Stories
Everything you need to know about Storycatchers.
Welcome to our blog. Our newsfeed. Our point of view on everything that’s important to what we do. Scroll through find something that interests you.
Thanks for your interest in our youth.
A Note From Cheri
January 15, 2019: Tina’s first session with Storycatchers Theatre at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. She is a 17-year-old with long hair with raspberry-colored streaks. She is quiet, somber. She looks like she hasn’t slept in days. She tells us that inside...
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3 Panels in 6 Days: Youth on the Mic
Storycatchers is in the community in a big way this week. Victory Gardens. The Holocaust Museum. At a board member’s residence. Learn what our staff and youth are doing to inspire and create real change.
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Finding the Light in Your Darkness
Read about the success of the Changing Voices Ensemble’s first performance of their original show, “The Light in My Darkness.” Program Manager Cristina White shares how the youth have inspired her to make changes in her own life.
read moreCourt-Involved Youth Premiere Play at New Arts Space [Press Release]
Light in My Darkness will be presented as a staged reading of works-in-progress at the new Washington Park arts space Green Line Performing Arts Center. Green Line is a much-needed $5.5 million professional theater on Chicago’s South Side.
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The Lives You May Not Know
On a cold January evening, about fifty people and two Storycatcher’s teaching artists converged in the middle of Chicago’s American Writer’s Museum on Michigan Avenue. Audience members and experts had a conversation on the impact of performing arts programming in prisons.
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Holiday Stories From Our Youth
2019 is off to an energetic start for Changing Voices! Our youth returned from a two week break focused and ready to work. During their time off, they wrote letters and stories about their loved ones and hopes for the new year. Enjoy their words. From...
read moreSarge’s Story – An Ensemble Doesn’t Forget
A moving five minute must-read that will help you understand how giving youth a voice through stories is powerful, lasting and necessary.
read moreWhat you need to know about #storyboxchicago.
Did you miss it? Did you miss the 60 people coming together to dance, sing, paint, write, tell stories, read books, and build Chicago’s first Storybox. It will be one of many. View our photos and video to see what the excitement was all about.
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4 Great Reasons You’ll Love Our New Website
“I am my own story.” The number one rule of marketing is “It’s not about the company, it’s about the customer.” In this case, the customer is you (the reader) and our youth. Simply put, we think we’ve designed a website that makes it easier for you experience how...
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What You Missed in Austin
On August 26th, the new Changing Voices ensemble at the Austin Career Education Center had their first staged reading after months of writing their personal stories. If you were there, you'd understand why it was one of my favorite experiences as a teaching artist....
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The Way of Peace: Congressman John Lewis’ Unforgettable Visit
by Cheryl Coons, Program Manager of the Temporary Lockdown Ensemble “No one has forgotten you. There is reason to hope, and you guys give me hope.” Those are the words that the legendary civil rights activist Congressman John Lewis spoke to our Temporary LockDown...
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Trading T-shirts for Dress Shirts: Deloitte Mentors Changing Voices Youth
by Tory Davidson, Community Engagement Manager It’s not every day that the Changing Voices team is clad in polished shoes and button-down shirts, welcomed into a skyscraper in downtown Chicago, and given the run of the place. In June, Deloitte let us do exactly that....
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Ira Glass and Storycatchers Find Social Impact Through Art
By Jacob Clinkscales, Storycatchers Teaching Artist “Stories have the power to create empathy within us, and over time, people begin to see the world through the eyes of the ones they have opposed.” In June, Storycatchers teaching artists, myself included, performed...
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Donor’s Corner
The work of Storycatchers Theatre has gained national attention once again as one of the first recipients of an award from the Art for Justice Fund in November 2017. The Art for Justice Fund, created by Agnes Gund in partnership with the Ford Foundation and...
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Steppenwolf Brings Show to Youth Inside Three Juvenile Justice Facilities
An interview with Kari Betton, Music Director and Composer, Storycatchers Theatre Conducted by Tory Davidson, Community Engagement Manager, Storycatchers Theatre In March, Steppenwolf Theatre's young adult production of The Burn toured to the juvenile justice...
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From Bullies To Bonding
Written by Meade Palidofsky, Founder and Artistic Director When I direct rehearsals at Warrenville every fall, I am immersed in the adolescent energy and off-stage drama around me. Overhearing a range of comments - from bursts of encouragement to sharper exchanges - I...
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Learning What It Means to Have REAL POWER
Written by Aimee Stahlberg, Strategy and Process Manager Changing Voices “How can I get me some real power?” That’s the ending line of Storycatchers Theatre's current Changing Voices production. After touring for several months, members of the Changing Voices Ensemble...
read moreDonors’ Corner: “It takes a village to raise a curtain.”
Written by Rachel Hauben Combs, Development Director A wise Chicago theatre artist once said that and it has never been truer. Today, both artistic endeavors and social justice causes are increasingly dependent on individual donors. In 2016, our very own “Temporary...
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