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Inner City Youth Overcome Struggles through Program at Stella Adler
By: Gabrielle Sierra Jul. 26, 2010
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Outreach Division will perform Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" on August 6th after a free five-week intensive for underprivileged New York City youth. The 22 students chosen for the program learn the same acting technique that helped cultivate the talents of Stella Adler alumni like Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando. This performance serves as a milestone project of the program, which has helped students gain confidence, avoid common urban influences like gangs and drugs, and provide a sense of community that will continue long after the program.
At a time when city schools are suffering from a lack of resources and cannot provide an adequate education, the Stella Adler Studio provides low-income teens with high-level training and access to a long revered cultural institution, in a safe haven to escape daily struggles through acting.Since the program's inception two years ago, Stella Adler has helped over 2,000 kids through the Outreach Division and received over 6,000 applications.VIDEO:To see the strong impact of the program where students speak in their own words watch this exclusive video here: http://sharing.theflip.com/session/a1db573d2c99b349032b4983bec73c72/video/16017682 TESTIMONIALS:
Luis comes from a very troubled community in the South Bronx. He admits that if not for the Outreach Division, he might be getting high and causing trouble like so many of his peers.
Becca was paralyzed from the waist down when she was 8 years old. She thought she would never walk again. Over the years she has begun to rehabilitate herself physically and emotionally. Outreach has been an empowering experience for her, giving her the physical confidence she has lacked for so many years.
Darnell has lived intermittently in foster homes and homeless shelters for the past few years. Currently living in a shelter, he describes how with no family to speak of, he comes home and studies Shakespeare on his cot at night. Darnell has described Outreach as his only real family.
Stephanie, who moved from the Dominican Republic only three years ago and has always struggled with her English, recently performed in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. She talks about how studying Shakespeare and performing on stage has dramatically improved her English skills and eliminated her accent, giving her confidence to excel in school.
The Stella Adler Outreach Division was created to provide a model of social engagement for the Studio's students and to give free actor training to those who might not otherwise be able to afford it. The program also addresses disadvantaged and at-risk youth's need to have a safe place to learn how to find and express their voices artistically and creatively and to be educated about the craft of acting. The Stella Adler Outreach Division provides free, year-long actor training to these aspiring artists with the same intensity and integrity of all the Studio's other learning tracks. http://www.stellaadler.com/outreach
Established in 1949 by Stella Adler, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting was founded upon Adler's belief in the supreme seriousness of her art, and has, for the last five decades, enriched every part of the American theater and film arts. Adler's philosophies kept many well-known members of the theater coming back for her intelligent and passionate advice and the school has since trained many of the brilliant actors of our time, including Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Elaine Stritch, Benicio del Toro and Salma Hayek. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is a nonprofit organization, which trains over 500 actors annually and also presents world-class lectures, poetry readings, jazz, classical music, theater, and dance theater events. www.stellaadler.com
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