Before Sylvie McCormac took part in Realwheels' annual community engagement project in September 2013, she had never performed on a stage. Tomorrow, she'll play a part in Super Voices, a multimedia performance developed by members of Vancouver's disability community, and featuring not only the story and voice of Sylvie, but also the music and sound design which she composed for the show. 

"The theme of the show is, what are our abilitites, and what are our superpowers. Everyone has them," said McCormac in an interview following a tech rehersal on Thursday.

McCormac and the rest of the cast and crew helped co-create the show after partaking in a yearly outreach project set up by Realwheels, a professional theatre company that works with members of the disability community to produce stage performances that highlight talents while deepening the audience's understanding of what it means to be disabled.

Directed by Jeffrey Renn and produced by Rena Cohen, the show focuses on highlighting the 'superpowers' of the cast, who share personal stories throughout the performance that tell of formative and foundational moments in their lives.

"Every year Realwheels does a community engagement project where we put out an invitation to the community of persons who live with disabilities to come and take a series of workshops, and then from those workshops we devise a piece of theatre," explained Renn.

Caspar Ryan, a cast member and videographer mentoring under acclaimed projections designer Jamie Nesbitt, said it was a thrill to work and learn new sets of skills with the support of other performers.

"I wear a lot of hats in this production: I'm working with projections, with the video team, and I'm coming out on stage and perofrming, and a lot of this is the first time I've ever done this as an artist. I got into the show through a skill that I had with video, and from there they connected me to all these other skills, which enabled me to grow as an artist, and as a person too," said Ryan.

Blythe Grimmett, another performer who has been in two previous Realwheels productions, found developing his speech difficult, but rewarding.

"It's a challenge, but just being in the group atmosphere all trying to do the same thing, it's a good space to be in."

You can catch Super Voices at the Roundhouse Theatre on June 12 (Friday) at 7 p.m., and on June 13 (Saturday) at 4 p.m. Saturday's show will also include an ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation and audio description. Tickets are available by donation at www.supervoices.bpt.me.