No, it wasn’t Hamilton. The young players are not quite ready for Broadway (though a few may make it that far. There were definitely some standouts). The plot was a little rough; the performance a little unpolished. But what a mighty act of resistance I watched last night!
The Summer Youth Theatre Ensemble is a new initiative of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. This summer was the first workshop and Friday night was the first performance.
The Kansas City Repertory Theatre [formerly known as The Missouri Repertory Theatre], the professional theatre in residence at UMKC, continues its five-decades long tradition of producing works which are compelling, passionate and imaginative.
KC Rep was founded in 1964 by Dr. Patricia McIlrath, a tireless crusader for excellent theatre. Her vision was to establish a training program where theatre students could work side by side with professional actors, designers and directors. Within a few years of its founding, KC Rep became affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association and formally took the name Missouri Repertory Theatre.
kcrep.org
KCRep Summer Youth Theatre Ensemble is a free, four-week program open to all young artists ages 13-18 in the Kansas City area. Summer Youth Theatre Ensemble artists engage in an interactive rehearsal process packed full of high-energy games, ensemble-building activities, and playwriting exercises designed to cultivate creative and life skills. Together, they collaborate with KCRep teaching artists to build a performance that is their own and perform it for the public on KCRep’s main stage, Spencer Theatre. The program is designed to include and nurture all students and their ideas, so while it is a theatre-focused experience, we welcome young artists of all skill levels and backgrounds. No previous theatre experience is required to participate! Every student involved is vital in helping shape the experience.
www.broadwayworld.com/...
The cast featured 36 members from 25 metropolitan area schools. The students wrote the play themselves. They called it To Be Human, “a hero's journey from origin story, through life's challenges, and onto the discovery that to be a superhero is to be a super human”. It was a sort of allegory. Each incarnation of the hero has to battle a different evil: fear, hate, their own mind, and use their own special super power to defeat it. It was a little corny, but the kids really brought it.
Especially the star of the show. That’s how I came to be there. One of my refugee rides the past month has been a high school girl, who arrived in this country four months ago from South Africa where her family had fled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I don’t know the details of her history (we were cautioned in our training that it is insensitive to ask about a person’s story). I know she must have been through things I can’t imagine.
Refugees from the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
She was chatty the first time I took her home, but the next time I picked her up she was kind of quiet and seemed down. I asked her what they’d done in class that day and she told me that they had all shared their stories and had decided to use hers. No wonder she was withdrawn, to be in the spotlight figuratively speaking.
It took a few days for it to sink in with me that she meant, not they they were using her story for a class exercise, but that they were going to construct their play around her story and she would literally have the spotlight on her. Wow.
I went to see the performance last night and she was magnificent. Her super power was “I stand out”. So appropriate.
What an amazing and courageous young woman and what a privilege for me to get to play my small part.