Through a combination of issue-oriented discussions, trainings in diversity, conflict resolution, leadership and community activism, instruction in the full range of performing arts, and the creation of scenes and writing, TPP youth participants write, produce, and perform an original musical based on their lives and their ideas for change. In addition, they design and lead community action projects on issues of concern to them in order to take their creative vision for change into the world.
TPP operates four programs for diverse groups of at-risk youth living in the dense urban areas of New York City. The first two programs are available to any youth ages 13 to 19 and meet either on Saturdays or two days a week after school. The third program is only open to youth formerly or currently in foster care between the ages of 15 and 20. The fourth program is exclusively for court-involved youth between the ages of 15 and 20.
Through its Afterschool Program, TPP brings together vastly diverse groups of teenagers who meet weekly for ten months to transform the negative forces in their lives and communities into positive action. Using the performing arts and community action as vehicles, TPP’s teenagers learn to build relationships across differences, resolve conflicts without violence, take on their responsibility to others, and lead.
