The aim for organizers of the L.A. Youth Theatre Festival happening through April 19 in Leimert Park Village at the Vision Theatre and surrounding theaters is simple; they want to develop in young people ages 13-30 an appreciation for live theater as well as an understanding that they can participate in all aspects of the art form from acting to writing a screen play.
The other goal is to give youth positive ways to handle life and to direct attention back to the concept of conscious storytelling, adds Bikbaye Inejnema of Conscious Youth Global Network and Conscious Youth Los Angeles (CYLA), one of the event organizers.
Created by CYLA in association with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), Bikbaye notes that the festival will focus on the cultural and artistic impact of the African Diaspora on humanity.
CYLA is a nonprofit organization created to help youth become self-aware, empowered, and engaged in positive social transformation using the arts as a tool for learning and expression.
According to Sandy Sheffey, Ph.D., who is in charge of coordinating the participating theatrical companies, at least seven organizations will be involved the event, which will feature staged readings of the different pieces.
Erwin Washington, co-founder of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre and a long-time L.A. playwright, will direct the closing night production “The Princess of 57th Street.”
A musical written by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson whose credits include “Soul Food” and “Lincoln Heights” with music by Kevin Toney—who was a pianist with Aretha Franklin and Donald Bryd’s Blackbyrds—the story is set in Philadelphia on that city’s 57th Street and in Africa. It tells the story of a young teen girl who discovers her true value and worth after visiting Africa.
According to Washington, this is the first reading of the 1 1/2-hour production, and will take place April 19 at 7 p.m. at the Vision Theater.
Subsequent readings will take place at Lula Washingtion Dance studio April 27 at 3 p.m. and May 9 at 6:30 p.m. Anyone interested in participating can contact Washington at (323) 292-5852.
The show will feature singing, dancing with students and parents from the Lula Washington company. A question and answer session follows the reading.
Other groups participating in the festival include the Watts Village Theater; the Harmony Project which will present a musical tribute and medley from “Rent”; Inner City Cultural Center; and the Apollo West Theater out of Carson, which will offer a tribute to Black music.
Other readings include “A Concrete Jungle Full of Wild Cars,” a monologue presented by El Camino student Kandace Caine and written by British playwright Mariama Ives-Moib; “A Journey of the Drums” by School Without Bounds; and “A Bloom for Jamilla” by local writer Debra Morris.
The readings will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday and at noon, 3 and 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
According to James Burks of the DCA, the festival will also be held in conjunction with Literacy Month and will include a children’s book fair in front of the Vision Theater from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday.
Piccolo’s Books, one of the vendors, plans to give away 5,000 books.
A panel discussion will take place during the book fair, as part of a program called The Big Read on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. It will feature a discussion of the city’s featured book “Into the Beautiful North.”
Written by Luis Alberto Urrea “Into the Beautiful North” is a quest novel in the grand tradition, although there are no medieval knights, magic rings, or light sabers within its pages. The author sets the novel in the present day, in the highly charged world of the U.S.—Mexico border region.
Nayeli, an energetic and idealistic girl of 19, is coming of age in a Mexican village, more than 1,000 miles from the border. She and her friends spend their days working at low-wage jobs and surfing the Internet for videos of their favorite bands and movie stars, dreaming of a wider world they have little hope of knowing.
One night, Nayeli and her friends attend a screening of John Sturges’ classic film, The “Magnificent Seven.” In the film, a Mexican farming village is terrorized by a bandit until the village elders decide to fight back, electing three farmers to travel to the U.S. to find seven brave gunfighters to help defend the village. Inspired, Nayeli vows to go on a mission to the U.S. to bring back seven men—including her father—to defend her village of Tres Camarones against the drug-dealing bandidos who have targeted the residents. She persuades her loyal band of friends to accompany her on the dangerous journey, and the quest begins.
Admission to the theater festival is free, and the Vision Theater is located at 3341 W. 43rd Place, Los Angeles. For more information, call (206) 334-2808.
