Theater Education with Larkin Street Youth Services

-
By Claire L. Wong

“Theater happens everywhere,” says Stephanie Wilborn, the community programs manager at A.C.T. Wilborn has been involved in theater education and community arts organizing for over a decade. Her mission is to use theater and social justice as a platform to give voice to those who are often overlooked or underrepresented onstage. “Theater is really about connection, finding your voice,” she says. One of her roles at A.C.T. is collaborating with Larkin Street Youth Services, a San Francisco nonprofit helping youth to move beyond the street.

Photo Courtesy Larkin Street Youth Services.

California is home to the highest number of young people experiencing homelessness in the country (38% of the nation’s total). Each year, 2,500 youth walk through Larkin Street’s doors. There are many factors that cause youth homelessness: abuse and conflict with a parent or guardian; a worsening affordability crisis compounded by unemployment; and involvement in the child welfare and criminal justice systems. These factors disproportionately impact youth of color and youth who identify as LGBTQ.

Every Monday, Wilborn and A.C.T. teaching artist Radhika Rao teach an ensemble class at Larkin Street for transitional age youth (18–24). This ensemble class includes warmup, improvisation, technical theater, and devised theater. “Devised theater is about creating your own story and about community creation,” Wilborn says. “We work with young folks finding their voices and coming out of their shells with ensemble classmates and with their peers. What we see is that the relationship to our students’ peers is changing and the relationship to themselves is changing.” Increasingly, underrepresented voices in theater are being heard. “It’s not the same narratives of who’s onstage, who’s behind the scenes, who’s telling the stories,” Wilborn says. “We’re seeing different experiences.”

In addition to the ensemble class, A.C.T. MFA students hold drop-in hours on Fridays, doing script work and analysis with Larkin Street students, and creating mentorship. Working with A.C.T. allows the clients at Larkin Street to imagine theater and creative opportunities in a different way. “There’s more out there than just being onstage,” Wilborn says. There are students who are interested in makeup, costumes, and careers in theater other than acting. Arts education allows students at Larkin Street to envision creative careers for themselves. Wilborn says, “It’s important to me that they know they have a voice, that they matter, that they can do whatever they want to do authentically.”

To learn more about Larkin Street Youth Services and youth experiencing homelessness, click here. Support San Francisco youths’ transition out of homelessness by donating to Larkin Street Youth Services.

Popular posts from this blog

“To Be or Not to Be”: The Iconic Speech’s Origins, Interpretations, and Impact

-
Image
By A.C.T. Publications Staff The opening line of Hamlet ’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is theater’s most iconic, most referenced quote. What’s less known is the famous speech’s history, with Hamlet ’s earliest publications offering varying versions of its language. Also questioned is its meaning—is Hamlet contemplating suicide or is he weighing the consequences of murder? Though definitive answers are unlikely to arise, the questions “To be or not to be” asks have kept audiences, scholars, and actors engaged for centuries. Hamlet ’ s "To be or not to be" speech as it appears in the three original editions of the play. Photo by Georgelazenby. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The first edition, or First Quarto (Q1), of Hamlet was published in 1603. Because the text is much shorter than later editions and its language is less poetic, it is nicknamed the “Bad Quarto” by scholars. “To be or not to be” in Q1 reads as: To be, or not to be—ay, there’s the point. To die,
Read more

The American Sound: The Evolution of Jazz

-
Image
By Cecilia Padilla There is nothing so uniquely American as jazz music. In its simplest form, jazz embodies the essence of the American people: bold and inventive. The improvisation of the jazz ensemble can even be seen as a metaphor for the American democratic ideal: musicians playing solos have the liberty to express themselves as long as they adhere to the overall structure of the tune—individual freedom but with responsibility to the group. The evolution of jazz music also carries with it the social development of our nation from slavery to the swinging songs of World War II. Musically, jazz contributed immensely to the way contemporary musicians approach instrumentation, composition, and vocal arrangements. It is difficult to find a popular tune today that does not derive from such jazz icons as Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Thelonious Monk. Jazz is the great equalizer; for more than a hundred years, it has been the common ground between blacks and whites, me
Read more

A Hell of a Businessman: A Biography of Joe Glaser

-
By Simon Hodgson Born in 1897, Joe Glaser was the son of a successful Russian Jewish physician in Chicago. He originally intended to follow a similar career and entered medical school, but after passing out in the operating room, he realized he wasn’t cut out to be a doctor. He started off in business selling used cars, but found better luck managing prizefighters. In his biography of Al Capone, Laurence Bergreen notes, “Glaser’s power to fix fights earned him a reputation as a sage of boxing, especially among reporters.” With advanced word as to which fights were fixed, Glaser could predict the results—and even the number of rounds—of many bouts in Chicago. His connections with organized crime continued in his next career change, when he began running nightclubs and whorehouses in the South Side for the Chicago Outfit, the powerful underworld gang led by Capone. Glaser’s tendency toward illegal action nearly ended his career. In 1928, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for
Read more