Students finding their voices

By Michael D’Onofrio, Managing Editor
“Has this ever happen to you?” asked Julia Lawrence of a group of middle-school students. “You lose your dog ... and then your friend tells you he just got a new dog, but it is your dog!”
The only solution, said the seventh-grader — like a confident saleswoman — is to purchase a Puppy Finder, a fail-safe device that will locate a dog every time.
While possibly serving a real need, this faux commercial was a skit thought up and acted out by students in the new Raise Your Voice program at the West Orange Public Library.
The skit was one of a multitude of theater games that Robin Irwin and her husband Erick Buckley used to challenge a dozen students at the second week of the program on Monday evening.
The theater program is a collaboration of the library and the local theater Luna Stage, designed to give students an outlet for
their imaginations.
“I saw a synergy between the library and Luna Stage,” said Irwin, director of education and outreach for Luna Stage. “This is a place of ideas, knowledge and it’s integral to a community’s cultural experience,” she said of the library, “and so is a theater.”
While the program may be grounded in theater, Irwin said its effect on the students extends far beyond that. Arts education allows students not only to draw
See RAISE, Page 8