This Holiday Season I Hope

This past Saturday, the Our Time kids wrote the following at the top of a blank sheet of paper in their journal, "This holiday season I hope ..."

What followed was amazing, beautiful, funny, insightful, and fun! After each kid wrote what they hoped for in their journal we came back together as a group. Each kid was given three options:

1. not to share what they had written with anyone
2. read out loud (or have someone read out loud) what they had written to the group
3. read out loud (or have someone read out loud) what they had written to our Flip video camera for a possible post on the Our Time Blog.

How many of you would think that a group of young people who stutter (kids who often do not raise their hands in class for fear of being laughed at) would overwhelmingly choose to read what they wrote themselves straight to the camera? Well, most of the Our Time kids did. And they were very excited about sharing what their hopes are with all of you.

We hope you enjoy these three short clips of Adam, Joseph, and Tyler (who chose to have Ryan, an Our Time volunteer, read his hopes as Tyler danced around the room.)

PS - What do you hope for this holiday season? Post a comment to this post and let us know.

Our Time Kicks Off 8th Season with Teen & Pre-Teen Play Programs

On October 4th, Our Time gathered for its first Saturday workshop for the NYC Teen & Pre-Teen Play Productions. And this 8th season is off to a rocking start!

We are thrilled to welcome 4 new Teens and 6 new Pre-teens into the company! 4 of these new members attended Camp Our Time in August and loved it so much that they decided to join our New York City programming this fall. These new members are all amazing additions to the Our Time family, and we look forward to seeing them grow personally and artistically as the year goes on.

Of course, we are so happy to have 18 Our Time members return to the program this year, ready to learn more about theatre and music and share their artistic perspectives with the world.

We can promise that this year's Teen & Pre-Teen groups are going to have tons of fun and create awesome plays and musicals for their performances next June.

Here are some pictures taken at this seasons' first Saturday Workshop at the Flamenco Latino Dance Studios:

Pre-Teens Creating a "Group Sculpture"

Musical Directors Everett Bradley & Carl Danielsen

Artistic Director Taro Alexander

Pre-Teens Terrell & Adam writing in their journals
about their hopes for the year

Teen Members Edward & Alison

Volunteer Meg Hart & Teen Members Ned & Dashawn