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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission and Core Values
    • Equity Statement
    • Who we are & what we do
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Contact
    • Covid Safety
  • Artmaking
    • See a show
    • 2022-2023 Season
    • Production History
    • The Rising Youth Process
    • Keysmash
    • Arizona Orphan Abduction
    • Light Rail Plays
    • Rising Youth After Dark
    • Las Fronterizas
  • Learning
    • Programs in Schools
    • Classes
    • Camp
    • Creative Interventions
    • Resources
  • Support
    • How to Contribute
    • Our Supporters
    • Tax Credit Donation
    • 10th Anniversary!
    • Community Support!

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Previous productions - Poster gallery

Rising Youth Theatre Production history

The Light Rail Plays

curated by Julio-César Sauceda

June 2021

This year's Light Rail Plays looked a little different - it wasn't yet safe to perform for a crowd, so we created a filmed performance based on the stories and experiences of our community throughout the past year. You can view the whole thing on the Light Rail Plays website!

Find out more

Face to Face

directed by Ricky Araiza, Trini Lugo & Ty Muhammad

January 2021

Face to Face, a play about the intersections of race, class, and age created in partnership with Teatro Bravo and Twined, was originally scheduled to be produced for the public in June 2020. We rescheduled, and then re-imagined due to the pandemic, and ultimately created a multi-media experience that lives on our website, FacetoFaceSeries.com

Find out more

The Light Rail Plays

curated by Trini Lugo and Sarah Sullivan

March 2020

This year's Light Rail Plays continued to take over the Tempe Transit Center, with a full orchestra in partnership with the Harmony Project and eight new plays!

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Bodies are Magic

directed by Ty Muhammad and Xanthia Angel Walker

May 2019

Everyone has a body, and most people have complicated relationships with their bodies. In a world where body shame and self-hate is a tool of oppression, white supremacy, and patriarchy, experiencing joy in our bodies is a radical act. Bodies are Magic! invited an exploration the body as a space of joy, power, and liberation, inviting all participants and audience members to rejoice in the magic of their own bodies. This play was produced at a former K-Mart in May 2019, and is now available as a curriculum and workshop series from Rising Youth Theatre. Contact us for more information!

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The Light Rail Plays

Curated by Julio-César Sauceda and Xanthia Angel Walker

February 2019

This year's Light Rail Plays relocated to Tempe, installing a series of performances on the platform at the Tempe Transit Center. 

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The 100th day

directed by Xanthia Angel Walker

April 2018

The 100th Day was an original theatre performance created by Rising Youth Theatre in partnership with ACLU Arizona's #Demand2Learn Campaign. The play takes place on the 100th Day of School, and examines the ways in which young people have access to education. The play centered around the core belief that all students in Maricopa County have the right to learn in safe and supportive environments and positions young people as leaders in exploring how this can become a reality for all Arizona youth.

The Light Rail Plays

Curated by Liliana Gomez & Xanthia Angel Walker

December 2017

This year’s Light Rail Plays traveled across three platforms, in Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, expanding the reach of the program.

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The Kid's Table

Directed by Sarah Sullivan and Quinn Pursell

May 2017

The Kids’ Table explored the way we often separate young people out of so-called “adult” conversations. This play, created by an ensemble of youth artists, asks the question - what might happen if “the Kids’ Table” became a space where youth were not separated out, but integrated into the center of important dialogues?  Addressing a wide range of topics, this funny and poignant story will give adults and youth a place to connect and inspire one another.  Using the metaphor of a family dinner table, the play invited youth audiences to think about ways they can make their voices heard in the community and adult audiences to listen to the young people in their lives. 

The Light Rail Plays

Curated by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

February 2017

This year’s Light Rail Plays included a number of socially relevant explorations, including plays about refugees, racism, and unconscious bias.

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Under The Rug

Written by the ensemble with leadership from Sigrid Gilmer

Directed by Liliana Gomez, Matthew Mendez, Sarah Sullivan, Rachel Bernardino, Presley Nassise and Xanthia Angel Walker 

June 2016

Playwright Sigrid Gilmer worked with a team of Rising Youth Theatre artists, both youth and adult to explore stories of our living rooms. What do these places mean to us? What memories do they hold? And what does it mean to take the stories that happen in these private family spaces and move them into a public park? Together, this team created three short plays that explore how we feel about the places where we live. Each of the three plays was directed by a youth and adult director: Sarah Sullivan and Rachael Bernardino, Liliana Gomez and Matthew Mendez, and Xanthia Walker and Presley Nasisse. Performances took place at Verde Park in the Garfield Neighborhood and Coronado Park in the Coronado Neighborhood. 

The Light Rail Plays

Curated by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

February 2016

This year’s incarnation of The Light Rail Plays deepened our releationship with our accidental audiences, including stiltwalkers, larger than life puppets, and a bike race.

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Antonia: A Chicana Hip-Hop Antigone

written by José Casas

directed by Xanthia Angel Walker

December 2015

Rising Youth Theatre partnered with Cyphers center for urban arts for this adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy Antigone, and its themes including power, fate vs. free will, rules vs. order, and gender dynamics are relatable to hip hop culture as it relates to young people. The five elements of hip hop (Breaking, MCing, Graffiti, DJing and Knowledge/Understanding) all played a role in the storytelling, and the performance took place in an outdoor alley. 

Fandom

written by Carrie Behrens

directed by Sarah Sullivan

June 2015

Fandoms have always been part of growing up. But in today’s connected culture, it goes to a whole different level. We know that being a fan is more than just being annenthusiast. Online fandoms build whole communities around fandom, both online and IRL (in real life). This original play from Rising Youth Theatre aims to take both ‘shipping and stories off of Tumblr and onto the stage, in a totally unique exploration of what it means to really love something.”

The Light Rail Plays

curated by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

February 2015

The Light Rail Plays returned to the Valley Metro with all new theatre pieces. Eight short plays performed on the trains and at the stations from Roosevelt/Central Ave. to Central Ave./Camelback, and explored the idea of “how Phoenix moves from place to place” with live music and tour guides. 

Disengaged

written by Milta Ortiz

directed by Xanthia Angel Walker

December 2014

More and more youth are leaving high school without a diploma. Arizona has one of the highest dropout rates in the US. As a community, we need to ask why. This play partnered with Genesis Academy, a charter school for young people who have disengaged from their education to explore this issue from a youth perspective. 

Shipwrecked

written by Sigrid Gilmer

directed by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

April 2014

Rising Youth Theatre and playwright Sigrid Gilmer worked with young people in the foster care system and the adults who support  them to create an original play, loosely based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Adobe

written by José Casas

directed by Xanthia Angel Walker

November 2013

RYT is partnering with a Juvenile Corrections Facility for its fall production, In the System. Playwright José Casas (La Ofrenda, Somebody’s Children) is writing the script based on interviews and workshops with young people in the juvenile justice system. The play will be simultaneously cast and rehearsed with youth at the facility and youth who can perform for the public.

The Light Rail Plays

curated by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

June 2014

Rising Youth Theatre partnered will partner with the Valley Metro Light Rail to bring back its original program pairing young artists one-on-one with professional artists to create 5 minute, 2 person plays on public transporation.

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Venus in Stitches

written by Lou Clark

directed by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

May 2013

Venus in Stitches is a play set in the Sunnyslope neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona that explores the meaning of family. In the story, a community is thrown into mayhem when neighbors decorate out of season, make a ton of tamales, and sing strange songs to welcome home a long, lost loved one. Generational gaps are mended in this moving story for audiences of all ages.

First Stories

curated by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

January 2013

RYT paired 8 adult professional artists with 8 youth artists to create an evening of original, two-person, five-minute plays about the firsts in our lives. Each artist team rehearsed over a period of three weeks, will culminating with a one night only performance event on January 27th.

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Finding Family: Three Short Plays About Immigrant Youth

written by Andrés Alcalá, José Zarate, Charlie Steak

directed by Xanthia Angel Walker

November 2012

RYT partnered with immigrant youth currently in Phoenix, AZ to create and produce three short plays written by three different playwrights about the experience of traveling to the United States. These bilingual plays were performed in two public performances on December 1st and 2nd 2012 at the Phoenix Center for the Arts.

Some Are Beginning

written by José Zarate

directed by Sarah Sullivan and Xanthia Angel Walker

April 2012

The Arizonan Project asked youth from across the Phoenix Metro Valley what it means to live in Phoenix, Arizona in 2012—the year of the Arizona Centennial. RYT partnered with six residency sites—four branches of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix, Barrio Nuevo, and Flight 33. Residencies were held across Phoenix—from Avondale to Guadalupe. RYT artists worked with over 100 youth in the residency phase of the project. The resulting play, Some Are Beginning featured a cast of twenty-nine youth and two adult professional actors, and was performed at Phoenix Center for the Arts in April 2012.

PRODUCTION MEMORIES

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PO Box 34565 Phoenix, Arizona 85067

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