Getting into the act for 40 years

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A young Jessica Thebus gets some advice from a teacher at the Piven Theatre Workshop’s Young People’s Company.

‘Who Am I This Time? Celebrating 40 Years of the Young People’s Company’

Piven Theatre Workshop, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston

7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22-26

$15

(847) 866-8049 or visit www.piventheatre.org

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Updated: February 21, 2012 6:10PM

Keep your eyes on the actors in Piven Theatre Workshop’s Young People’s Company’s production, “Who Am I This Time? Celebrating 40 Years of the Young People’s Company.” You may well be seeing some future stars.

For four decades, the Young People’s Company has been
entertaining audiences and
nurturing the talents of young people in ninth, 10th and 11th grades. The many successful alumni include actors Joan and John Cusack, actor Jeremy Piven, acclaimed director Jessica Thebus, award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl and Steppenwolf ensemble member James Vincent Meredith, who still values what he learned in the YPC.

Finding truth

“I’ve gone through other classes and programs since then, but the true guideposts of acting — finding the truth in each moment, using that moment to moment truth to bring a story to life, building that story through ensemble-based discovery — all of that for me sprang from Piven,” said Meredith.

“The Young People’s Company was a natural outgrowth from our training center,” said Piven’s Artistic Director Jennifer Green. “Kids who had worked with Joyce [Piven, co-founder with husband Byrne] for a period of time became part of the original Young People’s Company.

“The kids work over a school year with different professional directors to adapt and perform stories,” Green explained. “Those stories could be myths, folktales, legends, literary stories. The year culminates in a spring story theater festival where the kids perform new works that they created with their directors as well as some fully improvised material that’s created fresh every night.”

In addition, the company tours and performs at festivals and for special events.

There are currently 19 members in the company. They are chosen by invitation at the recommendation of Workshop teachers.

Green noted that the majority of Piven’s teachers are alumni of YPC. “There’s that continuous chain of being a student, being a young performer with us and being inspired by that process to come back and teach the next generation,” she said.

YPC Director Rebecca Kling was a company member. “She was a student that I taught when I was director of the Young People’s Company,” Green reported.

“I grew up in Evanston and have been taking classes with Piven since I was in fourth or fifth grade,” Kling said. “I was in the Young People’s Company in 2002 and 2003 as a junior and senior at ETHS (Evanston Township High School) and have stuck with Piven as an assistant teacher and now as a full member of the teaching staff.”

Kling credits the Young People’s Company with helping her career development.

Professionalism

“One of the most rewarding things about participating in the Young People’s Company, and now one of the most exciting things about participating as a director and a teacher, is the professionalism it inspires in its students,” she said. “I really felt when I was going to Piven as a student I was being treated as a professional — my opinions were valid and when I brought up concerns about how we were working a scene or how my character was reacting, those opinions were listened to. As a director, it’s really exciting to instill that in my students.”

In addition to working as the director of YPC and an instructor, Kling creates and performs solo pieces around the city.

At this year’s spring showcase, Green is directing the title piece, “Who Am I This Time?” Eight students are featured in this adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut short story about a romance that develops during a production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

“It’s a great piece that was originally mounted in 1999,” Green said. “It’s about the joy of theater and connection, and how putting on a play we learn a lot about not only ourselves and our own identity but all of the people around us.”

Kling will direct an adaptation of “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights,” featuring seven company members.

“All of the stories we’re doing this year in the showcase are stories that had been done at some point in Young People’s Companies in the past,” Kling said. “ ‘Arabian Nights’ was a story I was in when I was in high school. It was very exciting to be able to revisit it from a different perspective.”

The program will also feature adaptations of “J and the Robbers,” directed by Tom Herman, and “The Princess and the Pea,” directed by Joanne Underwood.