hey, try to imagine this as one of those corny documentaries. The bold bits are the really cheesy American voice over you hear on shows like 'A Haunting' you have to imagine the dramatic pauses and emphasized words.
August 2009. Lima, a small peaceful town in Ohio, is about to become the setting for a televised experiment entitled Glee. The experiment is the brain child of musical therapist Ian Brennan. Ian, who has a new wife and two young children, has spent the best part of a decade working in a psychiatric hospital in Denver where he witnesses first-hand how music and it's physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic and spiritual faucets has a healing power.
"I had patients under my care that were locked so tightly within themselves that they wouldn't even make eye contact with me, or anyone for that matter, but when I played the violin or sang a certain song they'd open up like a flower and for just a few seconds they'd find themselves in the notes and you could see the relief in their faces. Every patient was different; some liked to write lyrics and others liked to do nothing but listen. I had one woman who would smile and close her eyes whenever I played Ronan Keating's 'If tomorrow never comes.' The woman would never speak to anyone but as soon as that song ended there'd be this five minute window in which she'd talk to me. She'd tell me in great detail about her husband and her life growing up. The psychiatrist often sat in on my sessions because it was the only open window he would have to get to speak to his patients. It was truly fascinating."
The Psychiatrist working with Ian is a man named Brad Falchuk he is fascinated by the healing qualities of music therapy
"I was very sceptical at first. Bear in mind we're going back to a time where those kinds of therapies were considered a bit…whimsical but I quickly realised the truth in the old saying; music is the key to the soul."
The two men work together combining their professions to improve the quality of wellbeing for the patients of the psychiatric hospital. Years pass and Ian's eldest daughter attends high school. She is now fifteen and the slightly overweight teenager is tormented and bullied by her peers.
"Chloe was a very quiet child. She was the opposite of her sister, she'd come home from school and lock herself in her room. We assumed..ehem..we always thought she was doing homework. She was good like that. She was a straight A student with a promising future. I thought she was happy, I mean, there was no way to know about the bullying. She never told anyone."
The therapists eyes glaze over and he bites his lip; a habit that he's developed over the years to try to stem the emotional anguish that flows when thinking of Chloe.
On the 4th Decemeber Ian is at work when he receives an hysterical phone call from his wife, Mary. Brad Falchuk is in the same room when Ian receives the news that Chloe has committed suicide.
"The atmosphere in the room thickened as soon as the phone rang. I just knew something terrible had happened and I remember standing there thinking please don't be the girls please don't be the girls. I don't know why that thought entered my mind but as a father myself it just kicked in. I remember Ian breaking down, I carried him to the car and drove him home. …We couldn't get near the house; it was cordoned off and police cars were blocking the road. The psychiatrist swallows the lump that has risen in his throat. I can't even describe the events that followed. It was awful.
What followed was months of anguish for the Brennans as the truth about their daughters abuse slowly seeped to the surface.
"A lot of people were covering up. Teachers were telling us that she was a perfectly happy child and this had all come out of the blue. I knew it wasn't true. No one takes their own life for nothing. I was so angry..hurt..frustrated…confused..I felt incredibly guilty and I needed to know why she'd done it. I need to. We all did"
Ian becomes obsessed with unearthing the truth. He becomes reclusive, he quits his job at the hospital to dedicate all his time to finding answers and his marriage with Mary begins to suffer. On the 7th July 2003 seven months after the death of their daughter the Brennans marriage breaks down and Mary moves their youngest daughter to Ohio where she moves back in with her parents.
"Ian was so consumed with trying to unearth the circumstances surrounding Chloe's suicide that he lost track of everything that was important to him. I'd go round after work and he'd be reading through old school records and talking about suing the state."
Tormented by his worst fears the grieving father spends months going over statements and conducting his own investigation but it was to be another four months before he finally got his answers. They come from a school counsellor who has recently taken over the post and has found a file containing written evidence of Chloe talking about the bullying she had encountered. The old school counsellor had written 'to be dealt with' in the bottom right hand corner and it had been dated 3rd October 2003. Ian is both relieved and heartbroken.
"It was like an awakening. I finally felt that I was able to lay her to rest...I felt guilt you know, I was her dad and I hadn't protected her. I hadn't even known anything about it. It was hard…real hard for a long time but it was a real eye opener for me. I realised history was repeating itself. My youngest daughter was living miles away, I hadn't seen her in almost a year and that wasn't the kind of dad I wanted to be. I bought a plane ticket, sorted myself out and made a promise to myself that I wouldn't let another daughter down. I hadn't done so well so far but from that moment in I was going to protect her."
Ian leaves Denver that night and arrives in Ohio early the following morning. He stays with an old friend of his, a psychologist that he'd met at University. The psychologist is a woman named Catherine Zimbardo, she is the grandchild of world renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo.
"When I heard of Ian's situation I was devastated. He was a kind hearted man, he didn't deserve what happened to him. He stayed with me for a number of months and he built a strong relationship with Brittney."
The relationship between Ian and his wife and child begins to strengthen and the family set up home in Lima near Marys parents. Ian arranges for his daughter to see the counsellor that had revealed Chloe's file. For the new few years things begin to look up for the family but a couple of years before Brittney starts highschool Ian begins to panic.
"I kept having these visions; real, vivid visions of Brittney going through the same torment that sister suffered. They haunted me. I couldn't sleep, eat, work. I couldn't do anything without seeing Chloe and Brittney battered and bruised. I contacted Brad and we spoke at great length. By the end of the call I knew what I had to do. I had to get music into the schools."
Haunted by these nightmares, Ian comes up with an idea to hold group music therapy sessions in all highschools throughout the USA. He writes to the school boards but receives no response.
"It was such a frustrating time because I knew what needed to be done and nobody was listening to me. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before but I now felt so sure that if something like that had been in place before, Chloe wouldn't have gone down that spiralling path of depression. I truly believe that music therapy would have saved her life. I couldn't get the idea out of my head, it was too late to save Chloe but hundreds of other kids needed it"
Ian contacted Brad and Catherine to discuss his idea and they shared his enthusiasm. Brad was interested to see if music therapy could be used to eliminate bullying and Catherine was eager to discover if the psychological effects of forming a group of miss fitted, bullied kids bonded by music would make them overturn the hierarchy and become the bullies. It was an experiment that would take a full year in the planning.
"I had no idea how huge this would become. What started as a.. a small idea snowballed into this – this ..big uncontrollable train of an idea that just kept growing."
Brad, Ian and Catherine spent months submitting plans to the governing board of psychology who eventually agreed to the experiment but it came with conditions. The experiment would have to be carried out in a controlled setting and the subjects would have to be closely monitored.
"Oh boy, they threw the red tape at us alright! We knew it had to be in a school so the setting wasn't completely controlled but we enlisted the help of a famous English illusionist/ hypnotist/ mentalist to ensure the right subjects were chosen. It was a very very big project. They wanted a psychologist present at all times so I became Sue Sylvester, a despicable teacher who hated the club. The character was Ian's idea and it was genius. If the kids were to separate it would be my job to push them back together "
The illusionist was a British man named Darren Brown. He agreed to fly to the states and monitor the pupils at the chosen school, McKinley High. As briefed by the psychologist he carefully and quietly selected pupils who fitted into the categories they'd specified. There was a large kid who didn't have any close friends, a kid who strived to be popular but was bullied terribly, a kid who was clearly gay who Darren witness being locker slammed and dumpster dipped on a daily basis amongst others that he selected to be a subject. Some were popular because they wanted a diverse bunch.
"The subliminal messages were really subtle and hard to pick out. The children that he'd selected were quick to sign up to the club, I was amazed at what that man could do."
With the subjects now selected the team have to come up with believable story. They don't want details of their experiment leaking out otherwise they knew it wouldn't work.
"The hardest bit was the story. We did some research on the schools musical history and found that their glee club had been closed down after the teacher had been suspended. It was the best luck we could have hoped for! We just needed someone to play the teacher and we'd have it in the bag!"
The role of the teacher was filled by Adam Everett, a long term acquaintance of Catherine's. Adam is also a behavioural psychologist who is keen to be part of the experiment.
"When Cath called me and told me about it I was completely in awe. I couldn't believe how huge a scale this was and I thought it was amazing. I knew I had to be part of that"
Adam's name is changed to William Schuster and he given a convincing back ground story. As the experiement is a double blind and no one but those involved are aware of it's existence Adam applies for the role of Glee club teacher and is given the job.
"I was thrilled that I got the job! I kept thinking this isn't going to work, he knows, he knows, it's not gonna work"
With all the participants selected and the psychologists in place the plans are rejected because the board feel that the welfare of the children is not being met. Ian contacts Emma Pillsbury and tells her about his experiment.
"He asked me to be part of it on the Monday evening and on Tuesday morning I was in Lima!"
With a fully qualified children's education counsellor on the board the plans are finally accepted and the team begin to set up. Three days before the experiment is due to begin Ian is approached by an acclaimed American director who has a very interest proposition.
The director is Ryan Murphy, he's a friend of Emma's and he's interested in televising the experiment. He offers Ian and the team an undisclosed amount of money and hidden cameras are placed throughout the school.
What was caught on camera and screened across the nation was a controversial experiment that may have spun out of control and definitely changed the lives of everyone involved.
NEXT TIME ON GLEE: THE CONTROVERSIAL EXPERIMENT: When Act One Fails. Not all of the children selected join the club and the psychologist takes matters into his own hands.