This weekend, 20 students from area high schools perform an original show they created in just one month. The project is led by local nonprofit VOICES, which works to connect students with artists. It starts with a blank slate. There’s no script or title. The students build the final production from the ground up, guided by five local artists.
In an auditorium at the Third Street Center, backpacks and coats lie in a pile on the ground. Bags of peanut butter pretzels and veggie straws are open on a back table, but there’s no time for snacks as a group of teens grab their scripts for “Void Of Darkness.”
The production involves original spoken-word poetry, dance numbers, puppetry and even songs.
Bianca Godina a is a senior at Coal Ridge High School. She drives nearly an hour each way for these rehearsals. Recently, a teacher asked her why she would drive so far instead of just being in a school play.
“I told him, in this play, I actually get to talk about who I am, and I’m not told to act like whoever the person on the script is,” she said.
There’s plenty of goofing around in between acts, but when someone takes the stage, the audience falls silent.
Caroline Farris is a senior at Roaring Fork High School. She’s performing a poem about her twin sister and mother leaving her family.
It’s heavy stuff, but, Ferris says, this group is a safe place.
"We are family. We all care about each other a lot. We joke around and dance and have a lot of fun together," she said.
Ferris says that the mentor artists, who run the gamut from dancers to actors to musicians, let the students control the project.
“They want our voices to be heard, which is a lot different than how some adults treat us,” she said.
“The idea for this program came from a need for a kids to express themselves,” said Renee Prince, the executive director of VOICES.
While the project does give teens a platform to speak their minds, Prince says they have to collaborate and make cuts to their pieces, so everyone gets their fair share of stage time. They also have to consider other perspectives, since the final show will have an audience made up of all different ages.
"That dance of 'I am no more or less important than anyone else in the room' is essential to us as human beings, and this is a laboratory for it," said Prince.
Caroline Farris says teen perspectives are often unfairly brushed aside.
"If you just listen, we have a lot to say," she said.
Farris hopes that community members bring open ears, and open minds, to the show.
"Void Of Darkness, Eat The Light" will be performed Friday and Saturday evenings starting at 7:30 p.m. A Sunday matinee starts at 3 p.m. All performances take place at the Third Street Center in Carbondale.
