PRIME Creates New Theater With Local Youth

Three St. Louis organizations are teaming up to bring the unheard stories of local youth to one of our city's premier stages. Led by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Daniel Blake Smith, experimental theatre company PRIME and creative writing and tutoring non-profit YourWords STL have united with Marygrove Children's Home, a therapeutic residence for infants to 21-year-olds, to theatrically stage true life stories written by Marygrove residents. A free staged reading of their writings will take place at 4 p.m. Saturday, April 28 at the Ferguson Youth Initiative (106 Church Street, Ferguson, MO 63135), followed by a theatrical performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at the Gaslight Theater (358 N. Boyle Ave., St. Louis, MO).

This unique program is called Unheard Voices: You Don't Know My Story and was originally devised by Smith. "I've done workshops before but they've always involved college students," said Smith. "The biggest challenge I faced was convincing these young writers that it was okay, and hopefully a bit therapeutic, for them to dig deep into the difficulties they've faced."

YourWords STL was created by Dr. Anna Guzon and Dr. Steve Handoyo in 2015 in response to the events surrounding Michael Brown's death and has been teaching creative writing to the young men in transitional housing at Marygrove for three years. PRIME staff members have joined YourWords STL as Smith leads the latest round of creative writing workshops with Marygrove youth, assisting these teens and young adults in writing monologues about their personal experiences. Smith will then edit and weave together these monologues, which PRIME will produce and stage as an evening of biographical theatre.

"Finding new and interesting ways to reach out to communities that are outside the theatre bubble is a major part of PRIME," said Artistic Director Matt Heckman. "It's exciting to see these young men getting engaged with theatre, to see that wheel spinning."

Like Heckman, Guzon has already observed the positive impact this project is bringing to Marygrove youth. "With these workshops I've seen a growth in their willingness to articulate thoughts that are extremely difficult to think about," said Guzon. "I'm impressed with their trust in each other, to share parts of themselves that many choose to never expose to the outside world because of the acute and at times overwhelming pain the thoughts can bring up."

Smith has taken a lead role in the workshops with the young men from Marygrove. "The young men at Marygrove surprised me with their candor, directness, and courageous life decisions they are now making, often in the face of emotionally painful circumstances."

None of this could be done without these young men's courageous voices. That's where Marygrove steps in. For more than 165 years, Marygrove has offered a safe and healing environment for children, teens and young adults. The 1,300 children and adolescents who are annually placed at Marygrove have often been through multiple, failed placements in other residential facilities or foster homes. Many come from abusive, violent and severely disruptive family situations which involve abuse and neglect. Marygrove offers incredibly beneficial programs, including education, to its residents in order to enrich their lives.

The April 28 performance of Unheard Voices will be free as a workshop performance. Tickets for the May 12 performance at the Gaslight Theater are $25, with proceeds going toward YourWords STL and PRIME's educational programming. Tickets for both events are available online at PRIMEtheatre.org.

For more information on PRIME, visit primetheatre.org or call (314) 884-1647.

For more information on YourWords STL, visit yourwordsstl.org.

For more information on Marygrove Children's Home, visit marygrovechildren.org

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