Intergenerational Theatre Workshop

In September, the All Stars Project's Talented Volunteers and Youth Onstage! (YO!) combined forces to create the Intergenerational Theatre Workshop, a new project that brings senior citizens and teenagers from YO! together to perform.

Initiated by Gail Elberg, the All Stars director of volunteers and interns, and Dr. Susan Massad, a member the All Stars board of directors and its former chair, the workshop meets every Tuesday from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm. It began as a performance workshop for seniors but at the suggestion of Youth Onstage! artistic director Dan Friedman, the workshops soon expanded to include select graduates of the Youth Onstage! Community Performance School. Currently about ten seniors and three Youth Onstage! Community Performance School alumni are involved.

The workshop has been led by Anne Marie Lubovich. Anne Marie, a high-school theatre teacher at the Pine River-Backus High School in Pine River, Minnesota, has been working as an intern with Youth Onstage! (In addition to the workshop, Anne Marie was involved in the production of Over There/Over Here, the Youth Onstage! Experimental Theatre Workshop production this fall, and ran lights for the show.) Anne Marie, with help from the YO! actors, taught the seniors basic theatre and improv games and had the participants — old and young — perform one-minute versions of their lives. Later, she had them write down their life stories. After reading their narratives —which range from surviving the Holocaust in Europe to surviving the mean streets of Washington Heights today — the group has been creating improvisational scenes based on the narratives. A free public performance of these scenes will be held Tuesday, January 27, 2007 at 4:30 p.m. at the All Stars Project's performing arts and education complex at 543 W. 42nd Street.

The next Intergenerational Theatre Workshop will begin in February 2007. The workshop is open to all seniors (no prior theatre experience is required) and Youth Onstage! Community Performance School graduates. If you are a senior in the New York City area and would like to get involved, call Gail Elberg at 212-356-8431 or by email at gelberg@allstars.org.