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Youth and Police

January 22, 2012 in Special Events

Monaya Cabble, Kenni Shaw and a New Haven youth act a scenario from What About Those Baggy Pants

This year is our third mini-grant awarded by YDTRC (The Consultation Center) around building positive relations between youth and police . Our youth have had a lot exposure with police officers over the years because so many of the stories we tell have police officers in them.

By doing a play, film or project with a police officer, we develop positive relationships and teamwork with them.  Both youth and police have to have a good understanding of the script in order to convince an audience of the message.

This year we have been working on three scenarios that will go into our Youth Forum. Each scenario has a topic: bullying, racism and baggy pants.  The youths decided to portray each scenario with different results based on the behavior of the police or the youth.  These were the same scenarios we took to the Broadway workshop.

On Martin Luther King Day 2012, the YDTRC held a showcase at the YMCA in New Haven.  Four organizations presented their projects highlighting their work in their community.  It was an excellent opportunity for youths  from different communities to engage each other through exercises, sketches, team building activities and simple conversations about what’s happening in their communities.  Yale Police Chief, Ronnell Higgins, participated in one of the sketches and said, “Acting out these scenarios is a great way to get your message across.  You onto something here.”

 Video

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donnasue

Dying To Live

December 20, 2011 in productions

In January 2011, we partnered with the McGivney Community Center and the Bridgeport Housing Authority to work on a youth forum project.  20 youths participated for 5 months.  The youths talked passionately about bullying, teen pregnancy, racism and baggy pants and so they wrote this play.

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Prego girls

During class, the kids developed situations around those topics and acted them out.  We explored different storylines for weeks to bring these topics to life.  Youth leaders would take turns typing out dialogue taken from improv sketches, print the script then act them out.  They would revise the script then act them out again.  Revise then act, revise then act.  You get the point.  The youths were driven to make the story realistic and the performance better every session.  It was well worth it.

We performed this play in June 2011 at the Downtown Cabaret Theater to rave reviews.  So much so that we’re doing it again in June 2012 at the DCT.

 

Watch The Trailer

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donnasue

Youth Forum

December 20, 2011 in productions

Youth Forum

Youth Forum

Youth Forum

We’ve been doing a youth forum for the last three years based on the following model:  kids talking to kids about important topics revolving around a play.  The youths have been firm with us (the adults) that they do not want adult experts talking to them about some topic.  They said, “we will tune them out.” 

From January to June 2011, as the youths were writing Dying to Live, they were also working on short scenes to involve the youth audience.  Their topics were bullying, teen pregnancy, racism and baggy pants.  They used improv and theater exercises to develop skits for each category.  They researched facts related to these issues and built dialogue around the skits.  Their goal was to develop 15 minute breakout sessions after performing Dying to Live. 

They came up with a dating game show to talk about racism, a couple of bullying skits, a sketch showing two teen friends’ lives change when one got pregnant, and a comical dance number with baggy pants around their knees.  Each category typically had an advanced youth leader hosting the segment.

The 2011 Youth Forum was performed at the Downtown Cabaret Theater with 275 Bridgeport elementary and middle school children attending.  As the lights came down, the audience was loud and disruptive.  They were screaming.  When our youths took the stage, the audience just could not contain themselves.  We were worried that our youths would break character and changed the dynamics of the forum.  But our youths stood their ground, took command of the audience within two minutes and held their attention for the next hour and a half.

The Forum was a success.  Our youths created such a frenzy that after the event, the lead actors were signing autographs for a half hour.  The Youth Forum will be repeated, with better breakout sessions, along with Dying to Live in June 2012.

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