Illustration by Grace Schafer-Perry
Just a block away from Berkeley High School (BHS) is an exceptional program for teens with a passion for theater. The Teen Council in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s (Berkeley Rep) School of Theatre is a program for all lovers of theater.
The Teen Council is made up of about 150 teens ages fourteen through eighteen who are writers, directors, actors, designers, improvisors, and theater goers. The Teen Council is an overarching umbrella for many activities, including ones in which teens can create their own shows, attend professional performances, and take part in workshops relating to the arts. This diverse group gathers students from over fifty schools all over the Bay Area.
The Core Council is a group of fifteen to twenty teens chosen each year who plan theater workshops and fundraising events.
Theater enthusiasts in high school have an incredible opportunity in Teen Night, but the Teen Council also provides a number of other activities to take part in. For those interested in creating their own art, there is the One Acts festival, where students write, design, direct, and act in their own short plays. They are also mentored by Berkeley Rep staff, which is not a common occurrence. Besides this event, another main part of this program is the Young Writers of Color Collective, where students get to work one-on-one once a month with someone to produce a play that will be staged and read at the end of the year.
Teen and Core Council provide teens with lots of opportunities, and they also provide an opening in the theater community for teens who are fervent about theater. Education Fellow Ky’Lend Adams who is one of the two main administrators said, “[To join], you do not have to be experienced in the theater. You just have to have a passion.” Working with and being part of the Berkeley Rep team, students get great experience working in the field and have enough control to do what they are passionate about. Many of the students do have a passion, and enjoy having their voice heard, like Lucy Urbano, a junior at Oakland School for the Arts, who is a member of the Core Council. “I’ve never been involved in a program where I had power to express myself, and create work, and advocate for youth in the arts,” she said.
A lot of the students in the council’s love the community as well. Noe Castrejon, another member of the Core Council, loves being in an environment where everyone has a common interest and feels that compared to other theater programs he has been in, “This is the first one I have felt I was really a part of, it goes out of its way to make teens feel included.” Adams agrees, saying this program is a very special experience. “It gives them the opportunity to really be a part of the art and really be a part of theater in their community,” Adams said.
The Berkeley Rep Teen Council provides a welcoming environment that invites teenagers to foster relationships between theater and themselves.