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New Round of Artist
Applications!
ArtCorps
will accept a third round of applications up through May 30, 2008.
Click here to learn more and to
apply now!
Help spread the word!
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Contact Info
ArtCorps
www.artcorp.org
+1 (978)
927-2404
artcorps@nebf.org
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This Month
Theater
has proven to be a necessary tool for helping the youth of
Bajo Lempa, El Salvador develop teamwork and leadership
skills--and receive an invitation to perform internationally.
"We believe that art is a tool that greatly facilitates the
work that we do every day to achieve the empowerment of our
communities and the strengthening of our organization," says
Nohé Reyes of the Mangle Association, which received its 4th
ArtCorps artist in 2008.
Robyn Saxer is the 2008 ArtCorps artist working with the
Mangle, reinforcing three years of collaboration. While Robyn
comes from
a theater-obsessed family in California, she says she has
learned more about the power of theatre in one month working
with Mangle than anywhere else in her life. She put
together 3 plays in 2 months while serving as
director/facilitator, costume and set designer, stage manager,
playwright, translator and producer all at once.
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Youth Empowerment
Elsi was so
shy when she first started coming to the youth theater
rehearsals that she struggled to participate in our ritual to
unite the group--deciding on a word to shout together at the
end of rehearsals--let alone speak in front of the group.
Darwin had trouble showing up on time and pulled others' hair
when they made mistakes. Yorlen nearly did not participate
because she almost immigrated north to the United States. 
Elsi (20), Darwin (14) and Yorlen (12) are a
few of the teenagers in El Salvador's Bajo Lempa region for
whom--and with whom--the Mangle Association aims to create a
better future. ArtCorps is helping Mangle develop programming
that helps the youth discover their abilities, contribute
actively to developing their communities, and step up in
leadership positions.
During her first 2.5
months in the field, Robyn worked with 27 youth from 5
different communities. They researched their elders'
stories of surviving the Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992) and
created 3 plays to retell the story. The youth of each
community performed their unique play during community
festivals on March 29th to an audience of over 500.
In
Ciudad Romero, most of the 15 youth in the group had never
participated in theater before. "I lost a lot of shyness. I
learned more about my community's history. I can see in my
peers that they respect each other more, that they focus more,
and that they feel sadness for their families' histories,"
says Yorlen. They slowly improved their ability to work
together, and presented their first performance to a full
house 
at the
new community center. It was the center's inaugural event, and
accompanied the celebration of a book by local author Nohé
Reyes that narrates the history of the community through
testimonies. The play covered the first of 4 stages of history
in the book--the community's flight to Panamá as refugees from
the war--and the group will dramatize a new stage each of the
coming years.
When local painting students started to
help create scenery, they made pretty, peaceful landscapes.
The theater students, however, shared that the community's
history is not pretty or peaceful. It suffered terribly.
The painting students learned for the first time of the
violent Scorched Earth operation as they painted burned houses
and learned that art can express ideas and emotions as well as
beauty.
The 7 youth in Nueva Esperanza ("New Hope")
created their play entirely through mime improvisation, based
upon personal stories of elders in the community. There was
very little rehearsal time, the performance schedule was
changed at the last minute, and en electricity outage occurred
during their first performance--at night. Yet over 400
audience members came to watch over the course of 2
performances. It was the first time most had seen mime. Later,
the youth pointed out to Robyn that the audience laughed at
some of the youth's exaggerated movements, and that this may
indicate the community was healing from their past struggles
as refugees in Nicaragua.
 The third group of youth came together
in 2006 with former ArtCorps Artist Aryeh Shell, who first
laid the groundwork that generated interested in theater in
Mangle's communities. They created the play "May It Never Be
Repeated" about a massacre in the La Quesera county. They
worke closely with survivors of the massacre, thanks to the
coordination of nuns in the community of Nueva Esperanza. The
Massacre of La Quesera was one of many cruel massacres that
occurred during the war as part of the Scorched Earth
Operation. This group inspired and served as a role
model for the other groups. Working at a more advanced level,
this group of 5 youth incorporated new survivor testimonies
into the play and performed at a commemoration event for
massacre victims.
The youth were invited to travel to
Guatemala in April to perform for an international conference
for youth recognizing the importance of remembering history,
but there was not enough time to collect parent permission
slips because a number of the parents are living and working
in the United States. They hope to be able to secure the
permission slips in time to accept another invitation to
perform in Guatemala this June.
Robyn can already see
the youth stepping up as leaders among their peers. Mangle and
Robyn have organized a program to train local youth to become
cultural facilitators themselves. Salvadoran artist Tania
Molina volunteered to lead the program, because of her
influential experience working as a teenager in a similar
youth leadership program with Mangle´s Executive Director
Ramón Arístides Valencia Arana during the civil war. The youth
who were also part of the theater projects speak up to share
their new skills with the other students. They participate
with commitment and respect and inspire others to do so as
well.
 Moving forward, the youth will use their skills in
the service of Mangle's environmental education programs by
creating a series of educational plays and performing them in
three regions. These will complement environmental radio soap
operas that Mangle staff has been developing with Robyn's
guidance. The newly trained cultural facilitators will also be
encouraged to lead groups in their communities, and to
continually develop their abilities through contacts with the
Salvadoran cultural community so that an ArtCorps artist is no
longer needed. Manglé is currently working on attaining
funding for a permanent youth program with theatre and art
components.
As for Elsi, Darwin and Yorlen, Elsi has
now been selected to participate in the advanced La Quesera
group; Darwin is a committed and respectful leader who
encourages others to participate respectfully; and Yorlen has
a sense of belonging to the future of the community.
Click here to
see three video clips (in Spanish) of the La Quesera play,
including a rehearsal, a survivor testimony and the final
scene.
Click here to
read Robyn's comment on the power of theater and working in a
different
culture.
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