Where We Came From

I’m glad you found our website and that you’re interested in learning more about Able Theatre. Able Theatre began in 2016 when myself and theatre director Tom Carson applied for an “Artists in the Community” grant from the Ontario Arts Council. We received the grant and this allowed us to begin working with artists from the developmental disabilities community to build our first theatre show that would be shared with the general public. That show was so much fun to do that we kept making others!

Before this, I had been writing theatre plays, teaching at Georgian College, and providing support in a group home. At the group home, I met many individuals who were evidently meant to be singers, performers, actors and dancers. Though, at the time, in Orillia at least, there weren’t many opportunities for these artists to share their talents. The grant kick-started a way for these people to get on stage and connect with each other and an audience.

What is important to me in this work is that these individuals have a chance for their “voices” to be heard. For their ideas, interests, concerns, and talents to be shared, alongside building confidence.

For me this work is a great mix of my interests in writing, creativity, teaching and spending time with people in the exceptional needs community.

After years of writing on my own, being at the front of a class and offering supports to only a few individuals, the community I experience within Able Theatre is a great blessing.

- Facilitator Stephen Pinney