Something to SMYAL About

Back in October, YPT initiated a partnership with another organization that serves our city’s youth: Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL).

Partnering with SMYAL has been a dream of mine for a couple years now. As a queer woman, I can’t help wondering about LGBT youth within the walls of every school I step into. In light of the recent tragic suicides within this national community, the need to hear these students’ voices is even more urgent.

SMYAL is located in a cozy blue row house on Capitol Hill. I noticed immediately that the youth who walked through SMYAL’s door felt at home. They readily prepared Hot Pockets in the kitchen, flopped on the couches, and gave friendly greetings to staff and youth alike. This is a community, built on mutual respect and trust.

My role is to work within SMYAL’s Youth Arts Program, ably lead by Stephanie Remick, Youth Leadership Coordinator. I will continue working with this group all year.

I told the youth when I first met them that at YPT we believe every person has a story worth telling. I want to give them the opportunity to tell theirs. With such a close-knit bunch, I knew that I would have to earn everyone’s trust.

During one workshop I led the youth in a story sharing exercise. We split into partnerships, and I instructed them to tell their partners the story of a time when they felt proud of themselves. My partner was clearly still trying to figure me out. She shared a proud moment, but without detail, just a bold declaration, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

When it came time to share I told the students that instead of sharing their own stories they would share what their partner told them. On top of that, they would share their partner’s story in the first person and attempt to imitate his/her gestures, tone of voice, etc.

I took the floor. I shifted my weight and assumed a standoffish pose. I did my best impersonation of my partner’s voice, and tried to match her boldness.

“I graduated high school. Until you graduate high school, you’re still a child.”

She cracked up. Her body language softened, and she congratulated me on my performance. It was a small moment, but I knew that I had expanded her perception of me. Perhaps I could be trusted.

Currently we’re working on the creation of a short performance to mark the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)’s “No Name-Calling Week.” I’m excited to hear the youth’s contributions to this much-discussed topic. It promises to be eye opening.

Nicole
Program Manager

David’s Lunch with Michelle Rhee

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of sharing lunch with Michelle Rhee. It was a rare opportunity – 60 minutes of one-on-one conversation with the Chancellor of DC Public Schools, one of the most famous and controversial figures in education today – and a long-term advocate for YPT. My hope was to share with her the latest developments at YPT and to hear her vision for the next steps in the school system. I wasn’t disappointed. I was immediately impressed by her candor, her humor and the clear inspiration she derives from DC students. I shared with her the clear data from our latest, innovative evaluations of student growth in our programs, showing how much students’ critical and creative thinking develop through our process. You can see these results for high school and elementary school on our website. She was impressed – and reiterated that she wished more nonprofits had this kind of data to back up their programs. We discussed how YPT has worked for years with people like Dr. Barry Oreck to develop evaluations that allow us to capture lightning in a bottle – and truly see the impact of our work on student learning.

We talked about the planned arts magnet middle school, and had an in-depth discussion about how the arts community could play a bigger role in helping the school system become the national model we all want it to be. As I said to the DC School Board three years ago when testifying on behalf of the Arts Standards we at YPT helped to write, I believe the school system doesn’t need to spend millions of dollars reinventing the wheel in creating arts programs. Instead, we should find ways to streamline communications between nonprofits and DCPS and pursue funding streams to support the amazing artists and organizations already working with DC Public School students, as we expand and fully integrate our services. With our theatre community now only second to New York City in the nation, Young Playwrights’ Theater and the rest of the community are ready to provide all DC students with high quality arts education experiences. With a true partnership between nonprofits and schools, we could bring professional artists into every classroom and quickly establish a national model for arts integration throughout DCPS – if only the system and our nonprofit community could work more directly, and more clearly, together, as I told the Chancellor.

I also brought up the question of how we as a community can go beyond test scores to gauge and better serve students’ development. We talked about engaging parents more in their students’ education and how the system can better serve parents, families and communities overall. I pledged my interest and support for her efforts in developing a stronger arts education model throughout DC Public Schools and she pledged her continued support of YPT. By the end of the hour we knew each other better, she knew YPT better – and we left the lunch excited to find new ways YPT and DCPS can collaborate. When you come to our upcoming performances or programs, don’t be surprised if you see her there, cheering our students on. Ultimately we both want the same thing – to ensure that DC students receive the world-class education they so richly deserve. Isn’t that really the goal?

David
Producing Artistic Director and CEO

YPT Explores Homelessness in DC

This year Young Playwrights’ Theater is working in partnership with Fannie Mae and their Help the Homeless program to create an original play about the issue of homelessness in the Washington metro area. In the coming weeks, we will be implementing workshops at transitional housing facilities and several public schools to discover the many perspectives, feelings and beliefs surrounding this issue that will find their way into our play. Last night, we conducted our very first workshop at Community of Hope, and we were absolutely blown away by the residents there. We had a group of seven women and their children. The first workshop requires participants to play a role in a made-up drama concerning citizens at a town hall meeting who are deciding whether or not to allow a transitional housing facility to move into their neighborhood. Each person is given a character to play in the fictional community, many of whom disagree with the initiative. Since this was our first workshop, we were unsure if our partners would be willing to voice opposition to a transitional housing facility, but the participants played their roles with vigor and honesty. We had quite a debate for our guided drama, and in the end, the community voted to have the “Good Neighbor Transitional Housing Facility” built in their neighborhood. After the play concluded, we reflected on it and asked the participants to speak openly about the varying opinions of the characters they just enacted. They spoke candidly about the way homeless people are stereotyped and the injustice of writing off the problem as drug abuse, mental illness or apathy. Needless to say we were honored to work with these remarkable women and look forward to the rest of our workshops related to this project.

Please start making plans right now to come see this play at our Express Tour Showcase November 3 through November 6. If the experience of last night is any indication of the depth and sincerity we will meet over the next month of conducting these workshops, then you do not want to miss this showcase!

Patrick
Associate Artistic Director