Youth Onstage! (YO!), the newest program of the All Stars Project, Inc., which staged its first production ever in January 2004 (the popular Crown Heights by Fred Newman and Dan Friedman), has had a very active fall season. 

From left: Earl "E-Boogie" Thomason and Keith "Kilo" Clayton in "The Iraqi War," an original rap performed in the All Stars Hip-Hop Cabaret.

The second All Stars Hip-Hop Cabaret, which YO! co-produced with the All Stars Talent Show Network (ASTSN), opened on September 10. The cabaret’s cast of 20 included artists from the first Hip-Hop Cabaret in May — the poet Squeak, rapper Charlie Biggs, the dance troupe Fully Loaded — as well others performers drawn from the ASTSN. The new performers were the rap group, The Dead; the actor Big Wil Farris; singers Syreeta Miller and Aaron Lewis; the dance troupe Dance Factory and DJ Tommy Lee. Antoine “RL” Joyce, the national producer of the ASTSN, once again emceed. The September cabaret was even more theatrically tight and politically provocative than the first and included a rap skit about the invasion of Iraq and a dance about the then-pending elections.  Our Town newspaper named the Cabaret its “Theater Pick of the Week,” and, like the first cabaret, the five shows of the run were completely sold out. The next cabaret, which opens on May 13, will have an eight-show run.

The fall semester of the Youth Onstage! Community Performance School got under way on October 3 with an orientation by Pamela Lewis, the All Stars Project’s Director of Youth Programs. Students ranged in age from 14 to 18.  On Wednesday evenings they studied theatre history with YO!’s artistic director Dan Friedman, while Saturdays were filled with performance courses from 11 am until 4:30 pm. Belinda Fevrier taught voice; Zenobia Shroff taught movement; Brian Mullin led a workshop in character development; and Marian Rich and Barbara Herel worked together on teaching the students improvisational skills.  Eight students graduated this semester, four of whom will appear in Youth Onstage!’s next production, Robin Hood: A Political Romance. Applications for the spring semester, which begins on April 2, are due by December 31.  For applications and information, contact Dan Friedman at dfriedman@allstars.org.

From CASPER HAUSER (A LANGUAGE GAME)

Casper Hauser (A Language Game), YO!’s first Experimental Theatre Workshop, opened October 29.  The workshop, which was directed by Dan Friedman and Brian Mullin, (who also performed in the piece), involved six young actors who had either appeared in earlier YO! productions, studied at the YO! Community Performance School or worked with Friedman or Mullin at other theatres. The actors, aged 16 to 25, built a strong ensemble and stretched the traditional boundaries of “youth theatre,” with this non-linear and very complex piece. Laurel Graeber, in a very favorable New York Times review November12, wrote, “The talented members of the Youth Onstage! Experimental Workshop [use the play’s] disjointed scenes, which include readings from Wittgenstein and other philosophers...to raise existential questions.”

YO!’s next production, Robin Hood: A Political Romance, written by Dan Friedman with music by Jeff Herles, opens a five-week run on February 25.  The production brings together a cast of 20 young actors, singers and puppeteers to play with the legend of Robin Hood and wrestle with the reality of the continuing gap between the rich and poor.  For information and tickets call the “Theatre for the Whole City” box office at 212-941-1234 or click here to purchase tickets online.