The WT Youth Council is an artistic leadership program open for motivated, passionate high school students that are interested in hands-on exposure to professional theatre and arts administration. Coming from all over the Chicagoland area, we get a chance to access Writers Theatre productions, meet with professional artists, participate in play readings, hold discussions and develop leadership skills essential to a career in the arts.
Coming from someone who has dedicated four years of her high school career to journalism, I consider myself fairly new to theatre. I was inspired to join WT Youth Council right after I saw The Old Man and The Old Moon, with my creative writing class from New Trier. When I interviewed Pulitzer Prize winner, Clarence Page, a famous columnist for the Chicago Tribune, I remember him telling me that journalism is not solely centered on cold hard facts, but it’s about making a connection with your audience even for a brief moment. After watching the play, I was overwhelmed by how connected I felt to the story and the actors right in front of me. It was then that I realized I wanted to learn to make the same connection with my audience through my own storytelling.
Already this year, we have had several dynamic workshops. We have seen The Old Man and The Old Moon, an original production by PigPen Theatre Company and got a chance to meet with cast member, Dan Weschler before the show. As we kicked off our year’s work together, Dan spoke to us about ensemble and collaboration and PigPen’s own process.
Our second workshop was with professional costume designer Rachel Laritz. Rachel took us through a professional design process from start to finish, sharing her process of design research for Hedda Gabler, renderings, and the designer’s role in the creative process. We had the opportunity to activate that process by modeling costume pieces from various eras and experience how corsets or period suit jackets change the way an actor moves.
In January we attended a workshop with L’Oreal Jackson, an actress and professional solo artist and storyteller. L’Oreal introduced us to storytelling techniques and tools. During this workshop we participated in an “attribution activity” where we got a chance to write four positive things about each other on post-it notes that we folded up and threw in the middle of the floor. For example people wrote, “Your hair is beautiful,” or “You remind me of a Disney princess.”After we finished writing, we took our four post-it notes and passed them around to each other as we walked around the room. We then had to pick one attribution and create a gesture or movement to represent it; this is where storytelling was put into play. As we walked around the room, we created statues in relation to one another as we developed different characters trying to connect to one story we all shared. After the activity we held a discussion about storytelling and how this activity relates artistically to all sorts of writing outlets.
In February we heard from Bobby Kennedy, WT Producing and Literary Associate about the dramaturgy process prior to seeing Port Authority.
As someone who is fairly new theatre, I think this program does a great job at embracing everyone’s backgrounds whether they are coming from an interest in poetry, various areas of theatre or, like myself, from The Mash – a teen publication for the Tribune. This council not only provides access to performances and workshops, but it provides a sense of community where members can open up to each other in a safe environment where we are willing to take risks together and remind one another that it’s OK to be vulnerable. As collaborators we value the perspectives and experiences of others and promote mutual relationships and egalitarianism in our group.
As a spokesperson for the WT Youth Council, I can honestly say we are all very grateful to be representing a valued voice in theatre operations and are all eager to experience what lies ahead in the next few months. At the end of the year, we will be hosting a Youth Night at the Theatre with a reception for teens following a performance of Days Like Today.
More on the WT Education Department:
Youth Council | Residencies | Tours | Professional Development
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