CPT’s Student Theatre Enrichment Program (STEP) is a rigorous arts-based program that provides hands-on job training, engages youth from Cleveland families in a powerful learning experience that develops job skills, academic achievement, and interpersonal skills. As part of this eight-week summer program, youth ages 14-19 work together to create, produce, perform, and tour their own play. This program is the longest-running arts-based, workplace development program in Cleveland and is an international model for engaging youth. Since its beginning in 1994, STEP has received multiple awards and recognitions including those from the City of Cleveland, The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Through STEP, teens see themselves as a positive and inspirational force, and watch as their work has an impact on the larger Cleveland community.
2024 marks 30 years of STEP. Take a trip through the program's history, process, and impact on student performers and their communities with this short documentary from Black Valve Media.
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture: STEP
STEP 2022: The Myth of Me
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE STUDENT THEATRE ENRICHMENT PROGRAM PLEASE CONTACT MELISSA CRUM, ARTISTIC AND EDUCATION ASSOCIATE , AT 216.631.2727 EXT. 210 OR MCRUM@CPTONLINE.ORG.
STEP IN THE NEWS
“Adam Seeholzer, Lexy Lattimore & Siwita Ali Shah – Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP Program 7.23.18.” Live on Lakeside. WKYC-TV. July 23 2018. Click here to watch: https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/television/liveonlakeside/adam-seeholzer-lexy-lattimore-siwita-ali-shah-cleveland-public-theatres-step-program-72318/95-576708790
Ryan, Lisa. “Theater Program Teaches Cleveland Teens Skills For Life.” The Sound of Applause. 90.3FM/WCPN Cleveland, OH. 17 August 2017. Click here to read or listen: http://www.ideastream.org/news/theater-program-teaches-cleveland-teens-skills-for-life
Kramer, Gabriel. “Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP Program for Urban Teens.” WVIZ/PBS ideastream, 10 August 2017. Click here to watch: http://www.ideastream.org/programs/ideas/cleveland-public-theatres-step-program-for-urban-teens
Simakis, Andrea. “Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP program teens explore power of art in ‘And Yet, We Shine’.” The Plain Dealer, 6 August 2017. Click here to read: http://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2017/08/cleveland_public_theatres_step_1.html
Benson, John. “Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP Class Presents “And Yet, We Shine” Across the City.” CoolCleveland, 22 July 2017. Web. Click here to read: http://coolcleveland.com/2017/07/cleveland-public-theatres-step-class-presents-yet-shine-across-city/
Goodman, Vivian. “For 22 Years, Cleveland Public Theatre Has Helped Teens Find Their Voice.” State of the Arts. 89.7FM/WKSU Kent, OH. 25 August 2016. Click here to read or listen: http://wksu.org/post/22-years-cleveland-public-theater-has-helped-teens-find-their-voice
MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF:
Cleveland City Council and the Mayor’s Office of Prevention, Intervention, and Opportunity for Youth and Young Adults; Brewer-Garrett; Dollar Bank Foundation; First Federal Lakewood; Martha Holden Jennings Foundation; David & Inez Myers Foundation, PNC Bank; Third Federal Savings & Loan; William M. Weiss Foundation
STEP IS ALSO SUPPORTED BY CPT’S SEASON SPONSORS
