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identify the roots of social issues. Students ask questions,
got down on my knees and took 40 seconds to talk to her
challenge their biases and ultimately transform the narra-
quietly about what role she wanted in the performance that
tives through their performance.
day. She got the role she wanted.”
“The whole idea is to try to empower kids to change the story
By halfway through the year, that quiet little girl had
that exists,” Hegg says. “We hope through the theatre arts
changed her personal narrative to include the role of confi-
they realize they have the power to change the narrative
dent performer. “The culminating performance was a story
both outside their life and inside. They can make their own
that included water buffalos. She stood up during the
decisions and think with their own mind.”
planning and said, ‘I want to be a water buffalo. I have a good
Witness to Change
water buffalo noise.’ I said ‘Well let’s hear it.’ And she let out
“Learning as they go” has remained a part of the experience since that first year, and it most likely will stay that way. The stories of the participating children change, and some of those stories can be challenging to hear. “There are things you just are not ready for,” says Elliot Mallin, a Breck junior who was part of Neighborhood Bridges this past year. “We create an environment of trust and with that comes stories, but none of us is prepared when a little kid talks about his mom’s cancer or his dad’s guns.” For Elliot, the difficult, uncomfortable moments are worth it when you watch a young soul find her voice. “I had this little girl who you couldn’t get a peep out of; I saw a girl who didn’t have a voice,” Elliot shares. “There was one day where I
this loud snort and it was fantastic,” Elliot says. “She got up in front of the entire school for that performance, made that noise and it was audible throughout the entire lunchroom. This was a girl we couldn’t hear in the classroom. I was blown away.” Breck continues to be the only school partnering with the Children’s Theatre Company on the Neighborhood Bridges program. The relationship has been so successful that Hegg will have twice the number of Breck students participating in the future. Think of the stories they’ll all have to tell.