Real Artists. Real Work. Your Voice.

In 2017, I wrote a line I've carried ever since: young people experience art-making as a way of shaping, exploring, and defining their place in the world. I was writing a chapter for a book about what "sparks" young people — about what gets them excited and passionate about their lives and the world we live in. The idea didn't go away — it just kept waiting for the right place to live.

After thirty years directing and teaching theatre — in large professional settings, high school auditoriums, outdoor parks, and everywhere in between — I've come to believe there's a shared shape to the experience of making art. Something that happens when people build something together, whatever their age, background, or address. You can watch it happen: someone finding they actually belong in the room. Someone getting good at something hard. Someone trusted with a real decision. Someone further along teaching someone who just arrived. That's not a side effect of the art. It is the art.

Turning Light Theatre grew from the belief that young people deserve a place built around that idea. Not a rehearsal for adulthood, but the real thing, right now. Real roles. Real productions. Real say in what gets made and how. A place to grow as artists and as human beings. Young artists, working professionals, and community volunteers, side by side, teaching and learning.

This isn't the only theatre opportunity on the South Shore, and it isn't trying to be — camps, classes, school programs, and community productions are already doing real work here. We are creating a place for young people who are ready to go deeper and take a next step, to explore meaning and shine a little more light in the world around them.

— Mark Ferraro-Hauck, Founder, Turning Light Theatre