Student Outreach Mission Statement

The central focus of RDP's educational outreach program is to provide young adults a safe place to dialogue about social issues important to them. We anticipate accomplishing this objective on two fundamental levels: first by producing plays with themes important to the youth population in Syracuse, NY, and second, by providing students an opportunity to perform in socially aware theatre. Some themes the company aims to work with include: bullying, eating disorders and body image, sexism, sexuality, and violence.

Furthermore, the educational outreach performance will be an opportunity for RDP to collaborate with other community-based organizations working in youth advocacy. It is our hope that this collaboration will help the performances reach a more wide spread audience and facilitate dialogue between different communities in Central New York.

2005 – 2006 and 2006 – 2007 Seasons:

Bang, Bang, You're Dead, by William Mastrosimone

After Josh murders his parents and five classmates, he spends his time in jail reliving the day he decided to take a gun into school.

2010 – 2011 Season:

Finding Normal, by Scott Austin

A collaboration with AIDS Community Resources: the Q Center and ArtRage Gallery

A devised interview-theatre performance centered on sexuality-based bullying. A cast of 12 interviewed and portrayed many of their community members such as classmates, religious leaders, parents and teachers in a play edited into a dialogue between over 30 characters with differing opinions on how teens should navigate their emerging sexual identities.

2011 – 2012 Season:

The Wrestling Season, by Laurie Brooks

A collaboration with Real Life. Real Talk.

Tackles subject matter seldom addressed but vital to youth and their families: the search for identity and the peer pressure that accompanies it. Using only the setting of a wrestling mat, eight young people struggle with the destructive power of rumors and how others see them. (Excerpted from Dramatics Publishing Co.)