Festival Schedule
Friday May 3, 2024
7:30PM
YOUTH UNDERGROUND PERFORMANCE
YU Delegates & Ambassadors
Youth Underground, Central Square Theater’s resident youth performance ensemble, has spent the last year investigating school shootings and gun violence in America. The YU Delegates present Trigger Warning, a selection of original and adapted scenes that explore their questions and perspectives about safety in schools, media representation, and the aftermath of gun violence. Writings by the YU Delegates, Abacus Dean-Polacheck, Betsy Bard, Adelaide Fisher, and Cameron Thiesing. Arranged and directed by Kortney Adams.
A Gun is… concludes the performance. Created over a six-week intensive last summer, and drawn from interviews with teens, law enforcement, activists, and community members, A Gun Is… shares a variety of perspectives on this challenging issue, centering youth experiences and questions about surveillance, safety, and mental health. Written by YU Playwriting Fellow, Abacus Dean-Polacheck. Directed by Vincent Ernest Siders, and performed by the YU Ambassadors.
Post-Show Talkback with YU Delegates & Ambassadors.
Saturday, May 4, 2024
3:00PM
YOUTH UNDERGROUND PERFORMANCE
YU Delegates & Ambassadors
Youth Underground, Central Square Theater’s resident youth performance ensemble, has spent the last year investigating school shootings and gun violence in America. The YU Delegates present Trigger Warning, a selection of original and adapted scenes that explore their questions and perspectives about safety in schools, media representation, and the aftermath of gun violence. Writings by the YU Delegates, Abacus Dean-Polacheck, Betsy Bard, Adelaide Fisher, and Cameron Thiesing. Arranged and directed by Kortney Adams.
A Gun is… concludes the performance. Created over a six-week intensive last summer, and drawn from interviews with teens, law enforcement, activists, and community members, A Gun Is… shares a variety of perspectives on this challenging issue, centering youth experiences and questions about surveillance, safety, and mental health. Written by YU Playwriting Fellow, Abacus Dean-Polacheck. Directed by Vincent Ernest Siders, and performed by the YU Ambassadors.
Post-Show Talkback with Cambridge Police Department
Youth have questions about policing. Officers from the Cambridge PD are here to answer them.
The Cambridge Police Department is a dedicated and diverse group of professionals who are committed to working with the community to make the City of Cambridge a safe and desirable place to live, work or visit. Our mission is to partner with the community to solve problems and improve public safety in a manner that is fair, impartial, transparent, and consistent.
Conversation moderated by Brian Corr.
5:00PM
YOUTH ARTS CONFERENCE/CELEBRATION
A gathering and celebration for teens and young adults working at the intersection of arts and social justice. Food, music, and activism for all who attend. If your group is interested in joining us for the celebration, please contact CST Education Programs Manager Kevin at kdw@centralsquaretheater.org.
Featuring Art Opening with youth artists of the One Gun Gone Project
The One Gun Gone project was inspired by the passing of a family member and four teenage students from gun violence. One Gun Gone is a multidisciplinary gun violence prevention public art project in which students from underserved neighborhoods in the Providence RI metro area participate in a professional art making project. In this process, students are encouraged to reflect on how they feel about gun violence and how we can keep ourselves and our communities safer from gun violence. In our most recent project called Metal Lab, students learn basic metal fabrication skills. Then each team of two students are gifted a disabled firearm that they weld into a sculpture they brainstormed that communicates about how they feel about gun violence.
Check out this New England Emmy nominated video about the latest One Gun Gone program called Metal Lab: One Gun Gone / RI PBS “Forged in Fire”.
7:30PM
YOUTH UNDERGROUND PERFORMANCE
YU Delegates & Ambassadors
Youth Underground, Central Square Theater’s resident youth performance ensemble, has spent the last year investigating school shootings and gun violence in America. The YU Delegates present Trigger Warning, a selection of original and adapted scenes that explore their questions and perspectives about safety in schools, media representation, and the aftermath of gun violence. Writings by the YU Delegates, Abacus Dean-Polacheck, Betsy Bard, Adelaide Fisher, and Cameron Thiesing. Arranged and directed by Kortney Adams.
A Gun is… concludes the performance. Created over a six-week intensive last summer, and drawn from interviews with teens, law enforcement, activists, and community members, A Gun Is… shares a variety of perspectives on this challenging issue, centering youth experiences and questions about surveillance, safety, and mental health. Written by YU Playwriting Fellow, Abacus Dean-Polacheck. Directed by Vincent Ernest Siders, and performed by the YU Ambassadors.
Post-Show Talkback with the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence brings together impacted communities, advocates, public health experts and policy-makers to prevent gun violence in all its forms. Because we recognize that gun violence is a public health emergency exacerbated by economic disparity and systemic racism, we address those root causes through education, policy analysis, trauma informed advocacy, and by amplifying the voices of impacted individuals and communities.
If you have questions about the festival, contact CST Education Programs Manager Kevin Williams at kdw@centralsquaretheater.org.