Ages Grades 5+
Length 60-120 minute sessions | 3-10 days  
Group Size Please contact us to discuss your objectives

Inclusion In Place of Dismissal

Young people have stories that are important. Yet all too frequently, stories and young storytellers alike are dismissed by adults. We believe that it is part of our responsibility to listen, and to give young people tools to blur the boundaries between their stories and those of others.

A Reason to Relate Across Demographic Differences

StoryFire sparks vital opportunities for participants from different backgrounds to forge meaningful connections with through a collaborative expressive project. 

In StoryFire residencies, students from one community often create audio that is then animated by a similarly aged cohort of students in a different community. Both groups work around a resonant theme, chosen specifically for the project with the guidance of community leaders who know the students well. Lyrics reflect one group’s experience with the theme. Animation reflects the other group’s experience with the same theme, often also responding to the lyrics. In our favorite collaborations, lyrics and animation express different yet synergistic viewpoints. By putting them together, we receive a complete story that neither lyrics nor animation nor each individual community could have offered alone.

Throughout the process the students trade video penpal messages, building rapport with one another. Once the final project is complete, community presentations are scheduled, with opportunities for the students to meet one another in person. At these presentations, students are treated the same way an mainstage artists would be treated, complete with artist conversations in which the students share their experiences as well as a concluding reception.

What Guides Us

We believe that it is increasingly important for young people to be able work with, and appreciate, peers from cultural, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds different from their own. Likewise, it is crucial for young people to navigate their day-to-day lives knowing that there are many possible “correct” perspectives besides their own, and feeling a personal need for social justice and equality. Yet many young people do not have the opportunity to develop relationships with others from backgrounds different from their own. For other students, “diversity” is an abstract intellectual concept that doesn’t touch their personal lives, though it may be touted by adults around them. StoryFire Residencies provide a framework for meaningful engagement across cultural, socio-economic and linguistic boundaries. Students from different communities work together on tangible projects in which each participant has a stake, to which each person contributes substantially, and from which all derive a feeling of capability and accomplishment. 

In the long term, both residency and performance gave legitimacy and merit to our overall education goal.  Because it was such a successful process with such an overwhelmingly positive outcome, it lends credibility to our continued efforts to expand our educational outreach.  And, it should encourage continued giving to the theater.

The residency certainly made strong impact not only on the students but also the faculty and staff.  The reaction was so solidly affirming — even students who as a general rule don’t speak up or engage were doing just that by the end of the residency sessions.

The performance made a lasting impact on our patrons.  It was thought provoking and not soon forgotten. This was a highly skilled style of musical storytelling, a unique departure from the ordinary, and it surpassed attendance expectation.

Guy Mendilow was not only a pleasure to work with, his process and product exceeded expectations.  The ensemble was worldly, interesting and humble.  Such a treat for us to have the opportunity to present." 

—  Erin Butler, Executive Director, Wyo Theater, Sheridan, WY

StoryFire Student Flier

A Residency in Phases

Additional Videos & Podcast Interviews