Develop Unique Stories: a disability-led play

My name is Ben Clement. I received a grant from TakingITGlobal and #RisingYouth in 2021 to create a book by a group of people who have disabilities. The vision of this project was to break down the stigma that exists around the disability community. In 2023 I continued working with TakingITGlobal through a ten-month fellowship which supported my learning journey about social innovation. Through this fellowship I worked with my colleague Erica May to zone in on the themes and concepts of the book to see how it could be adapted to the stage. We recently completed our second staged reading of the draft and received feedback that it could and should be taken on by a professional theatre company. Our first reading was on November 25, 2023 at sweet Action Theatre and the second was at The Centre for Social Innovation-192 Spadina Avenue. Now we want to develop the draft of the play we have into a full production. Alex Bulmer who is a blind advocate, playwright, theatre artist and curator of COMotion Festival says,” This could be onstage at a professional theatre company.” Luke Anderson the founder and executive director of StopGap Foundation says,” The world needs to see this.” Getting the current draft into a full production is important so that these stories and voices can be brought forward.

We will use the funds to pay a consultant to work with us to develop and shape the play. We also need funds to pay our director and producer as well as the Unique Stories Artists.

We are committed to doing this project because we believe it’s important to provide neurodivergent artists with opportunities to have their voices heard. We are looking to break down the stigma that exists around the disability community by showing audiences that we exist in a way that is exciting and fun but also sometimes challenging. The vision is to create a more loving and accepting society for people who have developmental and intellectual disabilities.