About the Program
As a core value, Theatre Y thrives off of collaboration, dialogue and intimate exchange between itself and its community, and we curate intergenerational spaces where these conversations can happen. Theatre Y’s Youth Program fosters 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3 relationships between Theatre Y’s collaborators and young people in North Lawndale, with Marvin Tate as the program’s core visionary. As a necessarily collaborative organism, Theatre Y is home to a diversity of high-caliber talent in a variety of art forms, including architecture, sound production, film, and photography. Our objective with this program is to encourage multidisciplinary, lateral thinking in young people and to teach the necessary hard and soft skills for successful careers in the arts and social justice fields. As the program’s coach, Marvin Tate’s extensive and deep-rooted history with the art community of Chicago-at-large will be an indispensable resource to the city’s future artists and educators.
This program will launch youth into their expressive selves through the ancient and timeless practice of puppetry and masks, spoken word, experimental music and found object visual art!
This program has been funded by Innovation 80 and The Walder Foundation.
About the Mentor
Marvin Tate is a Chicago native, born and raised in the North-Lawndale neighborhood. He is an award-winning Poet, Performer, Visual Artist and Educator. His works have been featured on stages internationally and locally, e.g. National Public Radio’s, “This American Life”, Def-Jam Poetry and on the BBC Radio program “The Poetry Detective”.
He has been active in the Chicago music scene since 1993. He has collaborated with Visual Artist, Theaster Gates Jr. and the Black Monks of Mississippi, Video Artist, Jefferson Pinder, and a motley crew of musical talents that include: Leroy Bach, Angel Olsen, Bill MacKay, Tim Kinsella, and Jazz Artists: Ben LaMar Gay, Angel Bat Dawid, Mike Reed, French experimentalist, The Bridge, Composer, Ernest Dawkins, and Soundscape Artist Joseph C. Mills.
Marvin's art is exhibited in many galleries and museums, including The Intuit Museum in Chicago, one of the world's premier museums dedicated to presenting self-taught art.
Tate is represented by The Hana Pietri Gallery in Chicago. Tate combines raw theater, with spoken word, poetry, and song to create powerful and personal narratives about love, death, and the struggle to be present in a constantly changing world.
Michael Montenegro is artistic director of Theatre Zarko which has presented for Chicago audiences original puppet theater plays such as: He Who, Haff (The Man), Sublime Beauty of Hands, Klown Kantos, and Iktu Blas.
For over thirty years, puppet artist Michael Montenegro has been developing his unique style of puppet and mask theater in the Chicago community both as a solo artist and as a collaborator with different theater groups. Commissioned projects include: Argonautica with Lookingglass Theatre, directed by Mary Zimmerman, The War With the Newts and The Long Christmas Ride Home with Next Theatre , and The Puppetmaster of Lodz with Writer’s Theatre which garnered a Jeff Award for Puppet Design. At present he is working on a film entitled Apparaticus in collaboration with Theatre Y.
YOUTH ARTS INCUBATOR
with Marvin Tate and Michael Montenegro
The Firehouse Community Arts Center and Theatre Y are looking for talented and curious youth to join a program that will provide 100 hours of paid training in:
- Poetry and Spoken Word - Puppetry and Masks
Dates: March 5 - May 14, 2022 and September 10 - November 12, 2022
Times: Saturday 10-4pm (20 Saturdays)
These courses includes one showcase + a major Production where youth will be featured beside professional actors on a real stage. Each student will have a personal coach from the Theatre Y Ensemble who is tracking their progress and needs throughout the year.
Focus 1: Stage Presence, Embodiment, Focus, and Collaborative Art Creation
Artists will begin each day with exercises designed to restore freedom of expression and creativity. They will learn how to rid the body of tension, anxiety, and to prepare it for optimal ‘flow’. Artists will practice taking up space and speaking with confidence and openness, as well as making space for the expression of others. Finally, they will learn how to receive and offer constructive criticism and foster an atmosphere of “YES!” in preparation for the brilliant impulses and new talents they will be cultivating in the rest of their work with Theatre Y, and beyond.
Focus 2: Puppet/Mask Theater
Puppet/mask theater is a unique art form that embraces : puppet/mask making, movement, dance, poetry, music, acting, set design, and storytelling.
In twenty Saturdays artists will explore each of these elements to culminate in a performance piece. Working together, they will create their own unique message that will reflect their perspective on their world as they see and feel it today.
Focus 3: The Musicality of Poetry
An intense 20-week course where artists will learn to perform and write spoken word poetry In collaboration with master Puppeteer and Creator; Michael Montenegro to create an original piece of experimental theater that will be performed live in the following venues
