SPEAKING VOLUMES
Entire student cast is non-verbal but all leap at chance to play their roles
Students with different abilities rehearse Tuesday for their upcoming play called Holiday Time Machine. All of them are non-verbal. But teacher Brittany Mcgeough, kneeling on the right, doesn’t let that stand in the way of mounting a show.
Under lights and surrounded by props they helped create, high school students with disabilities at Campus Regina Public sat lined up on stage, ready to rehearse their holiday play.
One student’s wheelchair was decorated as a dinosaur. Two sat in a red time machine made of a cardboard box.
Another sat behind a table decorated with the words “Ethan’s elves.” A large gold banner hung against the black backdrop with the title of their play — “The Holiday Time Machine.”
As inclusive education teacher Brittany Mcgeough narrated the play, the students — all of whom are non-verbal — participated by pressing a button when cued to play their character’s pre-recorded lines and moving around the stage with the help of staff members.
This is Mcgeough’s seventh year putting on a play with her students. The first year she approached other staff members with the idea of putting on a holiday play, there was some skepticism about whether it could be done.
“We just had such different needs in our classroom, but we started with a play that was maybe only 10 minutes long and seven years later we’ve grown into a play that’s almost an hour long,” said Mcgeough. Now the play couldn’t run without the support of other staff.
“It’s become such a holiday tradition.”
The first year, only a couple of the school’s other classes came to watch the play, but now Mcgeough said the audience has grown to around 400 people.
She said this growing community support is proof that awareness and inclusion of people with disabilities have made positive strides in Regina.
“We wouldn’t have seen that maybe 10 years ago, but now it’s such a beautiful thing to see people being accepted for who they are and their strengths and abilities,” she said.
“The thing that makes me most proud is the students and how excited they get just walking to the stage ... Years ago, they didn’t know the expectations or the power of their creativeness, but now the students just run to the stage and they love it.”
Each year Mcgeough tries to use the play to focus on a different skill the students have, and this year she chose communication.
Through assistive technology like having pre-recorded lines play at the push of a button and using some sign language, the play highlights just that.
“I truly think this is meaningful inclusion at its finest,” said Mcgeough, adding that she has seen the students communication and general social skills improve by working on the play.
“They get to see a number of people before and after the play, they’re more outgoing ... Learning to talk to other people, engage with other people and also social skills, behavioural management. They’re learning to be amongst others and be inclusive.”
■ The performance will be held in the Campus Regina Public Auditorium on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Anyone interested in attending can RSVP to brittany.mcgeough@rbe.sk.ca.