9-12

MY OWN STORY is an autobiographical writing/storytelling/performing workshop for youth to creatively explore, write, and perform their own unique autobiographical life stories in the context of monologues, spoken word, and performance/theater. THREE LIVES is a one-man performance/theater show that tells the autobiographical tale of Alex Luu's escape from war-torn Saigon. The show is kinetic/comic/poignant, and addresses themes such as identity, assimilation, racism, and the multi-layers of the American Dream.

Aman Dance Educators present the Creative World Dance Curriculum, a unique program that teaches students dances from around the world and leads them through creative activities that expand their understanding of their bodies in action as tools for communication. Students will expand their knowledge in geography, history and culture, and gain skills in cooperation, coordination, creativity and rhythm. The curriculum includes dances from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

The award-winning CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP), a co-curricular program of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), offers free, after-school and school-based arts programs for youth ages 6-18 in every discipline taught at CalArts. Programs are offered at public schools, community centers and social service agencies across Los Angeles County. With classes led by a teaching corps of accomplished CalArts faculty, alumni and student instructors, CAP participants learn to create original works of art and to experiment with prevailing conventions of artistic expression.

Create Now is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that gives youth opportunities to find their voices through arts mentoring and education. We especially serve children ages 2-21 who have been abused, neglected, homeless, domestic violence victims, incarcerated, etc. by matching them with artists, writers, musicians, actors, dancers and others, including mentors who teach life skills. Create Now provides training and materials to implement therapeutic programs in music, writing, visual arts, performing arts, fashion and digital media at 100+ partner agencies, like shelters and group homes.

As the nation's longest-running theatre of color and largest producer of Asian Pacific American (APA) creative work, EWP is committed to using the unique platform of theatre to tell multifaceted stories of the APA experience and develop new artists. The LA Times has described EWP as a model for organizations that generate support from a community, instead of relying on the success of a particular show.

Inner-City Arts' mission is to engage young people in the creative process in order to shape a society of creative, confident and collaborative individuals. We provide arts classes and workshops for school-aged children, classroom teachers and school administrators.

Johanna Smith is a Professor of Theatre Education, Improvisation, and Puppetry at CSU-San Bernardino. Her research and practice focuses on integrating puppets into classrooms as well as professional Theatre for Young Audiences. She has served as a puppetry artist for Broadway-bound extravaganzas to museums to colleges to preschools and often directs tours for CSUSB. Her production of The Odyssey (director, puppet design) toured to the PuppetFair puppet festival in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2008, followed by a tour of 4 major Chinese cities for the Chonqing Children's Theatre season in 2009.

Los Angeles Arts Group (L.A. Arts Group) is committed to excellence in arts education and believes the arts are powerful tools for expression and communication and vital to the development of every child. Our goal is to provide high quality, standards-based arts education for grades K-12 in creative environment that promotes collaboration and respect. Our programs aim to engage students, teachers and the community to provide learning in and through the arts. L.A. Arts Group consists of trained and experienced professional artists in dance, music, theatre and visual arts.

Each year we serve 20,000-27,000 youth ages 5-18. This year we have also renewed our family classic The Patchwork Girl of Oz, touring to NC, also sponsored locally by the Children's Literature Department of the LA Central Library. We also produce the annual San Pedro Festival of the Arts, which presents 20-24 professional dance companies. Thousands of sponsors include LA County Museum of Art, Mark Taper Auditorium, and Kidspace; we tour locally for the LA and SB County School Districts, expanding to 22 states, MX and Taipei.

In just less than three decades of existence, LA Opera has become, under the leadership of Eli and Edythe Broad General Director Plácido Domingo, the United States' fourth largest opera company and "...stands out as a newly important force in American Opera." (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times). LA Opera created a sensation with its inaugural production of Verdi's Otello starring Plácido Domingo in 1986.