The Inspirers: Petare Theater

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Europe

03:25

For young people growing up in the slums of Caracas, one non-profit is offering a refuge to nourish body, mind, and spirit. The Musical Theater of Petare acts as a training space to engage children and young people in musical theater. And as Juan Carlos Lamas reports, it doubles as a place that offers food, water and support to some of Venezuela's poorest children.

It's been called the most dangerous slum in Caracas. And for many of the young people who live in Petare, life on the streets has become fodder for their creative pursuits at a seven-year-old performing arts venue --- The Musical Theater of Petare.

This nonprofit acts as a free training space to engage children and young people in musical theater. Today the students are rehearsing a play they wrote together --- about two girls accused of crimes they did not commit.

Life lessons are part of the mission here.

Viana Pietri, Director and Co-founder, The Musical Theater of Petare "Training citizens requires lots of values, including tolerance, solidarity, team work, and cooperation. These values seem to have disappeared, but through theater we are implementing them so kids can live their lives with them."

Through acting, singing and dancing, the teachers of the school show their students, who range in age from 7 to 19 years old, a reality that reaches beyond what they see around them in the Petare slums.

Nathalie Rego, Actress and Singer "Anyone who is working with children should take responsibility in knowing that part of what you do with them would help shape what they would be as adults, and if we want a better world, we definitely should try to give them the best of us."

Some of the plays performed here are originals --- others are well known around the world.

Juan Carlos Lamas, Caracas "Here teachers and students believe that lessons learned through the performing arts, can be applied to the wider world. That seeds planted here can inspire people to reach higher in life, and make a difference in their world."

The school provides food and drinking water to children who might otherwise not eat during the day. And it allows children who are not currently enrolled in traditional schools to participate in the theater.

Esleiker Gonzalez, Theater Student "Helping other people, through what I do, is what I really like. Here, I've been taught to be confident, and that I am capable of having a positive impact on other people's lives if I want to."

Daivelis Briceno, Theater Student "This theater helps me to grow artistically and as a person. After I leave here, I see everything in a different way. The theater helps us to be critics and have opinions in an artistic way."

Sixteen teachers and more than seventy students enrolled in the theater school are showing a different side of what Petare could be. Surrounded by political and economic uncertainty, and facing stark realities, this group has learned there is perhaps no better time - to experience the magic of theater. Juan Carlos Lamas, CGTN, Caracas.