TREE OF LIFE
Bring theatre and the arts to homeless kids and teens
The mission of Tree of Life is to bring theatre and the arts to homeless kids and teens. The aim of the project is to teach the kids/teens involved how to take an idea for a play from its seedling phase to the stage. Using the power of story, autobiography, and the art of collaboration, students will learn what it means to workshop a play, some will take on the role of set designer, others of costume; some will be actors, others directors.
Some will even help with the production and the public relations aspect of production. All the while, students will be working with professionals in the field -- working actors, writers, directors, producers.
[Sponsored by Broward County Cultural Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, Hope South Florida, the New Light Foundation, and Krane, Inc].
Often, these workshops take place as summer seminars and/or year-long conservatories that can be out of reach for low earning or poverty level families. We believe that everyone should have access to art and everyone should have the right to make art, if the passion lies within. Even if that passion has been, thus far, unrecognized.
It is our goal to make that desire to create bloom; to illustrate, through hard work, the power of art -- whether that art be visual, performative, or musical . Because art does, indeed have power -- the power to change people and change the world through empathy, thought, and catharsis. The workshop is open to anyone who wants to audition.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
