COLUMBIA CITY - Rainier Valley Youth Theatre's (RVYT) summer programs continue to bypass expectations and provide the basis for a creative integration of the surrounding community and its youth.
"In many ways we're unique. We land really deeply in a community culture each year and we work with really profound and exciting people. It's really unusual, not like theater you get anywhere else," said RVYT artistic director Maria Glanz.
This year RVYT partnered with Brown Box Theatre, which has maintained high acclaim since its opening in 2001. Together the organizations hope to reach the community with their summer stage production DREAM'N, a reinvention of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that draws inspiration from the African American culture.
"It will come from an African American perspective, with an African American aesthetic that people will be surprised with," said play director Tyrone Brown, Brown Box Theatre founder and artistic director. "We're pushing the youth in a lot of different ways, not only acting, but they're actively part of the creative process and we're really trying to treat them like young professionals."
By taking a professional attitude toward the youth in the program, Brown said it enhances their performance, of which the quality promises to stun the audience.
"I know that everybody's going to bring something ultimately really interesting to that stage and people will come and we're going to surprise them," added Brown.
The new interpretation includes an adapted script written by Brown Box artistic associate Kathya Alexander that features hip-hop, spoken word and music inspired by Outkast.
Although Shakespeare's voice isn't lost in the script adaptation, the stage branches away from a typical Shakespearian set. Extending beyond the forested onstage set, the entire stage includes a mix of reality and fantasy that culminates in what Brown deems the African American kingdom.
The kingdom starts with Mount Rainier and extends down to the theater, in which the actors venture into areas of their kingdom that are simultaneously familiar and unreal.
"This production is exciting because it's on that borderline between fantasy and reality and we get to play with both on stage. This play really allows the youth to explore the fantasyland on stage, but still keep it close to stuff that is very current and real for them," said stage and lighting director Chloe Ameh, who is in her ninth year with Rainier Valley Youth Theatre.
HANDS ON
This year's Summer Stage production allows the youth actors to be involved in every step of the production process, from designing costumes to incorporating their ideas in the final production.
"The kids have an integral part of character development, of costumes, of the set. They literally have their hands in everything and that's really exciting and unique," said Brown. "It gives them ownership and people will see something very authentic on stage."
According to Ameh, this authenticity isn't new to the theater, but it's an aspect that gets to the audience every year.
"Every time you come, expect to walk out a different person than you were when you walked in," said Ameh. "We're not just going to do a play on the African American culture, we're going to touch on what that culture means."
The production of DREAM'N only takes up one section of RVYT's summer programs, though. RVYT offers two more summer programs that focus on the African American culture and the arts.
The arts and culture camp for kids ages 7 to 11 offers weekly sessions that target one cultural aspect, such as hip hop dance and urban graphic arts. RVYT also has a new program this summer, a two-week middle school theater camp for students grades 6 to 8.
In all camps, students work with professional artists, and the theater camps focus on acting and production training.
"Each year we have amazing professional artists working with the kids. It's a chance for them to work with professional artists and with a theater like nowhere else in that we have, not only a really strong emphasis on professional theater, but also on representing the arts and culture of our community," said Glanz.
But the youth aren't the only benefactors in the program.
"The youth involved, by watching their potential and strength, it's so amazing and so inspirational. Working with them the artists and I have felt that we get more out of it than they do sometimes because we're so inspired by them," said Ameh.
Even though the production has only one week of rehearsals so far, Glanz's excitement for the partnership with Brown Box Theatre has only intensified, especially when she watches the creative teamwork with the youth.
"Watching them work with the kids has been totally awesome. It's been my favorite summer so far. It's going to be a blast," said Glanz.
And the partnership has another perk for the small program, more publicity, which Glanz said helps with the challenge of reaching more people, whether they become part of the program or audience members.
As Glanz said, "The hardest part is to introduce ourselves, because once they come they fall in love."
The stage production DREAM'N runs from August 2 to 11. Students can still register for the arts and culture camp, which starts July 9, and the middle school theater that starts on August 6.
"Rainier Valley Theatre gives an opportunity to grow that other programs may not be able to provide because there's this sense that you can continue to rise up through the ranks of this. Every single year you're able to do so much more because of the upward training the theater provides."
Jessica Van Gilder may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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