This year The Unusual Suspects (US)
celebrates its birthday by spotlighting 15 voices
from the last 15 years. These voices represent the
community of youth, artists, staff, volunteers,
funders and partners that have been such an
important of our history. Keep your eyes open for
the next 15 Years, 15 Voices and make the next 15
years as transformative as the last by helping us
reach our goal of raising $150,000 the next 15
months!
Student Interns Step It Up in Harbor City
Four South Bay youth lead US Program at Narbonne
High School
The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company (US)
is proud to introduce the 2008 leadership interns.
Four upstanding students from Narbonne High School
were selected to lead, mentor, and serve as positive
role models for their peers during a six-week
intensive theatre program this summer.
The interns have all gone through this process as
participants, so they have a unique perspective on
the difficulties that a current participant might
experience. If the participants are having trouble
learning roles in the play, or if some of them just
aren't enjoying the program, these interns are there
to help. Luis Mora described how he would inspire a
participant to get excited about the workshop.
"First I would try to encourage him or her to get in
with the game, to see if she or he wants to keep
going, and try to become friends with the student,"
Mora said. "From there, you can just see what they
like, relate to what they like, and see if you can
incorporate that into the activity."
In
addition to helping the student participants, the
interns help each other. Galvin Mathis, who was
recently cast as the lead in A Mile in Clown's
Shoes, has to learn to juggle for his part in the
show. Nicolas Womack, an experienced juggler, is
helping Mathis develop his technique, and according
to Mathis, it's going well so far.
Through the weekly workshops and the final
performance of A Mile in Clown’s Shoes, the
Narbonne students connect not only with each other
but also with the larger community. Mora saw this
opportunity as one of the primary purposes of The
Unusual Suspects program. "It helps everybody to
develop skills in music, theater and art, and then
show those skills to other people in our community,"
Mora said. "By doing that, we can show other people
what we can do.”
US
returns to Harbor City in conjunction with Weed &
Seed Harbor City/LAPD to provide arts programming to
at-risk and juvenile justice youth. The
Narbonne
program, now in its third year, aims to create an
environment to foster community and ensemble
building, gang prevention, and provide peer to peer
mentorship to local underserved youth. The program
will culminate on Friday, August 15th
and Saturday, August 16th
at 7pm at
Narbonne High School. A Mile in Clown’s Shoes
is a story about a girl struggling to live life and
take care of her sister in the absence of their
parents.
Meet the 2008
US Leadership Interns:
Stephen
Jackson (left): Age 18
“I want to meet new people, improve my artistic
abilities, and learn new skills that can be applied
outside of just acting in order to inspire others. I
feel that artistic aspects such as design, and
acting, are my strong points because of my confidence
in those skills.”
Galvin
Mathis (right): Age 17
“I want to be more energetic on stage and want to
gain more leadership abilities to apply when I do
shows at school. My biggest theatrical strengths are
my show faces and liveliness. I make many faces for
different characters. I am always alive on stage and
never want a production I am in to be boring.”
Luis
Mora (left): Age 17
“I would like to gain experience from others. I
work well with others and love to help. I like
theater because it brings everyone together into an
ensemble.”
Nicolas
Womack (right): Age 15
“I want to learn more about acting and get some
more information about
what I love to do; acting, singing, and dancing. I
have a lot to learn.”
Written by
Azeen Khanmalek & Will Alden
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