Fall Forum 2010, Demanding Education That Matters: Youth Forum on Thursday, November 11

Register for Fall Forum: http://www.regonline.com/fall_forum_2010 

Each year, Fall Forum features the Youth Forum, a day-long intensive learning experience that brings middle and high school students together from around the country for a day of connection, activism, and growth. At this year's Youth Forum, which takes place at the Fall Forum conference hotel, the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, on Thursday, November 11,  four theater majors from the Boston Arts Academy (BAA) will facilitate youth workshops that mirror their own experiences in creating the original theater piece Soul Element. The workshops will explore the societal issues of:

• race
• identity
• violence
• gender

Each workshop will focus intensely on one issue; participants can choose the issue they are most interested in exploring when registering (maximum 15 students per workshop.) Workshop participants will engage in the process of creating a theater piece, beginning with exercises such as improvisation, free writing, critical reading, and tableaux work. They will then move to the rehearsal stage of their performance piece, and the workshop will culminate with participants presenting their group’s original improvisational piece to the other three groups.

Soul Element will begin the workshop with a performance of The Waiting Room, a short play that looks at the critical role the family unit plays in the life of an individual. This realistic drama, set in an urban hospital, asks a fundamental question: What happens when a central member of a family is on her deathbed and an avalanche of societal and personal issues of the immediate and non-traditional members of the family erupt?

Soul Element Student Bios:

• Mercis Bonilla, a junior theatre major at the Boston Arts Academy, most recently participated in the Emerson Theatre Festival, as an ensemble member in The Color Experiment. Mercis wanted to major in theatre arts at BAA because of her love of theatre, and her desire to increase her communication skills. Although she auditioned as an actor, she has become progressively more interested in the technical aspects of theatre as well.
• Eddie Borges is a junior theatre major at the Boston Arts Academy. He first became interested in theatre when his eighth grade teacher suggested he read the play Waiting for Godot. Since then he has been writing plays, but it was not until his sophomore year that he acted in one.  He was extremely excited last year to be in his first play at BAA, where he was cast as Peter Quince in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• Yolandi Cruz is a junior theatre major at the Boston Arts Academy. Yolandi has participated in the Emerson Theatre Festival, as an ensemble member in The Color Experiment.  Most recently she played Starveling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and was thrilled to have had the opportunity. 
• Phellip Fonseca is a junior theatre major at the Boston Arts Academy. Before coming to BAA, Phellip lived in Newark, New Jersey where he also attended an arts high school. While in New Jersey he was cast as Mercutio in a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, which was his first encounter with Shakespeare; and most recently Phellip played Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at BAA. 

Please note: the Youth Forum is limited to 60 participants; please register early to ensure a spot. Cost is $50 per student, which includes lunch. Students are welcome for the day as long as space permits; please contact Gwenyth Shears at gshears@essentialschools.org or 510-433-1841 x1912 for registration for the CES Youth Forum only.

Register for Fall Forum: http://www.regonline.com/fall_forum_2010