Youth Take Center Stage at ECW Annual Meeting

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At the 2011 Episcopal Church Women (ECW) Annual Meeting, the children of meeting attendees were supervised by some of the Youth from St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights. These teenagers are part of the Drama Dreamers at St. Paul’s, a group that uses drama productions to explore faith, promote companionship and develop leadership skills and teamwork, and, in the process, put on a production. The entire program is youth-led, with consultation and supervision by a small team of dedicated adults. The teenagers at the ECW meeting used a similar pattern in choosing a play, casting the parts, making costumes and props, and putting on the production—all in the span of about 4 hours!

The youth chose to put on a production of the Good Samaritan, and from a couple of bags of leftover costumes from previous Drama Dreamers’ plays (and even the annual Christmas pageant), made costumes for all the characters. They even managed to create a convincing donkey! Construction paper, glue sticks and markers were used to make signs pointing toward Jerusalem, a bush to hide the robbers, and beards for those who passed by the injured man. It was amazing to see what could be done with some inexpensive materials and a little creativity!

The ECW conference concluded with the children putting on the production for the adult attendees, and even though the room was a bit crowded and it was a bit hard to see from the back, it seems that both the children and their audience thoroughly enjoyed the production. The youth actors will undoubtedly always remember the story and the fun they had in creating the production; maybe they even learned a little something about fellowship, negotiation and compromise. And if we really did a good job with them, perhaps they were able to internalize some of the compassion provided by the Samaritan on that road to Jerusalem. The adults in the audience were privileged to get a glimpse of the future leaders of the Episcopal church; we are truly blessed with remarkable youth leadership!

Megan Hockey, Teen Youth Leader - St. Paul’s Cleveland Heights

As a young child, I always enjoyed watching St. Paul’s Youth put on various drama productions. I was excited when I was finally old enough to participate in them myself. Each production was a different experience that held different lessons and memories. However, I had only experienced watching and preforming these plays, but I hadn’t yet had the chance to lead and direct one. So, I was thrilled when Mrs. Sherwin asked me to take part in leading the children at the ECW Annual Meeting in performing a short play for everyone else there. In only that afternoon, the children picked a play, learned the importance of its lesson, made props and costumes, and memorized their roles. I was very impressed, and so were all of the members of ECW, at the children’s enthusiasm and hard work that they put into their production. It was a new experience for me, and I really enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing the actors and actresses becoming leaders in Youth Programs and even leaders of the Church!