
     “There are singers, dancers doing pieces about women’s struggles as minorities, a piece about abortion, among many” she said.
     Not only an exhibition of awareness, “Uplifted” will donate all of its proceeds from ticket sales to the local YWCA Women in Crisis program, chosen for its impact in rehabilitating women who have suffered from relationship violence through group therapy, hotlines and many other volunteer services.
     According to YWCA.org, the South Hampton Roads Women in Crisis shelters have provided counseling and homes for more than 400 victims of abuse in the past year alone.
     Ultimately, “Uplifted” has become an outlet for Carey’s desire to change the world.
     “I wanted to be an activist with this show, and as an artist, this is a way to express my activism. Domestic violence is in our own backyard,” she said. “It’s more than the statistics we see in class; it happens to people we know, and we should expect it to happen if we don’t do something.”

sdambruch@maceandcrown.com