April Blog Post

Theatre Arts & Opportunities has been busy both with The Garner Players and in the community.

 The annual Garner Players May Production is well into rehearsals. It features four short plays, several
poems and spoken word pieces as well as a couple of movement elements. Lines are being learned and blocking set. It is hectic, exciting and looks to be another moving, powerful and entertaining
performance.

 TAO staged a reading in February in Bridgeport of one of the Garner Players most often performed
plays, Crossed Swords, which features historical characters from the Civil Rights Movement. Much of
the play is written in rap and in the hands of a very talented cast, featuring Kevin Harris, Randell Moody,
Ken Anderson, Steffon Sampson and Rob Frangione, audiences love it. This play was written by six
members of the Garner Players, who collaborated beautifully to bring it to life.

 Along with Crossed Swords, the actors performed a new piece, Martin and Malcolm, which dramatizes a
dialogue between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The play was really well received and is being
considered for a film version by Hartford filmmaker, JV Harvey.

 On April 29, 2018 the TAO Mentoring from the Inside Out program is performing works written by the
Garner Players for the first time at The Little Theater in Newtown, CT. The members of the group, all
Middle and High School students have written spoken word pieces which will be shared along with
several plays by the Garner Players. This performance is in collaboration with Creative Youth
Productions, another youth theater group out of Bridgeport. CYP performs work written and directed
by its members, this particular show speaks to the importance of the arts in educations. Both groups
hope to coordinate their programs as they share a philosophy of the power of the arts to promote
positive growth and development.