HartBeat Ensemble’s Youth Play Institute (YPI) brings urban and suburban youth together for an intensive play creation process taught by working theater professionals. By teaching youth to communicate with each other through theater, the project breaks down racial and economic stereotypes and exposes participants to people they have thus far been alienated from.

Each session includes 10 students from a high school in Hartford and 10 students from a high school in a Greater Hartford suburb. During this month-long after-school program, participants study the art of Ensemble Theater as they create a one-act play about an issue that they agree is important to all of them.  Past plays that have been created through YPI have been about youth violence, the media’s influence on youth, social stratification in schools and commonalities in family dynamics. Each session culminates in a free, public performance of the group’s one-act play.  HartBeat conducts three YPI sessions each school year.  Participating districts include Hartford, Farmington, Glastonbury, West Hartford and the CT Technical High School System.

Photo credits for this website include:

Larry Bilansky

Jean Molodetz

for more information contact Cindy Martinez, Program Director at (860)761-4530 or cindy.martinez @hartbeatensemble.org