The Youth Performance Company (YPC) recently named Maya Washington as its recent artistic director. Founded in 1989 by Jacie Knight and based in St. Paul with performances in Minneapolis, YPC allows youth to create and express artistic excellence.
“At the moment, there weren’t loads of women leaders in American Theatre, and normally, loads of opportunities,” Washington explained. “And so out of necessity, she [Jacie Knight] really engaged youth in being a part of the strategy of creating recent works, designing what the sets would seem like, directing, and giving their input. Because she needed to so as to make things work. She needed to invite that form of collaboration.”
Washington now carries this mission forward in a gentle yet modern way.
A Youth Performance Company alumni herself, Washington has spent nearly all of her profession as a successful multimedia artist. “I’d say for the past 10 years my profession in film and tv directing has given me opportunities to work on every thing from web series, to corporate work, to commercials, to TV,” she said.
Perhaps one in all Washington’s most notable works is “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar.” “I released a feature film about my father and his teammates at Michigan State, who were members of the primary fully integrated football team in America. It found its debut on the BIG 10 Network and is currently on PBS platforms.”
Earlier this yr “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar” was also released in book format as a memoir “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar My Father and the Team That Modified the Game.”
Following Knight’s remarkable legacy, Washington is obsessed with cultivating a brand new generation of talent that may proceed to drive positive impact. “That is the longer term of being a performer. It’s not going away. We’ve got so many interesting ways in which—if youth select a profession in the humanities, it will possibly go from live theatre to television, to film to social media. The way you tell stories is on the core of that and provides youth a wide range of tools to kind of select their very own adventure,” she shared.
Currently playing at YPC
Lexi Neumann is a rising star who plays the character Clarisse La Rue within the Youth Performance Company’s production of “The Lightning Thief the Percy Jackson Musical” showing October 14 through October 30.
Based on Greek mythology, Neumann shared what it has been like bringing such a dynamic character to life. “It’s one in all those characters that’s just really fun because you may feel like just a lot rage inside her, which is de facto nice. And truthfully, it’s probably been some of the vocally difficult roles I’ve ever needed to play,” she shared.
Growing up in St. Francis, Minnesota, and participating largely in suburban productions, Neumann, 18, has noted a colossal difference in her experience while working with YPC, particularly under Washington’s leadership. “Considered one of the the reason why I went to YPC was because I saw that they were so diverse of their casting, and it was more colourful there, I suppose you would say. I live half-hour away from YPC.
“But still, I’d slightly make the drive there, where I can feel more included and feel like I’m an element of something, than simply in my very own backyard where I’m not going to feel like that.”
Neumann continued, sharing a conversation that she had with a fellow Black castmate named Nyla: “The opposite night, we were talking about how it will possibly be really hard if you’re the one person of color in a solid since it appears like you’re going to be solid a certain way. And we talked about how once we got here to YPC, this was like one in all the primary times once we didn’t feel like we were solid based off our looks, or racial preference.”
As Clarrise, Neumann’s radical prowess involves life. “Her solo number is pretty ridiculous in the easiest way. There may be stage combat; because the daughter of Aries, she wields weapons. It’s so fun to look at her perform,” Washington exclaimed.
In her recent role, Washington is energized to proceed to equip and empower a brand new generation of diverse talent, poised to make great change, even beyond the stage.
“The task is that you just keep the door open for others. And where that door might have been wider so that you can walk through—if you needed to push through, you don’t forget that. And also you be certain that that the following person behind you doesn’t must struggle as much as you needed to.” said Washington.
Learn more about Youth Performance Company and “The Lightning Thief the Percy Jackson Musical” at www.youthperformanceco.org.