Transformational theater
“We are called to speak – as artists!” chanted members of Central High School’s Touring Theatre as the beat of drums echoed across a bare stage in the black box theatre. As they fanned out in perfect formation, the room reverberated with the sound of rhythmic clapping and stomping. With some on vocals, others on percussion instruments, and the rest moving to the beat, the students, all in matching red t-shirts, began their performance with a blend of rhythmic singing and hip-hop dance.
Central Touring Theatre (CTT) is an extra-curricular acting troupe at Central High School, the largest urban school in St. Paul with a diverse student body of about 2,000. For the past three decades CTT, has provided students of all backgrounds the opportunity to channel issues into original student-produced theater. Led and founded by theatre and CTT Artistic Director Jan Mandell, the program aims to create a “safe space” that breaks traditional barriers of race, ethnicity, family, relationships, and teen issues. ... Read more >>
Doing lunch: at Patrick Henry students mix it up
It’s 12:40, yet another day at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, and the bell is just ringing for lunch. We walk into the lunchroom and see groups of kids rush into two lunch lines, anxiously pushing and talking passing the time while waiting to get their food. We see the vast diversity of Minneapolis public schools, the ‘Thugs’, ‘Asians’, ‘Jocks’, and ‘Goths’, but at lunch, it looks like one big mob. We smell a combination of over-cooked food and sweat. Half an hour. That’s it. Thirty minutes to get in line, be pushed around and eat. This is our only break, our only social time.
The misperceptions and realities of high school all come to life in the lunchroom. Our school is half African American a third Asian and 13 percent white and the smaller groups are Hispanic and Native American. There are distinct tables- specific groups of friends that hang out with each other. But at least in this public school we divide more by interests than by race. And when there are fights they usually come from personal dramas- he said-she said- than ethnic tensions.... Read more >>
