Celebrating unheard voices
The Empowered Arts Ensemble, a newcomer to Ashland’s theater scene, fosters creativity and collaboration among a diverse group of local youth, nourishing theater invention and inclusion alike.
In a city where 86 percent of the population is White and almost 20 percent are 65 and older, the Empowered Arts Ensemble, with its young, multi-racial acting troupe, adds voices we rarely hear. In a tourist destination dedicated to the Bard, it centers young people as theater creators in their own right. Instead of challenging youth on the sports field, the Empowered Arts Ensemble builds young acting muscles through theater games and improvisation in the basement of the public library.
The winners are not only the youth, but also the local community and beyond. Through public performances and local media, this young ensemble poses questions that matter to all of us — about belonging and becoming, celebrating differences, teamwork, curiosity, safety, and more.
As the saying goes, we are better together.
Theater as a creative act
The youth who make up the Empowered Arts Ensemble share a common passion: acting.
“I’m here because I love every form of theater, acting, musicals,” says Aquila, age 10. “ I love being with kids who like to write plays,” Emmet, also 10, adds.
From January through June, the groups meet weekly, led by performance artist and educator Shanique Scott (MFA, Arizona State University) who moved to Ashland after a distinguished theater career in San Francisco and Arizona. The program also includes intensive workshops by visiting actors and mentoring by local artists.
Rumpelstiltskin — you may have gathered — is not on the playbill here. Scott is a champion of a creative alternative called “devised theater” whose roots go back more than a century. There is no pre-existing script where roles are established. Instead, the performers start with an idea, a question, a piece of music, a set and build something completely new.
In the Ensemble’s weekly workshops, the young performers experience and grow a host of skills, from improvisation and storytelling to puppetry and music.
In the Spring of ’24, the Ensemble performed their first devised theater project, “A Rose that Grew from Concrete,” to standing-room only crowds at Grizzley Peak Winery and Southern Oregon University’s Black Box Theater. They also performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival “Green Room.” This May, they will present a new work.
“Talented youth creating theater together, celebrating what makes one another and our community special,” says Scott. “It’s a dream come true.”
“Ashland youths experience theater as a creative act,” Oregon Arts Watch, February 10, 2025
