Peer Education Program
Illusion Theater and School, Inc.

Photo: Kristin Reed

Minneapolis's Illusion Theater can count many successes among the new plays it has developed and presented since its founding in 1974 by Michael H. Robins and Bonnie Morris. But the plays it has created and produced through its Peer Education Program have set a national standard for the field. "No one I can think of offers
a more courageous, insightful and responsible set of programs," notes Ben Cameron, executive director of the Theatre Communications Group, Inc.

Started in 1981, Illusion began collaborating with the Minnesota State Department of Human Resources, a partnership which yielded a model process for play development and peer educator trainingÑone that takes tested and crafted messages on complex social and personal issues and blends them with participants' experiences to create an interactive performance that addresses community needs. They create new theater that illuminates the issues and concerns of young people on such topics as child abuse, AIDS, interpersonal violence, eating disorders, and tobacco prevention. This theater, informed by study and shaped by real experiences touches the souls of performers and audiences.

This process takes time. At each new site, the Peer Education teams identify the community issues to be addressed, develop resources for those issues and identify adults from the community to serve as specialists. Education and theater professionals from Illusion conduct intensive training at the site on weekends and after school. In addition to exploring issues, young people are introduced to the fundamentals of playwriting, such as the importance of structure and character development, and performance. They then rehearse with Illusion artists and perform over a three-month period.

During the past school year, Illusion's Peer Education Program worked with youth in 19 communities and staged 315 performances for over 28,500 people. But the program's "reach" can also be measured one trained youth at a time. "Each year," points out Bagley (MN) High School guidance counselor Jean Bratvold, "seven to eight high school students in rural Bagley are trained by Illusion professionals in prevention and theater performance skills. They become protectors of children wherever life takes them."