YOUTH-LED PRODUCERS
In 2008 a partnership with the Sitar Center began the Fringe Training Factory Youth-Led Producer Program. In 2009 we expanded the program to by forming a partnership with Sasha Bruce Youth Work. Youth-Led Producers is an after school program designed to meet the holistic needs of its students by helping them identify and reach personal goals, free themselves from negative pressures in the street and gain a clear understanding of the community they live in so that they become invested in and the catalyst for its improvement. Fringe is cultivating these students. Giving them an outlet for their voices. These voices are the future and will join and shape the DC performing arts community as independent producers.
Currently, Youth-Led Producer workshops are held after school with students between the ages of 13 and 18 from the Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in Southeast, Washington. Covering the entire aspect of what it means to be a self-producing artist, the students learn all the various components of the performing arts. They participate in workshops directed at crafting their artistic talents and voices, learning that the arts can be a powerful tool for self-expression, public dialogue and social change. This years workshops will culminate in a full production in the 2010 Fringe Festival created by and produced by the youth of the program.
