DEVELOPING ARTISTS THEATER COMPANY INC
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Mission Statement
Developing Artists (DA) empowers undervalued teens to relentlessly advocate for positive social change through the performing arts. Since 1999, DA offers rigorous theater education to underserved high school students (aged 13-19) in the NYC metropolitan area. We help diverse students to identify themselves as ARTivists, to find their place and connection within their community, and to bring about positive social change through participation in the arts. Our goal is to provide young people with professional performing arts training that will equip them with valuable artistic and life skills, and the confidence to take action in their lives.
About This Cause
Developing Artists mitigates the disparities in access to high-quality arts education across the New York metropolitan area by providing high school students (aged 13-19) from marginalized and under-served communities the opportunity for study of the performing arts at the highest level for FREE. Our goal is to provide young people with professional performing arts training that will equip them with valuable artistic and life skills. We encourage our students to recognize the power of art as an activist tool to bring about positive social change and to make their voices heard in their communities and in their lives. Students come from all five boroughs of New York, and from New Jersey; 35% identify as Latinx, 40% as African American, 20% as Caucasian, and 5% as Asian/other. The company’s core commitment is to young people most in need: Our students have often faced socioeconomic challenges; many have experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse. We take these young artists seriously, so their voices can be heard. DA's core program begins with 180 hours of performing arts classes for over 100 students per year that incorporate fundamentals of acting, writing and all the elements of the performing arts to build an ensemble that celebrates their unique collaboration and creates new works. Once they are in our program, students learn to re-examine the world and issues that plague them, they begin to understand how important their artistic contribution truly is, how they can be the change they want to see, and how they can inspire each and every one of us to become activists. We take every opportunity to perform the original works our ensembles write. We make pieces about climate change, old and new regimes, gender and race inequality, healthcare, the school to prison pipeline, domestic violence, gun violence, economics, the effects of social media. Created in 2001, REBEL VERSES is a 2-week festival of performances by some of the best youth companies in NYC & beyond. Over 100 participants a year, learn what it means to network with their peers and exchange ideas to enhance their artistic and social growth in front of hundreds of audience members in a professional Off Broadway venue (Vineyard Theatre). After 20 plus years of experience, we know the methodology and embrace the adaptability and resilience. The work begins with recognizing and assembling the right team who then can identify the individual needs of each student. We provide the right tools to guide students through comprehensive training. We can change the course of a young person’s life from ending up in a system that fails them to a possible scholarship into higher education. External evaluators like press, critics and non-affiliated members are also important as a less biased measure of our impact. In one example, Kenneth J. Cerniglia, PhD, dramaturg for Hadestown, Disney Theatrical Productions Past President, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), says about DA: "I’ve been continually impressed with these students’ critical engagement with the most pressing issues of our day: social responsibility, economic access, representational inequity, voting rights, and much more. On top of their mastery of civic literacy, they are astonishingly talented artists, both as writers and performers. These teens’ capacity for this level of discourse and creativity is clearly traceable to their training and experience through Developing Artists. Jill and Jinn’s personal and professional dedication to the holistic development and success of each student is total. Their high expectations elicit excellence, dedication, maturity, and long-lasting relationships across a wide diversity of backgrounds. They’ve formed a family commitment to one another that far exceeds any after-school arts program I know."