Perhaps Tomorrow Trailer

Check out the trailer for our current touring show, "Perhaps Tomorrow" today!

CLYTE @ the Con Mi Madre Conference!

We are moving along with our touring season and with a month of performances under our belt, we are looking to take March by storm!

If you've been investigating our process, you know that we're not the type of folks who feel like our work is done once the curtain goes up. Touring a show is a great way to further develop our play. By visiting different kinds of audiences, we can see different moments resonate. For our actors, each performance brings new insights into their characters.

Inviting the audience into our process is a great way to create dialogue about the issues we deal with. Recently the ensemble had a performance at the Con Mi Madre Conference. We presented Perhaps Tomorrow . . . to a group of young Latinas and their mothers.

The post-show talkback was very engaging. This was our first audience comprised of mothers & daughters. Con Mi Madre is a bilingual organization and the conference coordinators offered to translate during our talkback. Luckily, we have several bilingual students in our ensemble who were more than happy to answer questions in Spanish and English!

Ensemble members spoke on what it's like to be a good teen ally, reminding the audience that larger movements toward social change can begin with everyday actions. Things that may seem insignificant: saying hello to someone who usually sits isolated at lunchtime, refusing to laugh at a sexist joke or even calling your friends out when they cross a line can be brave first steps against oppressive behavior.

Check out or new pages if you're interested in a summer job or want to catch a Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble performance in your area!

Performance @ HS PALS Conference!

Our ensemble continued our tour by presenting Perhaps Tomorrow at the High School PALS conference this past weekend. We performed for student leaders from all over Texas and had a great time in the process! Check out the onstage and backstage photos below.

Alex, Kristal, Stephanie and Keyla embody the idea of being isolated

and ridiculed by "the herd" in our set of opening images

Alyssa (Stephanie) is pressured to be the perfect friend, soccer player,

student and daughter. Being a teen can be really stressful!

Abe (Leo) seeks advice from

Super-Blogger Lola (Remandra)

"The Herd" watches a confrontation between Abe (Leo),

Michael (Darryl) and Angela (Kristal)

Mean Girls, Sarah (Eliana) and Kathy (Alex) find

unexpected images of their friend Alyssa on MySpace

Alyssa (Stephanie) posts about her problems on

the 'Dear Lola' blog and asks her peers for advice

Angela (Kristal) manipulates her boyfriend Michael (Darryl)

Darryl cheeses out in the wings

Keyla looks thoughtful and fierce as she prepares for her role as Tasha

Courtney listens for her cue offstage

And discovers Nitra sneaking up on her with a flipcam

the sweet, sweet sound of applause!

Interested in learning more about our youth ensemble? Become a "follower" of our blog by clicking the follow button on the right side of the page! Tell your friends to join our online community!

Changing Lives @ the Voices Erupt Event

Our tour has officially begun! We had our kickoff performance at the Voices Erupt Teen Dating Violence Prevention Month Kickoff this week. We performed alongside some fantastic artists and had a great time.

If you'd like to see a clip of our performance, check out the video below.

See www.startstrongaustin.org for more!

Check Out Our Upcoming Performances!!

It's finally that time . . .

We're kicking off the Spring Tour of our new play, "Perhaps Tomorrow. . ." next week.

We'll be appearing at the George Washington Carver Center in East Austin this Monday, February 1st as part of SafePlace's Start Strong event. "Riot the Silence to End the Violence" is a community kickoff for Teen Dating Violence Prevention Month. If you live in the Austin Area, please stop by and check out all the amazing youth groups who use the arts as a force to inform their peers about healthy relationships.

We'll be performing along with other local artists like The Cipher - Austin's Hip-Hop Project, P.U.B.L.I.C. O.F.F.E.N.D.E.R.S., DJ Chicken George, Gidon, and Georgia Napolitano.

Where: Boyd Vance Theatre, George Washington Carver Center

1165 Angelina St., Austin, TX 78702

When: Feb. 1st, 2010 6-8pm

Price: FREE!!

If you'd like to catch the Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble at one of our local tour stops, check out our schedule and pay us a visit. For a list of all the stops on our tour, see our tour flyer below. We'll also be posting reminders about all of our performances, so make sure you click "follow" on the right side of the page to receive the updates!!

Thanks for your interest & support.

It's Production Time!!

Our ensemble has been hard at work during the first month of 2010!

Here's a little of what we've been up to.

After our staged reading, we had an extensive talkback with the audience. This process is very helpful for us as artists. We tend to spend so much time with our script that it can be easy to lose perspective and forget that audiences will only see this story once. Keeping an open dialogue with our audience was helpful for our last minute revisions on our draft!

revising, revising, revising

We have been working so hard! Our ensemble is fully committed to the work, taking a Saturday and MLK day to rehearse. These rehearsals consisted of acting intensives where we experienced our characters through the lens of the Rasa Boxes activity. This activity has ancient roots in Indian dance training.

Rasa (a Sanskrit word) literally translates to "flavor."

Our goal with this exercise is to reflect upon the emotions and individual connections we each have to them. In performance, a genuine connection to our real feelings and attitudes will result in more specific and truthful acting.

We begin by writing and drawing. This activity is fun because we're all different and have a unique perspective to offer.

What images come to mind when you think of anger?

Does a line in one of your favorite songs sum up your idea of what love is?

What color comes to mind when you think of fear?

The next step in this process is to discover what our bodies have to say. We experiment with frozen images, or statues to fully embody the range of emotions. This is a great way to "feel" where each emotion lives in your body.

Where does your body hold tension when you're angry? Where is it released when you feel a surge of joy? How can your body reveal your attitudes about other characters and point of view about what's happening in the play?

These kinds of activities can help us develop blocking. Blocking is a term that describes the movement and positioning of actors on a stage. It clarifies characters, relationship and helps us get the play up on its feet.

Here we are in a recent rehearsal -- running through the piece!

Reading at the Griffin School

Congrats to the ensemble!!

Our reading at the Griffin School was a smash hit!  Families, friends and community members joined us on December 10th for a sneak peek of our work in progress.

Vanessa reads the role of Lola - our play's blogstress extraordinaire and narrator

Students focus intensely as Remandra reads

After the script was read aloud, we received some very helpful feedback from our audience in a talkback.  In the theatre world, talkbacks are a form of structured dialogue between artist and audience.  People on both sides of the performance then discuss issues in the play, explore ways to clarify our writing and get to learn a bit about the creative path that leads us there. 

These kinds of conversations can give the artists great insights about the audience's experience of the piece and guide us through the next steps.  More on our revision process to come !!