Newtown High School's Unified Theater program will stage its original play Finding The Power Within this Saturday and Sunday, May 20 and 21, in Newtown High School's cafetorium, 12 Berkshire Road.

Performances are free and open to the public, and donations will be accepted to help fund the program. Saturday's performance is at 6 pm and Sunday's is at 2 pm.

The entire show is student-driven and created.

Unified Theater is a full-year course at the school, overseen by teachers Janice Gabriel and Alysia Caffrey. The course has students of all abilities work together to stage a play.

Both Ms Gabriel and Ms Caffrey said they did not want to give "too much away" about the play, but Ms Gabriel said, "It kind of has a superhero theme."

Ms Caffrey said the play is fun, inclusive, and "it hits close to home for everybody."

"It's an awesome collaboration between students with and without disabilities that shows off the power of inclusion," said NHS junior and stage manager Harrison Hoffert.

"It's perfectly imperfect," added NHS junior and director Jordan Williams. "It is an inclusion revolution that incorporates everyone of all abilities."

Ms Gabriel said the class has been working on Finding The Power Within since January.

"It's all done by the students," she said.

On May 15 students used a class period to rehearse, and the group was reminded that they had only three more class periods before this week's performances.

Ms Gabriel said the course focuses on ability rather than disability. Both Ms Gabriel and Ms Caffrey said the students have been working hard on the play.

Students involved in the production are Jessica Andreotta, Zoe Beals, Shannon Cheh, Steven Cheh, Jordan Cicchesi, Kaitlyn Crumb, Rebecca Didomizio, Lisa Enaye, Daniel Hasselberger, Victoria Gates, Robert Gray, Harrison Hoffert, Jonathan Nowacki, Jackie Magoon, Timothy Rogers, Madeline Rose, Ashleigh Shaw, Caitlin Thompson, Jessica Viesto, Matthew Vigneau, Izaiah Volpe, Jordan Williams, and Zoe Yllanes.

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