At Downstage Arts, we persevere to provide experiences that align with the specific interests of our students as well as opportunities to explore additional artistic directions. While our first semester largely focuses on the challenging journey to university theatre program acceptances, our second focuses on the exploratory journey to becoming multi-faceted artists, sharpening our individual artistic voices along the way. We promote the idea that powerful artists find more than one way to engage and grow their creative skills.
In our second semester, we recently had the pleasure of experiencing the magnificence that is the Chicago Poetry Center, a not-for-profit organization that you can read more about here. Luis, our gifted teacher-poet, skillfully led our students through a creative writing hour that gave them the chance to express their thoughts and ideas through the literary lens of poetry—a brand new opportunity for our entire cohort! Unsurprisingly, we are astonished with the results. The students collaborated on a theme, branched out independently to develop written work, and merged ideas into one giant piece of poetry—ultimately, approaching their art from a brand new perspective!
Our next step is to collectively perform this work of art in a way that informs and dazzles our audience. It feels important to note that the level of writing talents our students exhibited was of less importance than their determination to explore a new skill that resulted in success. Many of us forget that we don’t need to be great to do something, we only need our own permission to try—that is where magic can appear. We are enthusiastic to see how future students will be inspired by their experience with the Chicago Poetry Center!
The cohort’s group poetry piece will be performed at our 2nd Annual Teen Cohort Showcase, this coming May 2nd, 2022. You can grab your tickets here and/or donate here!
Until next time, Downstagers!
As always, you are you, and that is your artistry.
Which is to say, dear reader, that your originality (which can only come from you) sets the invincible foundation of your creative voice.