Red Peter

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 102% contributed

Red Peter is a solo theatre and clown show adapted from Kafka's A Report to an Academy, exploring my life caught between the hearing and Deaf worlds: too deaf to be hearing, too hearing to be Deaf. It's my first original work after years spent performing other people's words, and the start of a new chapter in my artistic practice. Your contribution will help fund ASL interpretation, captioning, and audio description for every performance, so this story can reach deaf, Deaf, and hearing audiences alike, both here in Chicago and on tour.

About This Project

Red Peter is a solo theatre and clown show adapted from Franz Kafka's short story A Report to an Academy. In Kafka's original, an ape named Red Peter recounts to a room of scholars how he earned his freedom from captivity by learning to perform humanity so convincingly that he was accepted into their society. This was a "triumph" that cost him nearly everything that made him who he was. This piece reimagines that transformation through my own life as someone who is deaf but not Deaf: too deaf to be hearing, too hearing to be Deaf, never quite fluent in either world. It is a story that has lived with me for a long time, and one I'm excited to finally bring to the stage.

I'm developing the piece now with director Molly Brennan, a noted clown and performer, whose expertise in physicality will shape how Red Peter's transformation lives in the body, not just the text. This campaign will fund the next phase of this project: collaborator and designer fees, rehearsal and performance space, as well as the accessibility infrastructure I'm committed to building from the start: ASL interpretation and open captioning for every performance as well as other accessibility measures designed to ensure this show can be enjoyed by everyone.

Red Peter is also personal in a different way: after years spent performing and directing other people's words, this is my first original work, and the start of a new chapter in my artistic practice. 

Looking ahead, my goal is to premiere Red Peter in Chicago in 2027 before touring it, so I can share this story with as many members of my communities as possible: deaf, Deaf, and hearing audiences alike. Disabled artists rarely get the chance to tell their own stories on their own terms; too often we're spoken about rather than given the stage to speak for ourselves. Supporting this campaign means investing in that chance: in disabled art that too rarely gets funded, produced, or seen, and in a future where it doesn't have to fight so hard to exist.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $10
  Digital thank you video from Richard ($10.00 is tax deductible.)
• $25
  Above + Name in the program ($25.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  Above + Handwritten, signed postcard ($47.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  Above + Signed Print of the Show Poster ($85.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  Above + 2 Tickets to Opening Night ($200.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  Above + "Executive Producer" credit listed in the program and promotional materials ($450.00 is tax deductible.)

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Richard Costes

Walder Foundation Awardee

Richard Costes is an actor, director, writer, and accessibility consultant based in Chicago, with recent directing work extending to Maryland's Frederick Shakespeare Festival. His practice returns often to Shakespeare and other classic texts, reframed through disability, gender, and access. He …

View Richard Costes's profile

• 2 updates
• 52 supporters

• Update 1: Three days, $2,683, and a lot of gratitude

  Posted on October 09, 2026

   

  Hi everyone,

  So, I had a plan. A very responsible, very strategic, week-by-week plan to unlock the 3Arts match by the end of the month.

  You unlocked it in under three days.
  
  THREE DAYS.

  Thanks to you, we raised the first $1,333 and 3Arts matched it, which puts us at $2,683 of our $4,000 goal. I’m thrilled, a little stunned, and rewriting my calendar!

  Every one of you made this happen, whether you gave $10 or $500. Honestly, I’m a clown. I’m not used to things going according to plan, let alone ahead of it. :)

  We have $1,317 left and almost two months to get there. If you’d like to help a little more, the best thing you can do is share the campaign with one or two people who’d love a deaf clown show based on Kafka. (That’s a real sentence I get to type now.)

  More updates soon as Red Peter comes together!

  -Richard

  Update 2: You did it!

  Posted on October 28, 2026

   

  You did it!

  Over the weekend, you fully funded Red Peter! It took you just 19 days to hit the goal, and I am absolutely in awe of how quickly everyone leapt to support this project!

  Thank you, thank you, thank you! Every donation, every share, and every “I can’t give right now, but I’m pulling for you!” got us over the finish line.

  If you’ll allow me a bit of sentimentality; this story, despite its clowning and vaudeville trappings, is a very lonely story at its heart about someone who doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. But the process of making this project has been anything but. Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from castmates I haven't worked with in years, friends and family from every corner of my life and the globe, and people who just wanted to wish me luck. You’ve reminded me how fortunate I have been in life to surround myself with a community of people who are always ready to hold me up.

  So, what's next?

  Well! The show is officially happening (it was anyways, but this just made it officially official), but we still have six weeks of fundraising on this platform!

  Any future funds will go to:

  1. Paying disabled artists and leaders to participate in post-show talkbacks. Red Peter is about an hour long, and it tells one story: mine. But deafness and disability are not monolithic, and my experience is just one story. I want other disabled artists and thinkers in the room after the show, sharing their stories, and I want to compensate them.

  2. Touring. I’d love to take Red Peter on the road. Want me to come to your city? Tell me! While I have had soft conversations with a number of places, nothing is fully locked in yet.

  3. Reduced-price tickets for accessibility. I read a study that said that 20% of disabled adults live in poverty. Only about 23% of disabled people were employed in 2025 (compared with 65% of non-disabled people). A show about disability shouldn’t be priced out of reach for disabled audiences.

  If you’ve already given, you’ve done more than enough, and I’m so, so, so grateful to you. But if you’d like to help with any of these extra goals, or know someone who would, please send them to this fundraiser!

  Peace, love, and monkeys,
  Richard

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Claire Alston

  • Kim Fukawa

  • Carol Robinson

  • Maggie Wimp

  • Andrew E Hall

  • Katherine Gwynn

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Joey Caverly

  • David Paige

  • Jesse Smith

  • Danielle Holtz

  • Kristen Alesia

  • Kris Harrington

  • Lori Stenhouse

  • Sara Slawnik

  • Danielle Gennaoui

  • Joy Meredith

  • Sarah Bowden

  • Jillian Leff

  • Kerry Lennon

  • William Stanton

  • Sean Kelly

  • Peter Swanke

  • Jackie Vetter

  • Alisa Ledyard

  • Lane Flores

  • Jen Poulin

  • Jennifer Mickelson

  • Becky Blomgren

  • Carrie Sandahl

  • Elana Elyce

  • Gary LaBranche

  • Meghan Fickett

  • Emma Hooks

  • Evan Crump

  • Sidney Mori Burnett

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Mike Harris

  • Chris Sheard

  • Sean Fortunato

  • Laura Rook

  • Meg Thalken

  • Jasmine Bracey

  • Alexander Samuels

  • Kelly Sullivan

  • Irene Silbert

  • Irene costes

  • Jonna Clouser Lawson

  • Chika Ike

  • Grethel Huerta

  • Peter Moore

  • Madeline Meyer

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