Our final performance of The Milagro Beanfield War tour was held in Pueblo, and hosted by CSU and Pueblo Community College at the Hoag Theater on October 3, 2024. We took our tour to seven towns in Southern Colorado, and Denver with nine performances and it was an amazing venture. This will be something our San Luis Valley youth actors will have to share with their children and grandchildren. Our communities that had the opportunity to see these educational, and cultural performances based on history, will also share this story with their friends and family for years to come. Centennial High School and Sierra Grande School were exceptionally supportive and allowed an elective credit to their youth participants. This was a year-long production, and the student actors put in over 185 hours each. We remain resolute in gratitude to John Nichols for believing in us and extending us with this grand opportunity to do the adaptation from his novel.
We began 10 years ago after being inspired at a workshop of Augusto Boal, a Brazilian Theater Director who developed Forum Theater and Theater of the Oppressed. We saw the need to reach our disenfranchised youth, providing them with the opportunity to express issues, feelings, and emotions. Pregones Puerto Rican Theater had developed a program with the Forum Theater techniques, and they invited Boal to see their work. Boal acknowledged excellence in the Forum Theater Pregones was delivering. We brought Pregones from the Bronx to train our actors and our Board Members. Boal's techniques were being utilized in over 70 countries throughout the world for its effectiveness in engaging positive options to negative situations in an interactive and fun approach.
With the abrupt onset of COVID-19 and the importance of continuing our work, we began a virtual pilot program and followed-up with an 8-session virtual program for the Conejos County youth of families in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This led to us being asked to take the Forum Theater curriculum to the Justice Heritage Academy in Antonito Colorado. We extended the Forum Theater to further reaches of rural Colorado.
Today we are continuing this growth with a Teen Engagement Workshop in Winter Park. We will be taking our teens from four of our partnering organizations. We will train our teens on the Forum Theater techniques. Our teens will become Peer Mentor Leads and will return to their organizations with the tools to present improv skits for their peer's suggested real-life topics.
Please consider a donation in support of Casa Milagro Youth Solutions and our continued work with our youth.
Our Media Sponsor
To provide safe, welcoming and inclusive artistic educational programs primarily to underserved children and teens to create positive options to abuse and healing from abusive situations.
Casa Milagro grew from the need to serving the oppressed and specifically, our youth. Oppression is multifaceted and the effects are generational. For children to suppress traumas or significant issues in their lives, is harmful and unnecessary. The problem with suppression, is that it comes out in some form and is most often, misdiagnosed or misinterpreted. For generations, we have seen our youth be branded quickly as ‘bad’ and watched them go through our court systems. We wanted to give our youth an opportunity for their voices to be heard. We want to provide them with the opportunity to recognize multiple positive choices despite oppressive behavior they may encounter.
Organization name
Casa Milagro Youth Solutions
2012
Tax id (EIN)
46-1036312
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Organization Size
Small Organization
Address
3517 W 45TH AVEDenver, CO, US
Adams County, CO, US
Jefferson County, CO, US
Conejos County, CO, US
Pueblo County, CO, US
