Cranbrook's Mount Baker Secondary School

had a long-standing reputation for producing amazing stage productions, but the school’s drama teacher, Rod Osowey, had noticed that students with disabilities rarely had an opportunity to demonstrate their talents and creativity on stage in these productions. That simple observation evolved into the development of a course called Adapted Drama, offered in Spring 2009. The stage production for the kick-off year, Alice in Wonderland.

The Drama 12 class was offered during the same block so that the classes could work together on various activities and projects, thereby facilitating purposeful integration. Former students now attending the Community Living Society centre participated and an elementary school class was invited to perform a musical number, making it an inclusive community experience.

The opportunity for my son to be a part of a large scale dramatic production would never have been in our dreams had it not been for the inspirational vision of this school, its staff and the community. My son has a diagnosis of Autism, is considered non-verbal and has a severe cognitive delay. Performing in front of an audience of 600+ had not occurred to us as parents. It still is an amazingly emotional surge when I remember the pride I felt as he walked on stage to entertain. He was valued, supported and was provided an opportunity to achieve beyond what many had imagined.

Click the photo to enlarge

Connecting the grade 12 drama class to support and participate with the Adapted Drama class also allowed my niece to be on the production team. Her participation and interaction with the Adapted Drama class was such a rich and fulfilling experience that she has now directed her post secondary dream towards becoming a special education teacher.

This unique combination of high school students both with and without identified special needs, the inclusion of the grade 4 classroom for the music number, the grade 10 band class for sound effects, and several adult members of our community with special needs, has enriched the lives of all those who participated, including the audience members who packed the community theatre for the sold out performance.

Contributed by
Maggie Lindsay-Tadey
Parent, aunt, audience member and POPARD District Partner

A documentary about the production entitled “Bright Ideas – Behind the Scenes of Bright Lights Theatre” was produced by a student named Kyle Bowman. It was the winning documentary for the 2009 BC Student Film Festival Awards.

Click here to view the documentary.

The stage production the following year was Cinderella.

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