GCSU Theatre Program Performs on Community Stages
Theatre has a long history of advocating for social justice. In performing plays based on historical or fictional events, play rights and actors address truth in creative ways. This past year, GCSU students and professors shined a spotlight on this theatre tradition.
The GCSU Theatre Program is active in community engagement endeavors. Theatre has participated in the Environmental Justice Symposium with the presentation of two plays, Human Toxic, from Professor Karen Berman's Improvisation for Social Change class and Voices of Chernobyl directed by Theatre Faculty member Professor Amy Pinney.
Furthermore, with the YES Program (Youth Enrichment Services) of Baldwin County, Professor Amy Pinney worked with 29 GCSU students and twelve high school students and performed the one-act play, We Are the Dream at the Pan African Festival on April 26, 209 in collaboration with the Tubman Museum in Macon.
This past March, Choosing Sides for Basketball, directed by GCSU student Dottie Pratt, was presented at the Milledgeville Mall and in Baldwin County Schools to raise funds for the Boys and Girls Club. The project was produced in collaboration with GCSU Professor Doreen Sams, a Board member of the Boys and Girls Club.
The Theatre Department 09-10 Season Theme will be Dreaming Global Justice. Themes will include gender rights, prison reform, and treatment of political prisoners. Plays will include comedies, dramas, and musicals that will entertain as well as enlighten. Our first show of the season on September 30 is The Smiles, a fascinating true-to-life courtroom drama by Atlanta playwright Karla Jennings, which brings "CSI" and "Law and Order" to Milledgeville. This will be followed by the Life is a Dream by Spanish playwright Calderon. The play is a reverse "Rapunzel" fable in which the prince is held in a tower prison only to be saved by love. The production will be accompanied by a Symposium Celebration of Spanish and Latin American Theatre and Culture. We will be making a special outreach to the surrounding local Spanish and Latin American community. In February, we are delighted to bring in Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking as a guest speaker. Look for more details on our upcoming season soon!
High Achiever/YES Students Conduct Baldwin Youth Research Project
Shateria Scott, Jonathon Gould, and Alisha Webb are working with two GCSU faculty members to create a document and presentation that will provide Georgia College students with an understanding of Baldwin County youth. The High Achiever/YES students, each of whom attend Baldwin High School, are participating in a Georgia Department of Human Resources program called STEP (Summer Teen Employment Program). Their summer efforts are designed to examine economic, educational, social, and personal trends that impact Baldwin teenagers. The three student researchers will present their findings to a GCSU Grassroots Community Organizing class in August and January. The Grassroots Community Organizing course incorporates Public Achievement, a program that will involve GCSU students coaching Oak Hill Middle School YES students in the core concepts of democracy and community activism.
YES Prepares for Third Year of Afterschool Scholarship
Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske racing, was once asked, "When do you start preparing for the next Indianapolis 500?" Penske answered, "The day after the race!" The Youth Enrichment Services of Baldwin County (YES) has adopted the same approach. The week after Baldwin Schools teachers completed their post planning, the YES staff spent three days during the first week of June preparing for the next YES afterschool year. Teachers and education coordinators from Baldwin High School, Oak Hill Middle School, and Eagle Ridge and Midway Elementary Schools gathered with the YES directors and evaluators for quality planning time. The YES program will reach its midway mark in the five-year funding cycle later this year and anticipates nearly 500 students remaining for two hours beyond the school day for academic and personal enrichment programming. Yes program goals are for students to promote from one to the next grade level on time, persist to graduation, and be prepared for post-secondary education and employment.
Planning team members shared excitement about additional opportunities YES can provide to Baldwin County students. Teachers remarked on noticeable academic and social changes they saw in YES youth and the obvious pride participants displayed when learning new enrichment skills such as violin, martial arts, and digital photography amongst others. One YES teacher said, "I can hardly wait for another YES year," an amazing statement as the school year just ended!
YES is funded by several No Child Left Behind 21st Century Community Learning Center grants and has gained distinction in Georgia and beyond for program creativity and collaboration among local citizens, Baldwin School personnel and Georgia College & State University students, faculty members, and staff.
Call (478) 445-0145 for more information about the YES program.
