The People's Light and Theater Company
39 Conestoga RoadMalvernPA9355-1798610-647-1900610-640-9521

Program: New Voices Ensemble Year Started: 1989 Focus: Theater Youth Served: 50 Ages: 8-18 Budget: $179,350 In the spring of 1996, 20 teens from Chester, a low-income community in Pennsylvania, will graduate from high school with 6 years of professional theater experience. The People's Light and Theater Company reached out to these youth in sixth grade, called them "New Voices" and made a commitment to work with them to create plays together (writing, improvising, rehearsing and performing) until they graduated from high school. New Voices meets year-round, after school and almost all summer, with daily schedules when they are in production. Space is provided by Swarthmore College, and Swarthmore College students write plays for New Voices. The Swarthmore students can get college credit for their work. Last year, People's Light formed Younger Voices, an ensemble made up of the younger siblings of New Voices' members. Younger Voices meets weekly. The key to long-term participation by youth is the availability of transportation and paid summer employment. Abigail Adams, the CompanyÌs co-artistic director, reports that youth have learned the disciplines of theater and are demonstrating greater powers of concentration as well as exhibiting increased commitment and greater acceptance of responsibility.