The Theatre Askew Youth Performance Experience (TAYPE) is an exciting new after-school theatre program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) teens in New York City.

	The Mission   The mission of TAYPE is first to provide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) teens a forum for creative expression in which they can build community, empower themselves, and experience leadership, teamwork, and achievement.  In addition, we are committed to teaching theatrical skills and introducing LGBTQ youth to the New York theatre world, including working theatre artists who can inspire, guide, and serve as role models.

	The Program   In winter 2005, TAYPE partnered with the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School, as a ten-week after-school program, meeting for one 2-hour workshop.   HMI’s POP Arts Program is, designed to foster peer-to-peer  leadership skills for selected HMI client interns. Through dance, music, and theatre satellites, POP Arts participants work  together to create an original HIV-prevention piece to perform for other LGBTQ youth.   TAYPE workshops were designed to facilitate the theatre component of POP Arts through helpful and inventive theatre  exercises, games and skills-building, as well as through visits and group exercises with local working theatre artists (writers, actors, choreographers).  The program culminated in a final POP Arts production, Just To Be Safe, shown at HMI, Theatre Row, and Wings Theater.  The TAYPE participants performed original theatre pieces that they had crafted throughout the course of the program.  Theatre  Askew would like to thank The Hetrick-Martin Institute and the POP Arts Program for their partnership. We look forward to building on this incredible start.   In the second half of 2005, TAYPE has partnered with viBe Theatre Experience, to produce Thirsty, a solo piece written and performed by Genna Miller, a gifted 18-year-old who promises to be an exciting new voice in the theatre.  Thirsty will be performed in 2006.  Check this website for more information about the project.

	About HMI   Since its founding in 1975, The Hetrick-Martin Institute has grown from a small, volunteer-led grass-roots advocacy organization into a leading provider of social support and programming for youth of all orientations.  HMI Youth Members, ranging in age from 12 to 20, come from 172 zip codes throughout all of New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area. HMI's flagship program, The Harvey Milk High School is the first and largest of its kind in the world, now completely funded by and run under the auspices of the New York City Department of Education.  Whereas 28% of self-identified gay teens drop out of school annually, The Harvey Milk High School is proud of its 95% graduation rate and 60% college acceptance rate.

	Links Read about TAYPE in Time Out NY.  Click here. For more information about The Hetrick-Martin Institute, please visit www.hmi.org. To make a contribution to Theatre Askew and support TAYPE, please click here. For more on viBe Theater Experience, visit www.vibetheater.org. To read an article from Genre Magazine by our former Education Director, Julio Vincent Gambuto, click here.

	About the Director   Brian Simons is an actor, producer and educator. He holds a BFA in Drama from NYU and, as an alumnus of NYU’s secondary education teacher training program, he has taught high school and college level students acting, public speaking, improvisation and theatre skills in the New York City School System and at the National School of Theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His acting credits include international, national and regional tours performing in plays such as Driving Miss Daisy, Don Juan and Murder at Café Noir. New York acting credits include a self-penned performance work on queer identity, The Life of Harry (Dixon Place), The E.M. Forster Story (HOT Festival of Queer Theatre), Bent (Flatiron Playhouse), and Shakespearean roles as diverse as Hamlet, Richard III and Caliban.  His screenplay, Unlikely Cowboys was a New Century Writers Award Finalist and his work-in-progress solo play Queer in the USA was work-shopped for an enthusiastic audience in New York City. Brian was a producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for three years and has produced more than 100 other events including performances, promotions, and benefits for not-for-profit arts and LGBT service organizations, as well as corporate clients. He serves on the advisory board of The Faux-Real Theatre Company and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association.