The One Voice Project
Abstract
Ellis Elementary is an inner-city school that serves a multi-lingual population and serves a demographic consisting primarily of international refugee groups and low-income households. 97% of Ellis Elementary students are on the free lunch and breakfast program, and the school is labeled as a hard-to-serve community because of its student demographic. These students have not grown up exposed to the arts, and many perceive theatre as being elitist and unapproachable. This project will aim to help these students realize that theatre can be a means of expression not only for the dominant culture, but for their own voices and experiences. This project will aim to introduce Ellis students to the theatrical devising process, in an attempt to help them analyze their school culture and their own behaviors and to communicate their desire for social change within their community.