Theatre with an RE

Ohhhhhhhhh…. All this Beauty.
The Rain Forest, the Tropical Rain Forest.

I’ll never forget that song. Unfortunately, I’ll never forget that song.

In 6th grade, a theatre group came to my middle school and taught us about the rain forest, and over a decade later, I still remember. There is something about interactive theatre that affects young people, teaches them in a way that traditional education is unable to.
Case in point: Theatre Action Project. In 10 years TAP has grown in extraordinary ways. They have gone from working with around 500 kids to 12,000 to 14,000 – an hour and half of programming to over 11,000 hours.

Theatre Action Project is a local non-profit educational theatre company who’s mission, according toExecutive Director Karen LaShelle, is to “use theatre and the creative arts as tools to engage young people and create experiences where they can be exploring social issues and developing their self-esteem. They exist in 4 distinct programs:

An afterschool program that teaches students about communication, team work, diversity, the environment, etc. All issues of character education. This takes place on 30 different local campuses. Their goal is to be a part of that school community, as much as any other organization.

Interactive Performance Residencies. These are 3 shows that tour over 50 schools in the Austin-area. These are 5 day programs that teach about conflict resolution and becoming a “courageous bystander.” These are for students grades 2 through 6.

And finally, you can see TAP in the community doing a myriad of services that benefit youth in Central Texas. This past holiday season they teamed up with HEB to build thousand of “Peace Cranes” in honor of Sadako Sasaki. The cranes were gathered from around the community and sent to the Peace Park in Japan. Beautiful.

Like many nonprofit organizations, Theatre Action Project has a deep concern for improving the lives of young people in the Austin area. They do so with a fresh approach, however, and the scope of their wonderful influence will undoubtedly widen in their bright future.

Theatre Action Project will be hosting a fundraising event celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary this week. The event, called “The Big Kid Birthday Bash,” will feature great food and drinks, live music by The White Ghost Shivers, and all the birthday games with a big kid twist you can imagine. Visit TheatreActionProject.org for more information. I’ve got first dips on pin the tail on the donkey.