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| The Turner Blackbox Theater ~ Lights, Sound, Action | ||
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We teach these creative arts both for their own sake and to create larger art. An excellent such example is the original dramatic presentation Broken Wings Can Fly. The show has been presented in the Turner Blackbox Theater five seasons since it premiered in 1998. The story began with poems written by children at the Ranch. These works were made into songs about the lives of these children by a corps of talented songwriters and musicians which, in turn, resulted in a CD, also titled Broken Wings Can Fly. From there, graphic artists created scenery and sets, costumers created a range of gorgeous costumes, and choreographers set the words and music to dance and movement.
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The Turner Blackbox Theater is a state-of-the-art workshop for performing arts. The theater seats 200, houses a digital recording studio, a video studio, a gallery and dance and music practice rooms. Our goal is to provide children an outlet for creative expression, training in their talents, and an opportunity to learn lighting, audio and video technology as an avenue for vocational growth. Along with plays, other events include gospel concerts, youth care workshops, recording sessions, summer music program concerts, and classes in drama, dance, voice and music, makeup, costume design, and film and music video production.
The culmination of all these artistic endeavors was the dynamic showcase BWCF. The videos and DVDs produced from this show have helped spread the word about HCYR and its courageous children far and wide. In addition to being produced at the Turner Theater, the show has traveled the state, and now is in pre-production for a return showing, enhanced and updated, for the coming summer. In the end, many children are richer for having learned new skills, having had their own talents expanded, and are taking with them the joy of a work of art in which they played a role. The fine arts program at HCYR was founded on the idea that providing a venue for emotionally-ravaged children to express themselves might provide therapeutic remedies for them. We have seen this come true over and over as children transcend their difficulties by making their pain visible to themselves and to the world. This allows those working with them to recognize the depths and nature of their difficulties. It is therapeutic for an audience as well, as it allows us all an avenue to develop empathy for these children, to gauge our own reactions to their pain, and to formulate better ways to deal with them and ourselves. |
Current Venues Photos: Upper left: A scene from Rutabaga Stories, an original children's play, written by Douglas Balentine, which premiered at the Turner Blackbox Theater in 1996. Middle right: Jonah Priour as Jesus in the community theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Jonah produced and directed this full-scale musical in the Turner Blackbox Theater in the summer of 2005. Lower left: Austin Owen singing in HCYR's original musical Broken Wings Can Fly. This show is destined for a sixth production soon in an adapted and updated version by Jonah Priour. HCYR productions involve not only children from the ranch but talented actors from the community as well. This allows our children to further their social interactions with the world at large, to work with practicing artists and to be part of a large team-building effort. Many of our guest artists have gone on to greater recognition and helped spread the word of our work here at the Ranch. Austin Owens, pictured left, is now the headliner in a national touring Broadway production of the Tony-winning show The Producers. Please feel free to check out our Free CDs and DVDs page for a sample of what we do. See the links on the banner at the top of this page, or in the links at the top of this column to find out more about our programs. |
