PYBY director Dan Friedman (front, right) with a group of students outside the offices of Vibe magazine.

The Production of Youth by Youth (PYBY), the All Stars’ developing producers program, has been having a very busy spring semester!  The program’s 15 young producers (aged 15 to 21), who hail from seven high schools in four boroughs, as well as the Dynamite Youth Center in Gravesend, Brooklyn, started off their semester with a visit to Vibe magazine, where they were briefed by virtually everyone on staff, including editor-in-chief, Danyel Smith.

They’ve also had workshops with Reed Ridgley, the general manager of the Vineyard Theatre, one of the city’s most influential Off-Broadway theatres; Robert Baruc, president of the film distribution company, Screen Media Films; and have visited the studios of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Department of Recorded Music, for a workshop with Jim Anderson, the department’s chair, and Mike Cuscuna, owner of Mosaic Records. Between them, Anderson and Cuscuna have produced 12 Grammy-winning records.

Still in store this semester are visits/workshop with Lawrence Rodriguez, owner of the Casa Frela Gallery in Harlem; Laura Johnson, the executive producer of Jazz at Lincoln Center; and the producers of Sesame Street.

In addition to their visits, and workshops on conversational skills and public speaking, PYBY participants also worked as house and stage crew for the All Stars Talent Show Network auditions, which took place at Roosevelt High School in the Bronx on Saturday, April 12.  They learned — through experience — how much organization is required to pull off such a big event and found it to be lots of fun. 

Now the PYBY students will turn towards organizing their own Cultural Forum, to which they will invite many of the producers they’ve met for a discussion of the connection between the professional cultural industry and the communities of New York City. Students will organize and staff the event, as well as leading the discussion with the panel of producers. The Forum, on May 20th, will be the grand finale of their semester before they go off to a summer of internship experiences.

All who graduate from the program are offered unpaid internships for the summer in cultural organizations and companies around the city. So far, Casa Frela, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and the Foundry Theatre have agreed to take interns, with more coming in every week.

If you are interested in attending the Forum, or would like more information about the program, contact program director Dan Friedman at (212) 356-8450 or dfriedman@allstars.org.