QCT, Teen Reach recognized for Quincy Teen Voices

QUINCY – Quincy Teen Voices, a collaboration between Quincy Community Theater and Teen REACH, will be highlighted at the Healing Illinois Celebration event hosted by the Chicago Community Trust and Illinois Department of Human Services.

The virtual event will take place from 3-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3. Quincy Teen Voices will be featured at 3:10 p.m. when an excerpt of the original performance will be streamed followed by a live Q&A session with two of the teen participants.

Quincy Teen Voices was funded through the Healing Illinois grant in late 2020. The state-sponsored grant was created to support racial healing projects across Illinois. More than 175 projects around the state received funding through this grant.

“We are honored that out of the over 175 projects funded, ours is one of the select few organizations to present our project and share the impact it’s had in our community and on the teens involved,” said Brendan Shea, head of education and director of student theatre at QCT. “One of the concepts we hoped this project would help these teens understand is that their voices matter. To be able to share their story at a state-wide level will hopefully help them to realize they have the ability to be seen, heard, and create change.”

Quincy Teen Voices brought together a diverse ensemble of nine local teens to create a short theatrical piece inspired by the students’ real-life experiences with racial injustice, racial amity, and coming-of-age in modern America. The original performance of the devised piece was streamed on QCT’s YouTube channel and is still available to view.

Quincy Teen Voices also recently presented a special, live performance at the Quincy Art Center in conjunction with “The Other Room” exhibit. QCT and Teen REACH had been in the early stages of a collaboration when the Healing Illinois funding became available. This funding provided the needed support to bring the program to fruition. The two organizations plan to continue Quincy Teen Voices with new groups of teens each year.

To learn more about the virtual Celebration of Healing Illinois and to register to view the celebration, visit 1qct.org.