 Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Hallie Gordon. I am the Artistic and Education Director for Steppenwolf for Young Adults at Steppenwolf Theater. And we're very excited to have many youth here from different organizations. And I want to just start by giving you a little bit of context. It was about four or five years ago that TCG was working on a, one of their conferences was around audience engagement. And I looked around and I noticed, and the future of audiences, and I noticed that there were no young people at the conference. And I thought, well, that's really weird that we're talking about how to connect audiences, how to get younger audiences, how to get more diverse audiences. And yet there's not a young person that I can see here. And so I talked to Rachel Fink from Berkeley Rep and she and I thought it would be a great idea if we started bringing teens to the conference. We, both of our organizations, which you'll hear about, have programming for youth as well as the other youth you'll be hearing about. But I think it's really important to note that there's, for youth now, they're much more racially diverse in their friendships than at least my generation was. And so if we can cultivate that relationship and those partnerships with teens, that becomes our audience. And there's a lot of research from the Wallace Foundation and other foundations in which organizations are trying to get militiams in the door. They're now trying to get the Gen X in the door. And as soon as it takes, you know, a couple of years to survey, evaluate, focus groups. And by that time, these kids are the kids that we're all looking for to come to the theater. So my point is we have to engage with them now in this conversation. These people sitting here right now are the audiences, the board members, the artists. They are the voice. And it's important that they're recognized and that they start coming to these conferences more often and that you value what they have to say and that they also value what you have to say. And they get a national scope of what theater is like and what the challenges are and what the amazing things are. So I think this is a really amazing opportunity for both all of you and both everyone here. So you're going to hear a tiny bit about everybody's programming. They're going to be timed. They're going to be timed. Everyone gets seven minutes and not every single person, but every theater company will get seven minutes. I will have them introduce themselves. They'll talk to you a little bit about the programming. And then we'll have a back and forth discussion of questions, concerns, challenges, all that kind of stuff. So why don't we start with, we're going to start with, what? You guys? The Playhouse. Playhouse. Cleveland. All right then. Hey, hello everyone. My name is Alan O'Reilly. I'm Education Programs Manager at Cleveland Playhouse. And this is my team, the wonderful Tanaka Company. We'll tell you a little bit about our programs here. Here at Cleveland Playhouse, the team program is called CPH College. It was started in 2006 to strategically engage youth across all aspects of our organization, including theater makers, theater administrators, audience members, board members and funders. We're going to tell you a little bit about each aspect that our teens are exposed to in the CPH program. Theater makers, all artists, designers, actors and directors are invited, usually in this very room, to lead interactive master classes or discussion-based workshops with our teens. It's a great opportunity for the teens to connect with our artists, actors, directors, designers and conversely, our designers, actors directly, converse with our teens and engage with them. We've often heard from artistic director Laura Keppley and other members of our design and artistic team that they love having the enthusiasm of the teens in the same classroom, being around that and having them in the audience as participants with our performances. Theater administrators are another aspect of the program. Staff members from across our organization either lead workshop sessions with the youth or host them to shadow them in their department. This can last a day or four weeks. These give our teens exposure to possible careers in the theater beyond being actors or directors, but also to learn about the administrative aspects of Cleveland Playhouse. They often marvel our staff does at the high level of projects that the youth completes, while the youth have opportunities to work alongside really high-level staff members on a day-to-day basis as they strive to complete their projects. Another aspect is, of course, audience members. Basically, the CPH College Day, it meets once a month. We start off with the two workshops that I mentioned. And for example, this last one that we had was a very special one. We started off with two workshops, and then it was built around our performance of Fairfield. After the two workshops, the teens attended what we call behind-the-scenes audience engagement program, featuring the world-famous playwright Ken Ludwig, who's writing our first play of next year's season, Comedy of Tenors, along with Eric Kobel, the author of Fairfield. So they had exposure to the workshops in the morning, then we fed them lunch, and then they participated, yes ma'am? Four minutes. Four minutes, okay, get close. Then they participated in that behind-the-scenes program and engaged with Eric Kobel and Ken Ludwig. Then they saw the performance of Fairfield. The dynamic in our alcohol theater with 300 seats, when 100 of those students or 50 of those students are teenagers, the dynamic changes. And the actors appreciate that, the audience appreciates that. Here's a great story about a particular instance where a teen was watching a production of Venus and Fer in our alcohol theater. She was sitting alongside elderly patrons when an especially eye-opening moment for this youth came about. I didn't realize that the 80-year-old woman would even understand all of that sexual innuendo. Then I realized that she was probably a grandmother and knew a lot more about it all than I call her. Our teens are also exposed to our board members and funders. Recently at the centennial announcement of our 100th season coming up right upon us now, the teens played a big part in that. They're ambassadors for the program. They're articulate. They're very knowledgeable about the CPH college program. And we're talking directly to the funders and board members and that of course pays dividends when those people support programs like CPH college. So that is basically the overview of our program. It's a wonderful program. I'm very new here at Cleveland Playhouse, but I've had some great exposure so far to this program and a lot of great teens. And I'm especially encouraged that it's not just focused necessarily on acting, but also on the administrative aspects. Any quick questions while I- No, we're going to hear from your- Gotcha. Now it's your turn, Tanica. I only have two minutes. So my name is Tanica Conway. I just graduated from Euclid and I'm from Mentor High School, which is like 10 minutes away. I'm going to Cleveland State University and I've been with Cleveland Playhouse since I was actually in eighth grade when I started. I went to one of my friends. Like you said, there's administrative things. I actually worked in the office for my capstone for my senior year to graduate. And I worked in the education department. So if you have any questions about CPH, how it is now, how it was before, because I was here right when they moved from the other building to this one, you may ask me, touched on everything. And like you said, I don't have to do that. Thank you. Thank you. And just to say, we're going to take questions at the very end of this. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. And the next one, we're going to have Berklee Rapp. Berklee Rapp, where do we have Ben? Graham. I'm Ben. I'm from Berklee Rapp. And I've been with Berklee Rapp for five years working on their teen council program. I'm their community programs manager. These are three young women who have participated in the teen council for many years, close to my heart because they're amazing, but also because they are the future of the theater, truly. And it is very, very bright. Teen council was started over 13 years ago when we got a school building donated to us next door to the rep. And we went to the teen community and said, why aren't you taking our classes? What's going on? Why aren't you here? We have kids, we have middle schoolers, but no teenagers. It's just a no teen zone. And they said, it's because we don't see ourselves when we come there. And because you haven't asked us to come, you've asked our parents to come to the theater. And our grandparents to come to the theater. So we said, what do you want? They wanted to see the theater at Berklee Rapp. They wanted to see and understand the landscape of the Bay Area community and see different kinds of theater. They wanted to make their own theater, and they wanted to learn from professionals at the theater and be treated as equals in that learning moment. So Rachel Fink, the director of the school, said, I think you guys might need to help us because we'll be terrible at that because we're good at programming for adults. So she created this teen council and now it serves over 400 Bay Area teens with a core leadership of 14 teens from different schools. These are three representatives. And they create programming for themselves and for their peers by asking their peers what they want to do and what they want to have access to at the rep. So we're going to focus just on one of our programs. We have a bunch of different ways to do that mission. But this is the Teen One-X Festival. And each one of these young women will talk about their experiences going through the festival. So I'm Jett Harper. The first part of our Teen One-X Festival is a playwriting competition. So we have a couple workshops where young writers come and they work on their own plays and they submit them. And the play selection committee, which I've served on, we basically sit in a room. We learn what makes a good play, what stories we want to tell. We want to tell diverse narratives. We want to tell stories that appeal to other teens. And we sort of make our own season. So we pick plays that work well together. We pick plays that we want and that are well written. And the two plays that we pick go on to be produced, they go through a workshop period. And then there is a interview and audition process. And the designers are interviewed by all of the fellows, which our fellowship program at Berkley Rep is basically college graduates get to work with, or they become a fellow and you have to work with a teenager. And then after the fellowship program, you move on to become a worker person at Berkley Rep, whatever that is. And so I was a lighting designer. So I worked with one of the lighting fellows and I got to have a collaborative experience one-on-one with a professional in that field to talk me what things are. It's not like a, here's what you have to do. It's more like what do you want to do? What do you vision for this show? And so it's, yeah, and then the actors don't really have a fellowship person because there's a lot of other things at Berkley Rep for actors like the summer intensive and the actual classes there. And so, yeah. Yeah, sorry. Thank you. I'm Eleanor Maples. I've been a part of the Berkley Rep City Council for all four years of high school and I've participated in their 1-AX program for those four years. I've seen all different sides of it. My first year, I started as an actor and that was really, that year I felt like more respected in my art than I had ever felt before. Not just by the adults, but also by the teens involved. There was just this mutual respect and so I kept coming back over and over again and so I was a set designer the following year and had a mentor, a fellow mentor. And then my junior year I came and I was a director of one of the plays and then this year it became sort of my passion and my baby and so I got to actually produce the festival. And so there are opportunities all across the board to involve yourself in different aspects of producing a play. And the impact for me has really been that this is a space where I feel respected as an artist and not just as a student to take care of where I feel like I'm contributing to the community and that the community values me which really drives my passion for it. Great, thank you three. Next, where do we have a Steppenwolf theater? Great. So, sorry, I'm Megan Sheckman, the Associate Education Director at Steppenwolf and sort of similar to a Berkeley rep around nine years ago we started our Young Adult Council at Steppenwolf. And the aim was to create a professional development program for young people so that they could learn the inner workings of a professional theater from every angle. And one of the things Hallie was really interested in and starting the council was to find a way to really authentically engage teens with Steppenwolf and Steppenwolf with teens. So we do that in lots of ways but three of the primary ways we benefit as a theater from having a Young Adult Council is that we get the opportunity to have them advise us on marketing and to also post events where they bring their peers into the theaters. Every year we have events for hundreds of teens across the Chicago land area. The teens on our Young Adult Council, we have 20 members a year, advise us on season selection for our Steppenwolf free young adult shows. And this year we've also started a mentorship program with our Junior Board which has allowed the Junior Board to learn about our education program in really unique ways. All of which has been again fruitful for the teens in our program but has been fruitful for us as a theater as well. So I'm going to show a short clip of a video that we have for our program and then have two of the young people involved with our program talk from their own experiences as well. The Young Adult Council is a way to develop life skills just in a really cool fashion. It totally opened up my world view of what I could do in theater. I met all these artists in the city who are just thriving. You've learned about all different kinds of ways that you can be an artist and I think that will help me. We've met costume designers, designers, directors, people who make the theater happen. It's a professional work environment. Learn how to talk professionally with people who might have an impact on your life one day. Networking abilities, like I feel like I'm better like in this situation. I feel like I can do that now. It's about the people that you meet and all of the really great things that you get to do. We're just all so different and have such different opinions on things and it works together. These are people I would never have imagined if I hadn't been on the council. And here we all are and we're all interested in the same thing and we're all gunning for the same objective and we're all great friends. That's teaser. Welcome to obviously look on our website and see more information about our council as well. But with our remaining time I'd love to first invite Mariah Woods who is a current member of our council to speak about one impact for her. So being a part of the Young Adult Council has helped me grow in so many ways as an artist and just as a person but something that just sticks out to me the most. So we do this thing as a part of Learning About Theatre that we call script boot camp where we take a really great play and we'll focus on a few things that we're gonna learn and take from the play and be able to analyze about plays like character or language or plot or something like that. And I remember we got a script. It was Sarah Rule's Clean House and I read it and I was like okay I don't really get it but it was I liked it but I didn't I didn't understand what I was supposed to take from it but I wasn't worried about that at all because I know once I went to council and we discussed it like we do and we do the activities that we do surrounding it and it would unpack it for me and I'd just, yeah I'd leave with a better understanding. I was completely correct. I went there and they were talking about how the stage directions were it'd be interesting to see how they performed that on stage. If you know the play there was this moment when the stage direction said they fall in love and then they fall more in love and it didn't even register to me like how would somebody do that but then one of the council members said that and I'm like oh yeah that is important and then everybody just had such different opinions on what the title meant and and another thing one of the characters speaks Portuguese but understands Spanish and the other speaks Spanish but understands Portuguese and we actually had a council member who spoke Portuguese and another council member who spoke Spanish so then they read that for us and when I had originally read it I was like I mean I just read over it because I don't speak those languages but being able to hear them say it and it was so beautiful and it's like those are the kind of things that I wouldn't be able to do if I wasn't a part of council so I'm grateful for that. Great. So who's actually here from our alumni network we've started an alumni network we have over 60 members is going to talk about being a couple years out the resonance of the council for her. Yeah as a college student as a junior in college I've been able to stay connected to the young adult council and stop and will for young adults by we have meetings twice a year alumni reunions when we're on the winter break or summer break to stay in touch face to face with other members of council the current and the former and then also we have regular emails that go out as updates about what each former council member has been up to and also it's been really helpful as a college student to recognize artists that I encountered when I was on council and then feel comfortable approaching them and saying hi I saw your play or I met you as a council member and I was wondering if I could follow up with your work and learn more about what you do I definitely feel as though I learned on council and other alumni have felt the same two of our alum are interns at Steppenwolf this summer and one of the students I was on council with she is in New York and she followed up with a stage manager who she had met at Steppenwolf and was able to follow up with him and learn about what he does in New York and then we were able to give back to Steppenwolf by providing a network of resources from college students across the country who are working with different companies, different universities for current council members to learn about options for colleges they might want to go to or paths they would want to pursue after council. Great. I'm so nervous taking time I don't want to cut anyone off. Okay let's go to Alliance Theater. My name is Sarah and I run the team program for the Alliance Theater so I'm just going to really quickly introduce these three young ladies who are on our team ensemble. We have a lot of programs that we do for teens at the Alliance Theater. We have classes and some pretty robust summer programming as well as programs that cross all of the different divisions at the Woodruff Arts Center where the Alliance Theater is housed but they're going to talk to you a little bit specifically about the theater specific group the teen ensemble which we created we're going into our third year of the teen ensemble. We wanted to create this program both to kind of give ourselves a point into that part of our community in Atlanta and open up a dialogue with them and to provide these kind of world class opportunities that could be a complement to what high school students are learning and their school drama programs. So this is Kyla, Shelby and Deli and they're all going to talk about different ways that they get to engage and be integrated into the fabric of the theater at the Alliance. Well a really great thing that we get to do as part of the teen ensemble is go see the shows. We go to the first previews and it's not even just seeing the shows we get invested in the process of the shows. We get the script beforehand and we're able to read through it and analyze and discuss it with each other and talk about themes and plots and then we're able to go see the shows and compare it to what we've read and what we've discovered while watching the show and then after we get to meet the cast and talk to them and ask them questions about it and how we felt about it and that's a really great opportunity. So we also some of the shows that are really great. We see stuff like A Christmas Carol and Steel Magnolias which are classics but then we also get the opportunity to see world premiere shows like Bull Durham and Tuck Everlasting which is going to Broadway and through that I was able to meet Casey Nicholaw and talk and discuss with him about the show and it was an amazing experience. Also after each show we're encouraged to write a review which is really great instead of just thinking wow that was a great show or that was a really good performance we're encouraged to think critically about what we saw, think about the directing styles and how the actors approach the characters and how even the set design comes together to create this whole performance. In addition throughout the year about once a month we also have the option to go to workshops which can range from anything from improv to audition techniques and it's really nice because sometimes the actors from the shows we're going to see later on in the season come to give us a workshop before we're able to see them and it's lovely I remember one workshop on film auditioning and acting on film was taught by a woman that we later saw act in a new play called Edward Foot which is based in the Appalachian Mountains and it was really lovely because then we get to see the diversity of Atlanta actors and all their talents and sometimes we even have workshops from actors and teachers around the country or around the world. Earlier this year we were very lucky to have a Shakespeare master class from the head of the drama school at Lambda come and teach us and that was lovely because I've had a little bit of Shakespeare training through my high school but learning Shakespeare is like an ongoing process and he was really great at explaining for example Iambic pentameter to me about how the rhythm of Shakespeare's language is incorporated into the performance. Great. At Alliance we also have an opportunity to perform which is really unique from a lot of other team programs that we actually get to put on our own productions and they're very different from our own productions. I've been in the 18 on slumber for the past two years and we've done two different main productions that really deal with social justice issues and issues that we don't really get to talk about in our high school productions for fear of parents calling like our first show we did was about a young gay girl it's called FML how Carson McCullough saved her life and it was about a young girl gay girl dealing with her identity in Catholic school and then this year we did a production called Antigone presented by the girls of St. Catherine's which was a world premiere play and it dealt with a girl who her director had an affair with her as a high schooler and the issues around that with Antigone as a production. We've also had a lot of collaboration with the arts community as a whole we work with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and we get to do different shows with the different exhibits moving exhibits and current exhibits we did a show with Howard Finster a folk artist and learned about his history and went into his production like with unbelievable garb like kidding people arts patrons to follow us by pretending to be silent angels we got to do really avant-garde weird art that was fantastic and also in the shows when we're not cast in the full productions everybody else gets to still be a part of the production by shadowing costume artists and the directors and learning about different aspects of the theater great thank you next we have center theater group hi guys I'm Camille from center theater group and just to acknowledge two things quickly not all of the team reps are sitting up here if you're a team representative can you raise your hand for a second yes there's a ton of overlap among all of these programs we're intentionally talking about points of difference but we share we have a lot in common so center theater group student ambassador program it's a leadership development program it's an eight month program we work with about 24 high school youth each year we pay for all their transportation costs and at the end of the program each one receives $500 as recognition of their contributions to the theater if you're thinking I don't know if I can do this at my theater because I don't have an art school nearby actually the majority of the people that we bring into our program have little to no direct theater experience and that's intentional so some people see their first play after they've already been selected for the ambassador program we consider this a workforce development program in an arts management setting also that term workforce development is very helpful when you're talking to your staff or your board so students get to job shadow they work alongside working professionals our program model is project based learning and it's also terrifying because we staff and teaching artists don't know what the projects are we let them choose them so the students work on small group teams they're introduced to a concept arts education advocacy basic marketing techniques participatory action research and then we look at them and we say what strikes you about that what do you want to work on for the next five months with us they choose a very ambitious project and then they do it with nothing but our support but it's really about them they also receive leadership training as a full group of 24 I just want to acknowledge it was developed by Kanisha Foster who is in the room so they get introduction to different leadership theories, leadership techniques we have staff members who have received leadership training come in to speak to them about their experiences Patricia Garza did that this year we also have them do things like take the Myers-Briggs test which some of you may have taken and then talk to one another and I think with themselves about how does my leadership style define the way that I walk into a space how can I go into any workforce environment or into a theater or into a theater workforce environment and bring my best self to the room and actually speak in my voice we also have them doing written reflections along the way so that they can reflect on what they're doing and so that we then read them and then kind of adjust our curriculum as we go and we worked on just this year the advocacy team decided that they were interested in the middle school thinking middle school funding locally so they developed and then led arts workshops in local middle schools they chose the schools they set everything up they went and did it they evaluated themselves so that's the example and CTG gets a ton out of this we learn about teens views one of the other teams interviewed teenagers and then looked at why they do or do not attend theater they then presented to our entire senior staff and they're taking that to help plan how they reach out to teens next season I want to hand it to Elijah Grun who was one of our ambassadors this year applause wow she gave her so much we have four teams arts advocacy, arts education, student concierge and student scene team is well let me back up a little bit I'm wearing a wristband that says be heard and I think that that especially at a conference called game change is really speaks to the central focus of the ambassador program we're always throughout empowered to be in our own voice and embrace our diverse viewpoints on the world we're always look at we're always the point is we are so diverse we're so different and that's what makes us so beautiful makes our programming so robust so a student scene team for example they organize pre-show events to engage you before the show we did immediate family this year and what was the other show we did Chavez Ravine so the student scene team basically on their own was designing the atmospheric let's say elements of how the theater would look how it would smell, how it would feel for an audience coming in with pre-show materials they would be exposed to and that helps to just get teens acquainted with theater it's like $20 ticket it's called the student scene and it happens I think it's like two shows a season and it's an awesome program student concierge you heard they interviewed 800 teens about what they do or don't like about theater and why they're not coming, why they are coming and it's research like that that is helping to form the next generation of theater go as it is awesome it's invigorating arts advocacy I was on that team with Eric so yeah we designed curriculum for a middle school arts festival we did musical theater dance poetry and improv and it's great actually two days after we get back from this conference I'm going to start with some friends from the program teaching theater at one of the boys and girls clubs that we visited so the work doesn't stop it's the work is so powerful and the work is so impactful on the communities we're serving that you know our voices can't just stop at the end of the program so it's awesome I'm missing something arts education arts education they work with the center three theaters and one of them is Kirk Douglas and the arts education team got to work with the directors and the playwrights of some shows at the Kirk Douglas theater and talk about the major themes in the show and interview them and design they designed this I don't know exactly what it's called like this basically instructional guide to each of the shows so that audiences specifically teens could hook in further and deeper into the field so that they're not walking in like whoa what is this crazy sets that look at you know there it's it's all about bridging the gap between what knowledge what expertise we have what life experience we have and what the theater how much time do I have left 40 seconds 40 seconds and and what the theater needs so they're ready there's really an abnormal emphasis on what we have to bring the diversity the just how what what power we have basically because of our identity in our social location it's great being at this conference because it's like we're already having these conversations so it's really cool to be in a room where other people are on the same page as us because it's like we're already ensuring that the theater will continue to be diverse and inclusive and equitable for people of all walks of life I get all the theaters and oh awesome so I'm going to before we open up the questions I'm just going to throw out something to the entire group including the the teams that are here and not necessarily sitting up here but I'd love to just for you to talk about how being part of these organizations has been a game changer for those organizations so how have you seen you know the organizations change internally by your presence by being there by doing the work that you're doing there yes yeah so I mentioned earlier I've been a part of the team council program for four years since my freshman year and now here I am graduated senior and at the beginning my first team night which is a similar program that we have where we invite teams to come see the show see an interview with an artist working on that show and get a catered dinner all for the cost of ten dollars so when I was a freshman our team nights were in one of the classrooms at Berkeley Rep's school of theater that has a capacity of a hundred people but we usually would get like thirty or so to see the interview, get the dinner and go see the show over the years as Berkeley Rep has also acquired new space we've had to go back and ask for more tickets because too many teams are signing up and we have wait lists for the amount of kids who want to go to this event and who want to be a part of this group of teens seeing this theater so we've consistently had to go back and ask for more tickets and ask for more space for teens at this event great, can we do one other theater company and then we'll go back, yeah okay we have a Steppenwolf for young adults at this show called This is Modern Art about the graffiti bombing of the Modern Wing on the Art Institute and it was on the main stage there and I thought it was just such a different kind of show to be there and we host events around the shows and the Steppenwolf for young adult season and at our event there was just like and I'm so used to seeing just like a sea of gray in the audience like when you go or just of people who look exactly the same it was such a diverse group of people and it was like sold out so fast they had to like put more chairs in the audience for people to see and I think it just like diversified like and the amount of people that were coming so yeah great, let's take someone who hasn't talked to hi, I'm Lauren Payne and I'm with CPH one thing I have to say about CPH is that one big game changer is that as far as funding it's a free program so it's really easy for a lot of the kids to come out if they can't afford to be a part of a great program or if they can't afford to be a part of different things where you actually do have to pay the thing about CPH is that it's free so it gives these children opportunities if they can't provide the funds for these other programs to still be involved in theater and get to know it it also brings I'm sorry it also shines light on people who don't know much about theater since it's free they feel that they can come in and join and see how it is without actually having to feel as if they say they didn't like it and they feel they didn't want to waste money and now they're upset they can't be upset because it's free so I think that's a great thing about CPH is that it's funded so that the teens can come in and just enjoy it without having to worry about that as well as parents providing money. Great, thank you I'd love to, oh you had a quick thing you wanted to add to that. Yeah, all I wanted to add was part of the theater scene program that Eleanor described the artists whose plays we see consistently say that the nights that the teen council comes are the best audiences. We're teenagers in the audience and we're engaging with the art we just had food which helps. And we just had an interview from someone who was really in on the process we know what we're in for and we're excited about it and it always shows. And that's what we've heard from adults. Great, thank you. I'd love to open it up to questions that any or all or some of you might have to anyone here. Yes. Is there any way we can access the 800 interviews and the data points that we have available. We've got some I believe one sheets now at the back of the room about our program that has my contact information on it so email me I'll send it to you. So we do have one sheet from I think it's not all many of the theaters that are up here because she can get a hold of it. Great question. I'd like a copy of that. I would be remiss in not saying this was Nigel Porter he's teaching artists how to do this. Other questions? Yes, I'll do it in the back. You guys started doing frost team council theater work around the country. Is there interaction at the team level? That's a great question. So we were just talking about this yesterday and last night at 3 o'clock in the morning. So I don't think we really have what we should be now we were talking we were like oh well we did this conference this year and there's so much there are greater ways we could be utilized we could be we could take a day I don't know how effective this would be I know I'm not a planner at the conference but you know what I'm saying we could take a day and write so we could say you know let's instead of like the two partners for instance yesterday let's take that chunk and say let's have all the teams get together and brainstorm solutions to impact it's been to a wraparound strategy session in theaters in common and say or in these communities and saying how can we further enhance our outreach and enrich what we're doing for people so we should be but we're not yet but we should be. We just followed each other on Twitter. We're all really connected. So this is great that it's work development and attached to professionals in the field which I think is the leadership in your companies paying attention to the strategies that are being developed by these young people and employing it for main-stage programs because we're all talking about how to diversify our main-stage audiences and we all those of the communication know what's happening and we see it and these people are seeing it and they know it and so that really important bridge we're all trying to figure out seems like these guys have the keys to it is leadership looking at those strategies and employing them it's a journey and it's the longer that you do these programs and the more that you can get people in the room and have them understand the capacity of teenagers the more that they'll buy into it I mean the first couple of years it wasn't but we're we're committing to that and next year all of the projects are going to be more closely tied to the main stages so I think it's also kind of you know people are scared of teenagers they don't they don't understand a lot of time with them they don't understand what they are absolutely capable of you know I will also say that I got a TCG grant an audience revolution grant that is specifically about bridging the gap between our subscription show adult audience and our young adult audience and creating an environment in which they go see the theater together whether it's a main stage subscription show whether it's step more young adult show whether it's a grant whatever that is on our campus and so hopefully once we get through that there'll be information on whether that worked or not and for the other theaters how are you going to be free to the young people key bank key bank cph college thank you Wells Fargo I think work rent is a really good direction to go with this kind of work they can buy they can click into the workforce development aspect can I just say I love that a youth knows how they're funded yes question over here and then we'll go here that's where in the first starting of these programs what is the appeal that was made to teens to not participate and more for the teens involved what drew you in well for center theater group oh sorry for center theater group my high school was like right down the street and we were always encouraged to go there to participate I went to Ramon secretinas a really big weird shaped art school on Grand Avenue downtown L.A. and I was like oh and I'm not from L.A. I'm from Delaware so I was like oh let me put myself into this little new thing so that's why I went over there and I'm glad I did great anyone else want to talk to me I've been heard from oh yes I heard about C.T.G. from my school from my theater teacher and I was definitely interested because theater I always like theater but I can never find that proper connection because you know if I looked up a program online I was like oh you have to pay this subscription amount and you know that's money I didn't have and so then when I looked into C.T.G. student ambassador program they were like yeah we're going to give you a stipend and then we'll give you a bus pass so that you can come over here and you guys can be a part of the program and that's what definitely helped me a lot just because I'm not I like the best financial situation ever and so they're giving me that push they're giving me that capacity to go and inform myself about theater and become part of that community so it was yeah great and last one Chloe and I'm from Berkeley Rep and so Berkeley Rep doesn't just have a teen council they have workshops from for kids from like preschool up to adults and I started doing I started at Berkeley Rep with my first clowning class when I was five and I moved away to Boston but when I came back I went all into the theater company and they have a great summer intensive that really drew me in and then I took different workshops and the educators have been so supportive and the community especially in the Bay Area is so supportive and excited to be there and so in eighth grade I snuck into my first teen night to see Sarah Rolls dear Elizabeth and I had been working with Ben before and he told me to get involved in the teen council and I went to my first teen council meeting and I've gone to everyone great and you had a question and it's sort of like a little inventory I'm just trying to clarify are all of the programs free is there anyone of the programs that we mentioned they're all free across the board I'm just curious are they in terms of access in which students can participate are they all open we have a program but it basically focuses on particular schools that we're in partnership with so I'm just trying to get a sense which are brought open all comers and which are it's from this particular school or group or what have you. Sure why don't we talk a little bit about how you apply to your program do you want to start Mariah? Yeah so ours is for grades 9 through 12 so if you're like incoming freshman and there's an application and then if you like you there's an interview and then from there there's select it anyone yeah any school it's open it's open yeah how about you guys is your program yeah we it's open to all schools anybody in the Atlanta metro area that can provide their own transportation there and it is audition based so you have to audition with a monologue or a song or two monologues and then they select you if you want to be if you can be in the group. Great yes I'm Micaela Starris I'm from center theater group and center theater group actually opens it to the Los Angeles and Orange County areas because anybody that can make their way to whatever different event so center theater group has the student body as a whole that anybody can be a part of and then from there we are selected for the specific programs like the student ambassadors or my program is the August Wilson monologue competition and the student ambassador program is actually just Los Angeles county student ambassador program is just Los Angeles county we intentionally starting next year we'll take no more than two students from each school because otherwise we find that they don't branch out anyone in the Bay Area can participate in team council programs like the 1x festival and like team nights for the leadership team we are actually creating our own application process to pick the next year's teenagers so we sort of create the means through which we perpetuate ourselves it's kind of cool it's a new program that we're doing but anyone can join as long as you can make it to our meetings so it's incredible to see all of you up here once you've gone through this incredible program once you leave that what can our organizations do to continue to support you in your growth Mary do you want to talk about Michelle DeVine? Yeah absolutely it's been great especially to stay in contact with the specific leaders in the stop and roll for young adults that like Megan and Hallie who I've been able to work with and I feel like any time I have questions about something I'm interested in I can reach out to them it's been great but then also they're able to connect me to other artists if I have a question about something one of my professors at Northwestern we've worked with at stop and roll for young adults it was really nice to be able to fall up with him on his work and say I was really interested in this project and and then be able to there's an event stop and roll for young adults did with with him as an artist it was nice to be able to stay in touch with them as well and I felt really supported and encouraged by that work and I will say from our end again we have two two youth that are now graduated from college that are now going to be interns at Steppenwolf we've had them audition for Steppenwolf plays we've had one of them at Steppenwolf stage and I will say that for the first time our alum are now donating money to the Steppenwolf for young adults program so now we've gotten a contribution unasked, unsolicited a contribution from them and a lot of their parents as well who else wants to talk a little bit about how they can help stay in touch with? one if you have money you can give us scholarships so we can go to college and continue our learning and if it's just people themselves like mentors you can keep mentoring us like it doesn't just stop in here like you can continue to help us as we go on you can give us tips, you can give us resources you can tell us about your experiences like it doesn't just alright you for this program bye and it's done like that's the way for you to help us continue our outreach because in the end you guys do know stuff that we don't even though we do know a lot like like those things that like comes with experience that you can help us with the other yes hi my name is Eric and I just wanted to say something real real real quick one way that you could really help us is recognize that not all of us go to an art school I myself I'm gonna say I go to continuation school and that is something that lacks the arts and I'm really grateful for CTG taking me in and I don't know who asked the question if you know can anybody apply? I don't know who asked it was it you? can anybody apply? I'm right here anybody but but one way you guys could really help is focus, yeah you guys can focus on art schools but also focus on other schools as well how did you hear about it? I heard about it through this one program called Artworks LA and so they hooked me up with they hooked me up with the same theater group and then that's all this is what happened thank you come on yes what are the relationships with the high school drama teachers? um yes I just spoke with what Eric just said not all the schools that we're working with have drama teachers, the ones with drama teachers find out about this on their own and bring that to their students like we didn't do the school that that Jaliza mentioned we did zero outreach to them because they find us I'm out in the schools that do not have drama programs talking to the English teachers talking to the assistant principal saying like where are the students who have expressed the arts not theater any art who is the kid who's writing in the back of the room so yes we do of course CTG works we have great relationships with local drama teachers and sometimes those can be really key relationships to reaching out to their students but you know at a certain level that's the low hanging fruit and those are the guys who are already aware of what we're doing so that is absolutely relationships that we build but we're increasingly trying to go a little bit deeper yes I'll be honest with my school there was no outreach and I actually thumbed up through a friend like everyone here is like I had a program or it was on the street if you walk through any school in my area there's nothing about CPH at all a friend of mine who is actually homeschooled and her mom is a teacher and really influential in the arts community she was like hey I know you're in eighth grade but they said that you could do this program and that was how I found out at my school we don't have drama all we have are two plays that are we have two musicals and two plays that are produced by one of our elementary school principals who has theater background and has money and that's it there's no drama in any of the schools our middle schools don't even have plays so that outreach is kind of hard in my area so like you kind of have it needs to be reached out to more than just art schools because I didn't even know that there was an art school in my area until I was graduating so like it's hard to get into the arts in like their mind because I'm a network in my community but I can't obviously make every kid like come on, come to CPH they're like no no no even if they are interested in the arts so yeah like there needs to be more I agree I can only really speak for the high school I've graduated from but it's right down the street from the Berkeley rep so we have a lot of Berkeley high school students doing stuff at the Berkeley rep and the head of the drama department sort of understands this and he makes sure that the fall play or the spring musical doesn't necessarily completely line up with the 1x festival and he sends people that way if they seem like they might need it and he encourages us to stay involved so it's not necessarily the closest relationship but he is aware that this is happening and he's cool with it I went to OSA for a time I transferred out of the school for the arts which is an art school and I was in theater and it was a very kind of it was a conservatory I guess for theater and that like the teachers and the instructors are like this is what you have to do and it's a very like very clear teacher and student relationship and there wasn't any collaboration and it wasn't pleasant sometimes and so I went to Berkeley rep after recommendation from lovely Eleanor here for a more professional experience and a more collaborative and a better teaching experience and that's what was provided from me I guess from that great question all the way in the back they might have something that's a little bit different than this perspective from me in the for Atlanta I've noticed for me my teachers kind of want to keep the teens at their schools with their school drama program and not really want to go out and so I really wanted to my school was doing really typical plays that really didn't talk about like social justice issues or things that I was interested in so I had to kind of push away and drag other teens from my school to alliance from the drama teachers so I know that my drama teacher knows that things are happening but she isn't that compliant with us dedicating our time to another organization so we're going to be working with a couple of schools to hopefully kind of partner with their curriculums now so that we can maybe make it a little bit easier to have that conversation and schedule things something we're trying next year so that goes to my question for those that are not in our schools are you guys a theater educator from the administrative perspective is there any back reach to the school to say hey some of your kids are coming to us you don't have a theater program how can we help you build a theater program in that school in terms of like and is that for the youth or is that for us running this program for those answers did you have something to say well for my school I go to a target school and so there really is an art, it's basically math, science all that kind of stuff but what senator theater group did was that they got in touch with my school I think for the second year of the row now and so they bring a teaching artist to school and we learned about August Wilson every Monday for 13 weeks 10 weeks and then I thought that was really cool I mean it's our second year having a theater class so it's barely an introduction but I mean it really helped a lot because I sort of I had while we were learning about August Wilson the student ambassador but I know that a lot of my peers a lot of other underclassmen needed that class and it was very influential and such a great experience to have senator theater group send an actual like artist to our school to help us to help the class to help our class because there are practically no like arts at our school so that was great and I would say from Stefan we don't do that for a couple reasons one we get a lot of phone calls from high schools that have no arts saying can you it becomes a different program and a different cost but also I'm our department is really working with the Chicago public schools to get a drama teacher in every single school in Chicago those are the teachers that should be doing that instead of freelancing out to regional yeah yeah yes that's what we're trying to do yeah and that and I don't know Megan if you want to talk a little bit about ingenuity in terms of how you're working with that organization to do that I would also just say which I'm sure is true of our colleagues that these program that we're representing are only one way that we work in schools so for example we work with 2,500 other students through our in school residency program we work with teachers directly I just think that's worth saying as well and again I'm sure that's true of my colleagues but yeah we work with a local non-profit arts organization in Chicago called Ingenuity Incorporated which is its purpose is to advocate for all art forms for all students in the city of Chicago so that's one way that we serve the mission of again not saying we know better than some of the teachers at schools how to serve their students but how to work alongside them both when we're bringing students to theater to see our shows and when we're sending teaching artists into classrooms to work with them and when we're recruiting for and having students as a part of our after school program Great and you wanted to add to that? I just wanted to quickly add Cleveland Playhouse in addition to our wonderful Keybanks program does a drama club program funded by the Nord Family Foundation which is a local foundation that funds a lot of education and arts based programming and we partner with six schools through high schools and really bring about really create drama club programs at those schools that meet after school once a week. We send in master teachers to advise the drama club advisor at that school through the schools had no drama club programs and we built it from the ground up three of them had them already but were there supplement and support and advise it's a great program if you have any questions feel free to approach me afterwards or Pamela or Alan Just quickly it is required that you will post a drama teacher within your school so if they don't have one they have to find the funds to have one to get access to all of the services in this city in two counties Gotcha that's great Other questions? Thoughts? Yes? We were talking about how us students and teens found out about our programs and I know that I did come from an arts high school well originally I came from a public high school and then by taking part in Berkeley reps programs it made me more passionate for theater and made me choose to then seek out an arts school but there are also a lot of teens in our area who join our program who are homeschooled I don't know if you would know more about how they find out about it I don't know how they find out about it She's usually mom and she usually calls me or dad but it is in the community and I think when you know someone else and they talk about their experience it does end up being like a filler for some people because some people do have great drama programs and we don't want to take away I think that's the relationship that you have to have is each individual theater artist in the schools what do you need from us? Do you just need us to provide you access to come see our work then here's how we can do that. Do you want to send all of your kids to our workshops because you have no theater workshops let's do that but it's on an individual basis with the teacher and what the school means. Great you guys I want to be mindful of did you have one thing you wanted to add? We also have groups of students from schools that don't necessarily come to see our shows or don't necessarily have arts programming usually for free we get lots of tickets for free for them to come to see our shows and that's how a lot of them get involved and this year we just had our leadership team applications and it was announced she was on our leadership team and now we have a more diverse range of schools because of the schools coming to see our shows so we have out in Hayward and just from the teen nights not necessarily even doing most of the events and also from charter schools in Oakland Let's give a round of applause for the dedication of theater in the future we're on the right track we need more of it Thank you guys so much for being a part of this feel free if you have questions Thank you everybody