Fountain Voices
An Arts Education Collaboration with The Fountain Theatre & youth of the greater Los Angeles community
ABOUT FOUNTAIN VOICES
Fountain Voices is a community-driven storytelling initiative that empowers young people to examine urgent social and community issues through theatre, oral history, and civic engagement. Bringing together youth, teaching artists, nonprofit partners, and community members, the program transforms lived experience into original performance work that sparks dialogue and builds community connection.
As part of our Fountain for Youth educational programming, Fountain Voices centers collaboration and creative expression, encouraging participants to engage directly with the people and stories shaping Los Angeles today. Through interviews, volunteerism, reflection, and devised theatre, students learn to see themselves not only as artists, but as active participants in community healing and change.
This summer the Fountain Voices Youth Residency works to devise Like a Phoenix We Rise. This play explores community perspectives around the 2025 Eaton Fire. During their month long residency, these youth within the greater Los Angeles are create an artistic community full of collaboration, trust, bold creativity.
The mission of Fountain Voices largely consists of teaching the next generation how to champion, uplift, and inspire their community through art. The members of this residency have done just that through a devised 75 minute piece that honors a historic tragedy with heart and perspective while using an unbridled imagination to envision a path forward.
We are so honored to experience these young artists develop their unique voices and engage their civic duties through impactful theatre. Join us this at The Fountain Theatre this August for the world premier of Like a Phoenix We Rise and witness the next generation of dynamic and community engaging storytelling.
Performances:
Saturday August 1st | 7pm
Sunday August 2nd | 2pm
Meet our Community Partner
As our ensemble explores the resilience and recovery of the Altadena community following the January 2025 Eaton Fire, we're grateful to learn alongside an organization deeply rooted in Altadena and committed to community-led recovery.
We believe meaningful art begins with listening. Altadena Rising's commitment to community care, survivor leadership, and advocacy will help ground our creative process in lived experience, connection, and care. Through this partnership, our young artists will have the opportunity to learn from the organizers, advocates, survivors, and community members helping shape Altadena's future.
Get a peek at our process!
We invited teaching artist and drama therapist Danielle Levanas to collaborate with our Fountain Voices ensemble in laying down the creative foundation for their residency. These exercises help establish the trust, creativity, and communication the ensemble will use as they devise Like A Phoenix We Rise.
SUPPORT FOUNTAIN VOICES
MORE THAN JUST A SUMMER PROGRAM
The 2026 Fountain Voices Summer Residency will focus on the lasting impact of the Eaton Fire and the ongoing work of recovery and resilience across affected Los Angeles communities. Guided by professional teaching artists and community partners, participants will engage directly with individuals and organizations responding to the aftermath of the fires while exploring storytelling and activism through devised theatre practices.
Throughout the program, participants will conduct interviews, reflect on personal and community experiences, and transform these stories into an original theatrical work rooted in lived experience. The residency will culminate in public performances and community conversations that amplify underrepresented voices and foster empathy and connection through the arts.
For many participants, Fountain Voices is more than a summer program: it is a rare opportunity to feel heard, valued, and connected to a larger community while using creativity to process urgent issues affecting their lives and neighborhoods.