Turning Theatre Inside Out
Children’s Company Grows Up with Inaugural Season

By Ana Trujilo

	Robin Braun, co-founder and executive artistic director of Inside Out Theatre Company

“We want to inspire social change,” says Sandy Ives, the producing artistic director of the company.

While Inside Out began as mainly a children's theatre, a new partnership with the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale has made it possible for them to jump into the adult arena.

“This is our inaugural, ground breaking season,” says Ives about their upcoming season that features four productions. “We have some of the best actors in South Florida .”

The company includes actress Lisa Morgan, who is the Literary/Company Manager. In addition to winning the local Carbonell and Curtain Up Awards, Morgan has also received best actress of the year honors from Miami Sun Post and New Times .

The roots of Inside Out Theatre Company is in children’s theatre, but they’ll be tackling adult issues later this month

Inside Out will present their first production under this partnership, Brian Clark's Whose Life Is It Anyway? , December 29, through January 22, 2006 .

Whose Life Is It Anyway? deals with the issue of controlling our ultimate fate: our right to live or our right to die. The play is about a young sculptor who is in a debilitating accident and forces to think about a life where she will forever have to depend on others. Originally written in the 1970s, Whose Life Is It Anyway? has been rewritten since to deal with the recent issues in the Terri Schiavo case.

The season also includes Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies, which runs February 23 to March 12, 2006 ; Watbanaland by Doug Wright, running April 20 to May 14, 2006 and A Year with Frog and Toad by Robert and Willie Reale, which runs June 22 to July 16, 2006 .

Even though the company is taking a new direction, their roots remain in children's theatre.

Inside Out offers a variety of programs for youngsters such as the Musical Theatre Production Class. This class is designed to train children in acting, voice and movement, and also rehearsal. This class is for children in grades fourth through sixth. It teaches children discipline because at the company they are expected to put forth their best effort.

The members of the company—and in some cases the children—have created and produced over thirteen original musicals.

“Our works teach conflict mediation,” says Ives.

The subjects that the company puts forth in their original works present problems that children go through in every day life, such as bullying, overcoming hate and prejudice, resisting peer pressure, the importance of words and the power that people have to effect change in the world.

Some of the other programs that the Inside Out Theatre Company offers the children is a program called Dramantics. In this program youngsters engage in the theatrical process through acting exercises. It is designed to increase concentration, encourage imagination and spontaneity, and increase confidence. This is for students in the second and third grade.

Another program that they offer is the Teen Performance Workshop, which is for children in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. This workshop teaches students to use improvisation, to do scene work, work on Broadway music, and help write and perform the show based on an issue that applies to their life.

They also have an Art in Residency program where their professional actors partner with local schools to help enhance that schools art curriculum.