LIFT EVERY VOICE
ABOUT LIFT EVERY VOICE (LEV):
Lift Every Voice, NYTE’s arts education outreach program, is committed to providing underprivileged New York City teens with a safe, positive and empowering environment in which to expand creative self-expression and build community, confidence and leadership skills.
Please click on the photo above to see more pictures from past LEV programs!
MORE ABOUT LEV:
What is Lift Every Voice?
Lift Every Voice is committed to offering New York teens a safe, positive and empowering environment in which to expand creative self-expression and build community, confidence and leadership skills. Through the Lift Every Voice Weekend Program, participating teens have the opportunity to collaborate with professional New York theatre artists to rehearse and perform an evening of short original plays—all within 24 hours! With coaching from LEV staff members to guide their efforts, students have several days to write a 5-minute play on an assigned topic. Students and staff gather for a full day of rehearsal the following Sunday and perform the plays on an Off-Broadway stage that evening, before an audience of the students' friends, family and community members.
How does it work?
The format of Lift Every Voice’s Weekend Program is based on the successful method of play production known as 24-hour theatre: both the participating students and the theatre professionals who make up the Lift Every Voice staff submit five-minute plays on an assigned topic. Our Reading Committee then selects ten plays that are rehearsed during an intensive one-day workshop and performed at an Off-Broadway theatre the same evening.
The Weekend Program produces extraordinary results for several reasons. Because the performance workshop takes place over the course of a single day, 100% of the students who begin the process complete it. As a result, every participant is provided with an experience of completion and success. Students are faced with the challenge of preparing ten plays for performance in a single day, and their ultimate achievement of this goal provides them with a profound sense of accomplishment and awareness of their own potential.
One unique component of the Lift Every Voice process is that staff members and student participants work together as creative partners. Each play's cast consists of both student and professional actors. Student directors are paired with staff assistant directors, who are there to mentor and guide them. Students are empowered by the experience of working hand in hand with trained actors and directors, who approach them as creative equals.
Proceeds from each Lift Every Voice performance are donated to a charitable organization selected by the student participants prior to the event. Previous LEV programs have made donations to organizations including Ronald McDonald House, Free Arts NYC, The Children's Hope Foundation, and Greenwich House.
Lift Every Voice is also proud to maintain a long-term partnership with the Ohio State University’s Department of Theatre. Through the LEV Internship Program, OSU sends a team of undergraduate students to New York for each LEV program -- undergrads work alongside New York theatre professionals and NYC high school students to create the works of theatre presented through Lift Every Voice.
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-”A New Generation Takes the Torch,” an article by Laura Gale
VIDEO TESTOMONIALS FROM THE STUDENTS AT WEST BRONX ACADEMY FOR THE FUTURE:
TEACHER TESTIMONIALS:
“I have had the privilege over the last 2 year of working with the Lift Every Voice program to provide my High School students with an opportunity to not only write their own pieces of theatre but helping to instill confidence, collaboration and creativity among public High School students who do not have access to a theatre arts curriculum on a daily basis. The staff at LEV opened my students up to a whole new world opportunity, the staff made my students feel comfortable to express themselves as well as safe enough to be challenged to do more with their work. As a teacher it has been one of the most enriching activities I have been able to witness my students participate in. I was able to see students who are normally in the spotlight be challenged to develop their skills and able to see students who normally are so quiet perform in from of over 100 people in an auditorium. The family and school support for this program has been phenomenal, filling an auditorium far from our school with over 100 people (standing room only!) left me speechless. It surprised me the number of students whom this program reached and it is because of the amazing people working with LEV that the impact has been so lasting(my kids talk about it on a weekly basis, when are the theatre people coming back!). Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
-Kathleen Kennedy, West Bronx Academy for the Future
