ABSTRACT
The pivotal roles that accessible stages, backstage gathering places and bathrooms play in building inclusive societies is something of a long-standing theme in Canadian disability drama and theatre. With the longest production history of any Canadian disability theatre play, Creeps won the inaugural Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1973 and garnered Freeman the 1974 New York Drama Desk Award for best new playwright. It was the first production of Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre (a now famous hub for Canadian dramaturgy) and in 2011 Tarragon offered a staged reading of the play to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. The published version and supporting discussion in Canadian Theatre Review provides details of the many ways that the company imbricated access into the development and production process, seeking to ensure that the voices of disabled people were front and centre for audiences.
