INSPIRATIONAL/EMOTIONAL

(This is a portion of an "Ask" speech I wrote as the featured speaker at Young Audience's annual donor luncheon.)

Thank you Carla AND THANK YOU to Pam, Darius and Devonte for sharing those great stories!

 

I’d also like to add my welcome and thanks to all of you for being here today.  As a professional actor and director, I’m fortunate to have been involved with Young Audiences for over 3 years as a roster artist.  I LOVE this program - because I see, and experience, first-hand - the difference the arts MAKE in the lives of children. As you’ve seen and heard today, teachers and students LOVE us too! Teachers are inspired and students blossom and thrive when they have the opportunity to participate - in Young Audiences’ programs.  I consider myself lucky to share my passion for theatre and to work with thousands of children in schools throughout our state. Young Audiences makes this possible.

 

To understand the impact I have witnessed… the impact that I and other Young Audience roster artists have been instrumental in bringing to thousands of youth… you have to understand what the arts are capable of.   Theatre, dance, music, writing, the visual arts… have a way of penetrating and affecting meaningful change in kids… The arts experiences that Young Audiences provide… reach kids who haven’t been reached, who would never be reached if the arts weren't involved.  

 

I did workshops at Monroe Community School in St. Paul… a wonderfully diverse group of sixth graders who read a book called "The 66 Dollar Summer" and created a theatre production that confronted the serious issue of racism.  

·        To hear their voices read the beautiful poetry of their peers,

·        to see them perform with such raw conviction and emotion – twelve year olds,

·        to hear them – without prompting – at the end of the show, call out in one voice to the audience to fight racism and stand up to make a change… changed me.  

In one moment, I realized that because of me - because of Young Audiences, these kids experienced the power of belonging to an important cause.  Belonging – a feeling that, for some of them, was new.  They became a family… united in their success, and even more united in their failure.  There was this boy named Luis… a painfully shy and awkward boy – Luis forgot his line.  But they had learned that when a member of your acting family is in trouble, someone had better do something.  This was their show.  Another boy stepped up and whispered his line to him out of the side of his mouth… A week ago, if Luis had messed up, he would have been laughed at and made fun of… instead, Luis continued on, finished his piece… and was proud.   Because of me, because of Young Audiences, 70 twelve year olds are looking out for each other… are fired up about challenging racism, are impassioned to be the bearers of an important message.  To know that through the arts they are empowered and united, that their voice matters, that people will listen to them… and that they are needed.   This is what our children need.  And it is because you are here today, that they will get it.

 

COMEDY SCRIPT

(This is the beginning of a sketch I wrote entitled "Body Trek." A sci-fi parodying of the pubescent male.)

CAPTAIN

Captain’s log, body date 16 years, 47 days, 19 hours.  After several days of extensive meetings and exhaustive communications we are finally scheduled to rendezvous with the alien vessel.  Tensions on board have been running high.  Our prior meetings with the alien vessel have gone, well, less than smooth.   It seems every time we come in contact our defenses drop, our communication systems shut down, and environmental support goes haywire.  I just hope we can pull it together by nineteen hundred hours.  Navigation, have we completed our exterior overhaul?

 

NAV-ONE

Just about finished sir.

 

CAPTAIN

Good, I want this ship looking its best.  How’s our outward hull holding up?

 

COMMANDER

We are having a few problems.

 

CAPTAIN

Of all the days!  Just when you think you’ve got it under control.

 

COMMANDER

I’m sorry Captain.  Dermo-five reports some recent eruptions, very painful, on the forehead hull plating, but we’ve located a cloaking device in the cargo bay of the mother ship.

 

CAPTAIN

New technology?

 

COMMANDER

No sir, Covergirl Liquid Cover-up.

 

NAV-ONE

Captain, we have cleared headquarters and are prepared for action.

 

CAPTAIN

Commander, do you have the schematics?

 

COMMANDER

Yes sir. (He inserts a disk into a hand held image viewer.  The crew is in awe.)

 

NAV-ONE

It’s not everyday a ship like ours gets to even share the same quadrant with a ship like her.  

 

COMMANDER

You’ve got that right.  She’s outfitted with the latest external surface shields money can buy, equipped with a high level processing unit, her social status in this vector is off the charts, and she has cannons the size of…

 

CAPTAIN

That’s enough!  (The Captain shuts off the viewer.)  We all know what we’re up against.  Nav-One, lay in a course for Willow Street North East, sector 55408. Forty five miles an hour. 

 

NAV-ONE

Sir, with all due respect, isn’t that the home base of the alien vessel?

 

COMMANDER

And the mother ship is outta town.  Engage!

RADIO ADVERTISEMENT COPY

(This was used on AM950 in Minneapolis, MN to promote my store - Twin Cities Green.)

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