Playmaking for Girls History

Tywanna & LaQuisha study lines for our first public performance in 2004

In the spring of 2002, Synchronicity produced Kia Corthron's Breath, Boom - a play which dealt with the life of a gang girl from age 16 to 30. In order to better prepare our actors for this play, and also to give back to the community, Synchronicity teamed up with the Wholistic Stress Control Institute's SIMBA program to implement a pilot workshop with 30 teen girls detained at a local Regional Youth Detention Center. At the time, we had no idea what this "experiment" would turn into.

These initial workshops were so successful, and we received such terrific feedback from the girls, the detention centers and our community partners, that in March 2003 we launched a bi-monthly program at Metro RYDC, which serves youth from Fulton and DeKalb counties.

In 2004, we decided that we wanted to expand and get some more time with the girls, and so we instituted our PFG Public Performance, which takes place each June. Working with 8-10 girls who are recently released from detention, we rehearse the best eight plays written during the last year of workshops. This is a fully-fledged performance, with props, costumes, lights, sound - and the girls perform on the mainstage at 7 Stages alongside professional actors. Want to know more about the Public performance?