OUR MAINSTAGE YOUTH THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
Every two years, the Youth Theatre Ensemble selects a new topic to investigate and cultivate into a new play and mainstage production. Youth present their own stories and interview the community at large in the creation of the script. Our most recent inquiry was an investigation into abstinence-until-marriage sex education and its exclusion of LGBTQ identities, as well as the rising HIV/AIDS infection rates in the youth community. The mainstage productions, FAST FORWARD, premiered in the summer of 2008 at the Center on Halsted, and now the show is touring schools throughout Chicago Public Schools, the greater Illinois region and the nation. The tour will include a comprehensive LGBTQ sexual health curriculum and a professional health educator from Howard Brown. As FAST FORWARD begins to tour, the Youth Theatre will begin a new investigation into bullying in schools and violence in America. The play will be centered on the question: how do we create peace in our community and our world?
THE HISTORY OF YOUTH THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
- FAST FORWARD Center on Halsted July 2008
- HIV: HISTORY IN VOICES Center on Halsted August 2007
- THE HOME PROJECT Victory Gardens Theatre July 2006
- THE HOME PROJECT LAB Theatre Building Chicago July 2005
- ON THE RECORD The Goodman Theatre August 2004
- UP UNTIL NOW The Goodman Theatre July 2003
- INSIDE/OUT About Face Theatre July 2002
- IN REAL LIFE About Face Theatre June 2001
- RAISING VOICES About Face Theatre June 2000
- FIRST BREATH About Face Theatre June 1999
