Some of the people that residents know through community circles are offering another dimension of themselves in a production set to stage tonight at the Middletown High School Performing Arts stage.
Justin Carbonella, Youth Services Director, wrote the play, “Bigger Than You Think,” based on the stories of folks who grew up in Middletown, like longtime advisor, mentor and Willard McRae, city arts coordinator Stephan Allison, Councilman Grady L. Faulkner Jr. and Trevor Charles, son of Superintendent of Schools Patricia Charles.
This community play is based on the stories of the people in Middletown. It features how the presence or absence of Developmental Assets — important building blocks for healthy development — impacts children’s lives and the community.
Carbonella is thrilled to see the community engaging in conversations centered on how youth feel valued by adults in Middletown. It’s been his mission from the beginning as leader of the youth services bureau.
“This has been my baby for the last eight years,” he told those gathered Monday night at Middletown High School for rehearsals. “We started it from the ground up and really tried to make it something worthwhile as a community and at some point, the baby got bigger than I could handle.”
As several dozen people involved in the production gathered in a circle, Carbonella told them how valuable it is when a community is invested in its youth.
“Good things happen when you put people together,” Carbonella says. “Numbers mean nothing, it’s the stories behind the statistics.”
This is the first time ever that a theatrical performance has been specially created to tell the stories behind the data and of Development Assets — one of the most widely used approaches to positive youth development in the United States.
“I have the blessing and wonderful opportunity to return to my hometown where I actually came of age,” says David G. Blumenkrantz, the founder and executive director of The Center for the Advancement of Youth, Family & Community Services, who grew up in Middletown.
He helped lead the discussion during rehearsals, and offered a very important thought.
“We are doing now what we as human beings have done for tens of thousands of years — sat in a circle and told stories that communicate the most important values that we want to transmit to our children.”
In 2006 and then again in 2011, a combined 3,000 seventh- to 12th-graders took a survey on their perception of growing up and involvement in high-risk behaviors, such as, alcohol, tobacco and drug use, along with depression/suicide, violence and school problems.
“Somehow we lost that ability to remember that’s why we are put here together as people — to raise children,” Blumenkrantz says.
Sponsored by the Middlesex County United Way, the Search Institute’s Developmental Assets survey results are being released through a community performance, followed by a “World Café” community conversation.
“Rather than releasing the survey data in a formal presentation with charts and send everybody on their way. It’s a fresh creative way to bring people together and tell their stories about growing up in Middletown,” Carbonella says.
Cast members include Lt. Gary Wallace, Middletown Police; Jon Romeo, Macdonough Elementary School principal; Quentin Phipps, City Treasurer & Downtown Business District Director; Elizabeth Nocera, Director of Grants Middletown BOE; Izzi Greenberg, Executive Director & Bobbye Knoll, Comm. Organizer, North End Action Team.
Other actors include teachers at local schools, Rushford Center’s Student Assist Counselor and Middletown youth ranging from ages 5 to college-aged.
The performance is Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at Middletown High School.
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