August 7, 2026

Theatre Education Area Head Alice Nelson spent the summer leading an Applied Theatre project in partnership with the Creative Community Experience, a company of actor-creators with intellectual and developmental disabilities supported by Community Living Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Funded through grants and scholarships, the project ensured that all actor-creators were compensated for their work.

Using physical theatre, improvisation, and ensemble-based community building, the company of nine actor-creators devised an original production, The Main Event. The production was first performed at the University of Windsor before being presented at the Fringe Windsor Theatre Festival. One of Community Living Windsor's core missions is to support full participation in community life, and the Fringe provided an opportunity for the actor-creators to share their work with a broader audience while increasing the visibility of artists with disabilities within the theatre community.

This marks the second production Professor Nelson has created in collaboration with Community Living Windsor. She is also sharing her devising methodology through her forthcoming article, “Creating The Big Production: Devising Performance Alongside Actor-Creators with IDD,” to be published in Theatre Research in Canada issue 47.1.