We're excited for our upcoming second annual Zion's Story Spring School Tour. Our performance ensemble is prepping lines and our production team is pulling together final plans as we prepare to hit the road this April for a tour sponsored by the County Office of Education and largely focused on San Diego's Foster Care youth.

In our Play! Youth Development Theatre program, Imagine’s Teaching Artists work to introduce youth to concepts like empathy, social responsibility, inclusion, and belonging, and to help them learn to practice them in real life through theatre games and interactive lessons. One of our school district partners asked us to make a short video featuring some of these values and so we made this.

Inspiring. Empowering. Uplifting. These are just a few words to define my time with Imagine, which has been life-changing to say the least. I will forever cherish my experience here since it quite literally paved the way for my future aspirations of becoming an educator and community leader.

We had the exciting opportunity recently to work with the City of San Diego to support the Equity Forward initiative in launching a new project called the Inclusive Public Engagement Guide. The guide will help the City as it works to make San Diego a place where everyone’s voice is heard.

I knew that Imagine’s work helps children to learn about themselves as they reflect on the often daunting world around them, but what I never expected was that working with Imagine would do the very same for me.

We are finding ourselves feeling hopeful these days, and it’s more than the simple optimism that sometimes bubbles up with the turn of a new year. Rather, it’s a hope that comes from gratitude. And that gratitude comes from seeing the good fruit of work that many of you have shared in, and the anticipation of more to come.

We are looking for a male actor for a paid gig in our Safa’s Story San Diego County School Tour Show this fall. Safa’s Story is a bullying prevention play to support children to grow cultural competence and allyship.

Imagine’s Teaching Artist Apprentice Kaileykielle Hoga has just wrapped up her time with us and we asked her to share a little of what she’s learned over the past few months. Here’s what she had to say…

Our friend Jussara joined us this spring for our Artist Apprenticeship and she had this to say about her experience…

Our friend Rachelle Archer dedicated an episode of her podcast The Artful Leader to a conversation with Catherine asking the question “What if we created spaces where connection, curiosity, and trust were cultivated, and justice, equity, and belonging were experienced by all?”

Recently we’ve been working with one of our favorite partners, Monarch School, to create a unique interpretation of the familar story of Peter Pan. The production will feature the creative original work of Monarch students as well as a rare performance by Catherine (and her sister, Laura) of an excerpt from their play Second Star to the Right.

Please join us and our friend Jussara for this family-friendly workshop designed to create community connection and wellness while exploring the theme of peace.

Imagine had the opportunity recently to work with the City of San Diego Planning department to support a new initiative called “Build Better SD”. We created opportunities for community engagement and gathered feedback from individuals across the city. In the process, we made a video to document the work.

On Monday night, we got together for a little while with a few friends to share stories and to imagine a better way to be together. Our theme for the night was “Ancestors” so we talked about how we had been formed by those who had gone before us. We also talked about the things that connect us all.

At the end of the evening, I shared a piece I’ve been working on recently, an exploration of who we are together. Here it is as I shared it on Monday.