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based on Rudyard Kipling stories.
"One of the things about our programs that is excit-
ing is that we're also doing slightly unexpected and of-
ten challenging work," Lowans says. "We're doing new
and different stories and work that our audiences may
not necessarily be familiar with, and [we're] trusting
these young people to do it well."
Trusting young people—to rise to the occasion, to
challenge themselves, to learn the responsibilities
that come with staging a theatrical production—is a
major theme in any discussion of the young company.
By being a part of the company, students learn skills
like singing, dancing, acting, and blocking a scene, but
according to Lowans and Robinson, there's so much
more that students take away beyond the technical
skills of theatre. They also learn the life skills that cre-
ate good citizens.
For instance, "theatre builds empathy because you
are constantly stepping into someone else's shoes," says
