Fountain Voices is an innovative program providing arts education in under-served schools. This nine week curriculum is designed to build community and cultivate empathy utilizing the power of theatre and creative story-telling. Currently in place at Hollywood High School, Helen Bernstein High School and Compton Unified School District, Fountain Voices’ playwriting curriculum provides students with the opportunity to tell their own stories while engaging with each other through acting games and writing exercises. Fountain Voices conforms to multiple VAPA and ELA Common Core standards, strengthening students’ English Language skills while teaching the key elements of playwriting, and the art of cultivating material through interviews. The program culminates with short plays, written and performed by the students, based on interviews they conduct in their own communities - with their elders, teachers, peers, and community leaders, exploring a wide range of cultural and generational perspectives, and telling a collective story about the community they live in, and the one they aspire to create. If you’d like to support this program and/or register your school, please email Nathan James, Theater Education Manager. nathan@fountaintheatre.com
KABC Eyewitness News - 2023
The Fountain is grateful for generous support provided for its arts education programs by many donors including:
Arthur & Kristin Auerbach
Toby & Daniel Bernstein
Maggie Bryant
Diana Buckhantz & The Vladimir & Araxia Buckhantz Foundation
Carrie Chassin & Jochen Haber
Deborah Culver
East Hollywood Neighborhood Council
Mrs Sue and Rabbi James Kaufman
The Honorable Sheila Kuehl
Deborah Irmas & The Audrey & Sidney Irmas Charitable Fund
The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Los Angeles County Arts & Culture
Carrie Menkel Meadow and Robert Meadow
Fay & Les Mitchnick
The Honorable Mitch O’Farrell & The 13th District
The Friars Charitable Foundation
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Foundation
Sharyl Overholser
The Phillips-Gerla Family
Ashley & Debbi Posner
Allison Thomas
Steven Warheit & Chris Christensen
Mary Jo & David Volk
Dorothy Wolpert
Allison & Jason Zelin
Fountain Voices Team
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Megha Nabe-Ikwaukor
Megha Nabe-Ikwuakor is a writer and educator with a focus on art for social change. Always wanting to shape and inspire young minds, Megha has been a long-time Head Mentor at the Young Storytellers Foundation, Teaching Artist with Fountain Voices, and is the Director of Community Relations at Dream A World Education, which provides arts education in under-served schools,. When she’s not doing one of these things, she can be found watching (gasp!) the Real Housewives. Like, any of them.
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Shannon O'Boyle
Acting teacher, SBG Studios
Graduate of the Actors Fund Teaching Artist Program
Mentor, Young Storytellers
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Stephen Gillikin
Taught at PS ARTS in 2022. Taught at Compton Early College in 2022
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Jeremy Feight
-Atlantic Acting School, Writer/Creator - "FEVER"
-Producer and Facilitator at AYE DEFY, Founder of Non-Profit Arts Education Org "IGNITE - Ghana"
PRESS
Fountain Voices featured on NPR KPCC 89.3 Fresh Air segment and Southern California NPR radio stations - 12/15/2022 & 12/16/2022