Our Mission

MTW prepares young people to make positive life choices through the process of writing, producing and performing original musical theatre inspired by personal stories.

MTW accomplishes its mission through the following methods:

• Conducting writing and performance-skills workshops in, and developing strong partnerships with, educational, correctional, arts, social service, and health organizations with similar philosophies of youth development, allowing youth exposure to programs over significant time;
  
• Preparing artists to conduct storytelling, scriptwriting, and performance-skills residencies that focus on individual as well as artistic growth; including a process of assessing day-to-day personal growth of youth and program needs;
• Exposing the community to professional and youth work that excites the senses, and moves the emotions as it provides a forum for examining and embracing social and personal change.

MTW's programs seek to promote change in four arenas:

• personal growth and self-knowledge
• peer relations and team work
• healthier family interactions
• community knowledge

While participating in storytelling, scriptwriting, and performance-skills residencies with MTW artists, the youth participants write songs, poems, stories and scenes inspired by personal experiences. Working in cooperative groups, participants share and discuss their writing, looking for common themes and life challenges. Based on this group experience, writers create composite characters, outline and create a musical play. By examining themselves as characters with a fixed past but a fluid future, the young people grasp the power of their own decision-making skills. The process reinforces their recognition of choices and consequences, enhancing the ability and desire of participants to make choices that lead to positive outcomes.