Venture Theater
43 S. 3rd StreetPhiladelphiaPA19106
215-923-5927

Program: Reality Crew Year Started: 1992 Focus: Theater Youth Served: 30 Ages: 15-18 Budget: $75,000 An unlikely corps of professionals, including theater artists with social work and speech pathology degrees, businesses and corporations, actors and costume designers, is working weekly, including Saturdays, to help at-risk high school students reach their full potentials. Venture Theater's Reality Crew program draws youth from around Philadelphia to take part in theater training, from performance to marketing. Reality Crew meets 8 hours a week at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. Theater professionals teach playwriting, acting, voice and speech, movement, directing, stage management, costume design and sound and lights. Corporate business partners provide business training, often using their own operations for field study. Staff counselors help teens begin to prepare for college entrance or for careers in theater, while a speech pathologist links their experiences on stage to job interview presentation skills. A "think tank" session on Saturdays is an outlet for the culturally diverse group of teens to meet and talk about whatÌs on their minds. "They like meeting students from all over the city and having the opportunity to regularly work together," says Executive Director Betty Lindley.