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Students Begin Rehearsals for New Show About 9th Grade

August 4, 2014

Well, you’re a senior now…and I’ve been looking back over my (our) years in high school lately, and there’s some things that I’ve been meaning to tell you. First of all, YOU’RE OKAY.  Stop worrying about who’s friends with who.  Stop restricting your style.  And please, just do what you love.  Put yourself out there because you’ll be okay.  More than okay actually…. Just because you fail at something the first time doesn’t mean you should stop trying. Please don’t be ashamed of failures.  Please don’t avoid something entirely because of failures….Don’t worry about people not liking you, either.  Be BOLD and be KIND. Be yourself, because we ROCK. .

This is an excerpt from a letter a senior wrote to her freshman-self during a Project Success in-class workshop this past spring.

The transition into high school can be one of the most important and intimidating steps in a student’s academic career. It is a time of deciding who they want to be and where they want to go after high school, and a personal journey that is as varied as the students who experience it.

For more than 20 years, Project Success has recognized the importance of a ninth-grader’s experience and developed curriculum to prepare and support students through this transition into high school. We have delivered this curriculum through in-class workshops, week-long summer camps for incoming 9th graders, and school-day events for current freshmen.

 

We are now launching a new half-day experience for high school freshmen, to take place at their schools, and centered around a new musical written and performed by Minneapolis and Saint Paul students sharing their own personal journeys into and through the 9th grade transition experience. After competitive auditions in July, Project Success cast 10 talented middle and high school students for the musical (eight of the students are pictured).

Our goal is to bring to light the total transition experience as seen through the eyes of the students who will be, or have experienced it. Directed by Project Success Resident Artist Jeffry Lusiak with musical direction by Anita Ruth and choreography by Trudy Monette, our cast will incorporate their personal stories and feelings into the show as a way to dispel the myths of high school, create community around the shared experience of transition, and empower each student’s commitment to their own true self. The show will not only explore the individual journey of each performer, but will also expand on the universal themes of transition, the desire to belong, and the persuit of personal fulfillment.

The performance will be followed by workshops that will use the stories shared in the performance as a springboard for discussion and personal storytelling, goal-setting and community building led by trained staff and facilitators. The students will set academic and personal goals for themselves along with making commitments to their community of fellow classmates.

Ultimately, our goal is to foster an environment of unconditional support, where every student feels safe and supported to start high school in the most effective way possible, and inspired to incorporate that supportive attitude into his or her daily actions towards each other.

This show will be created in a similar way to our Mad World production in 2012. Watch the video below for more: