By Sophia Thornberg
Baltimore Center stage has partnered with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services to launch the Juvenile Justice Theater program.
The inaugural program ran from October 2024 through April 2025 at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, and organizers are planning to bring it back.
Teaching artists went to the detention center once a week to host hour-long sessions with inarcerated youth. Teaching artists used improv games, story prompts, and reflection questions to help young men share their personal stories.
Lead teaching artist Erin Margaret Pettigrew said that it was very important for the young men to be able to speak with their own agency.
“Oftentimes we will be in a place where people will speak for us, on behalf of us or assume things about us,” Pettigrew said. “But there is nothing more true and more honest than when somebody is able to speak about who they are from their own agency with confidence and clarity.”
The program was created by the Center Stage Artistic Director Stevie Walker-Webb. He wanted to expand programming into the city so that even the youth who can’t physically come to the theater can still benefit from arts education. Fellow lead teaching artist Hope Jamila Hayson said a primary objective was to get the young men in the detention center to let their guard down and have fun.
“One goal at the very core is to have fun,” Hayson said. “These young men are in a situation where they have to hold that youthfulness inside and not let it out. Theater is supposed to be fun and actually open that up.”
Pettigrew said the program created a relaxing environment during sessions.
“If we create a space that allows you to show up as yourself, then it is also a space that allows yourself to change into where you want to go. We can end up there together,” Pettigrew said.
While the pilot program has ended, Center Stage is planning on a return, and adding services for a detention center for young women. In the coming weeks, those involved will be creating a curriculum based on what activities worked best during the first year.
“We want to start using this curriculum not just in the city but in the counties and other detention centers so that we can offer this outlet of telling our stories to not just one to place,” Pettigrew said. “We can start to spread it throughout Maryland and not just stay in Baltimore.”
Those who wish to donate to the Juvenile Justice Theater Program can do so through Center Stage’s The Next Act Campaign.
