GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A local theatre group participating in Project 1, is pulling its show from Peter Meijer's Tanglefoot venue.
This comes after Meijer denied a U.K. based Down Syndrome Drag Show group, called Drag Syndrome, from performing there.
Meijer is one of the candidates running for Michigan's third congressional district, currently held by Representative Justin Amash.
"We just couldn't ignore that a group of people were being discriminated against," said Jessie Congleton, a member of the Curiosity Theatre.
"We want to give people who don't usually get a turn at the mic, a voice," Congleton said.
Curiosity Theatre is a new Grand Rapids based theatre group.
"We're curious to learn other people's stories and feel that that's the best way to learn from each other," Congleton said.
The group was set to perform the show, "Tiny Beautiful Things," and it was supposed to be held at Tanglefoot for Project 1.
"It would be really hard for us to perform on a stage and tell these amazing beautiful diverse stories when someone was allowed to pull the rug under from someone else and say that they couldn't tell their story or do their art," Congleton said.
Last week, venue owner Peter Meijer pulled the U.K. based Down syndrome drag show, Drag Syndrome, from performing at Tanglefoot during Project 1.
"When you're talking about a population that has a history of abuse, mistreatment, of marginalization and exploitation - the idea that I might be furthering that or contributing to that sickened me," Peter Meijer said in an interview.
"He was able to make a broad generalization about a huge group of people and use that as the basis to decide if one individual group of performers were able to do the art that they've been doing around the world," Congleton said.
That's why Curiosity Theatre decided to cancel their show.
"We didn't want to perform on the same stage where someone else had the mic taken away from them," Congleton said.
They were supposed to perform Sept. 12 and then again in October.
"We did not come to that decision lightly at all," Congleton said. "We all have our preconceived notions of people who are different than us, and it's not up for us to decide what they can and cannot do."
We reached out to Meijer for comment and he says all performers are welcome to do what they think is best, and he says he doesn't stand to profit or gain anything from any of the Project 1 performances at Tanglefoot.
Curiosity Theatre will reschedule their show for another time and location, but it won't be part of Project 1.
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