SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Julian Chapa really, really wanted to act.
Specifically, he wanted to play the Beast in the Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast.” Julian, who has Down syndrome, had been in plays in high school, but always in the background, and his parents were pretty sure that would be the case for non-school theaters, too.
So they created an opportunity just for him.
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His mom, Leah Chapa, took everything out of the family’s living room and dining room to create a performance space. She wrote a 40-minute adaptation of the story titled “Beauty and the Bible,” then pulled together costumes, props and sets. The Chapas invited about 50 friends and family to come over and watch the show, in which Julian got to play his dream role.
“He loved it,” said dad Raul Chapa, who played Gaston in the show. “He got to bow and get his accolades.”
After he and his wife learned about a church in Dallas with a theater program aimed at adults with disabilities, she went to check it out. Leah Chapa was struck not only by the performance, but by the community the actors had formed, something the couple had struggled to find for their son.
When she got home, the Chapas decided to create a theater program like that for Julian and others who wanted to get onstage but hadn’t been able to find a place where they could do that. The couple founded Center Stage PossABILITIES, a faith-based theater company for adults with disabilities that generally stages one show a year at University Methodist Church. The eight-year-old troupe’s shows blend biblical and pop culture elements.
The company’s story is captured in “Center Stage PossABILITIES,” a new documentary by director Taylor James Johnson. It will be screened July 23 as part of the San Antonio Film Festival.
It is one of more than 180 films that will be shown during the 32nd annual festival, which takes place Tuesday through July 26 at venues around town.
Highlights include a tribute to director Gregory Nava pegged to the 30th anniversary of the release of “Selena” as well as a flashback to the Brat Pack era with “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Pretty in Pink” star Andrew McCarthy.
The San Antonio festival is one of a handful that “Center Stage PossABILITIES” has been selected for, including two in South Africa. It also was one of the award winners at the debut outing for the local Elemental Film Festival earlier this month.
The film was shot last year as the company worked on “No Strings Attached,” a play that wove together the parable of the prodigal son with “Pinocchio” as well as online culture. As with all of the company’s productions, each role was tailored to the actors’ abilities. Julian, 22, played both God and a fitness influencer. He said he liked the latter character’s muscles, and that it was his favorite role so far.
“Center Stage PossABILITIES” includes some interviews with the Chapas and others, but Johnson mostly takes a cinéma vérité approach, capturing the actors, director Nikki Young and the crew as they pull the show together over the course of six months.
The supportive environment of the company comes across vividly.
In one of Raul Chapa’s favorite moments, a young actor backstage during the performance whispers to everyone who passes him after their time in the spotlight “I heard you” and “You did awesome.”
“Part of the beauty of what we do is they get to be seen and heard,” he said. “It was almost a metaphor, that particular moment.”
The documentary grew out of some video elements that were woven into “No Strings Attached.” Johnson made those videos and also filmed behind the scenes footage for social media posts and promotional materials.
“I just kept coming back and kept getting great footage, and I said, I think we have something here,” he said. “I got to see them grow every day, and it got better and better. Nothing was perfect. There were some downfalls, and I got to see them rise up and keep going. So I just had to be there.”
In a way, he hasn’t left. Johnson now is working with the company on a fictional film about a choir for people with disabilities that gets lost on the way to a performance. There is no script. Instead, the actors created their characters, and their choices are driving the story.
The troupe has been shooting it on the weekends for the past few months. It’s slated to wrap in August and will premiere in either late November or early December.
The company hasn’t settled on a title just yet. The two possibilities in contention are “Lost in the Woods” and “As We Are.”
Chapa is hoping that the film will reach a broad audience and inspire others to create similar opportunities for people with disabilities.
He’s also hoping that both films share a little bit of what he gets to see in his son and the other participants in Center Stage.
“There are so many beautiful experiences that you witness,” he said. “Having a child with special needs, you see how the world treats them, see how the world sees them, even if they give them the time of day. Being a part of this and seeing them in a different light — being able to show people their ability, their personalities, their humanity — it’s very powerful.”
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