Rise Up

press release: Rise Up, a new theater piece developed and performed by an inter-generational cast of older adults and youth with disabilities, will premiere Monday, April 15, at 1:30 pm in the Community Room of St. Mary’s Care Center, 3401 Maple Grove Road, Madison. Two additional performances are scheduled for Monday, April 22, and Monday, May 6, both at 1:30 pm in the Community Room of St. Mary’s Care Center. All performances are free and open to the public.

The performances mark the culmination of a 6-month process of workshops, creative brainstorming, theater games, and skill-building – all part of a collaboration between St. Mary’s Care Center, the Verona Area Transition Program for 18-21 Year-Olds, and TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater. This is the fifth year the three organizations have worked together to stimulate and showcase the creativity of people who can frequently be marginalized and isolated.

Rise Up celebrates the inner strength of project participants and highlights their powerful responses to adversity. It was inspired by the poem, “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou. TAPIT/new works producing artistic directors Donna Peckett and Danielle Dresden have worked with participants since October, meeting weekly to draw out their thoughts, feelings, insights, and experiences with “rising up.” Dresden developed prompts to stimulate participants’ imaginations and gathered the resulting material into a script, while Peckett directed and coached participants to prepare them for performance.

This project was originally developed, in part, through an Exchange Grant from the Network of Ensemble Theaters' Travel & Exchange Network (NET/TEN).