Snehal Desai grew up in a small town in rural Pennsylvania. He took swimming and tennis lessons at his local YMCA, but more importantly, he holed up in its cozy reading nook. (His mom had to drag him out for swim.) Almost every American, Desai thinks, has a YMCA story. But not every kid is necessarily there for the sports.
As the artistic director of Center Theatre Group, Desai is now overseeing a partnership with the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles (which also goes by the Center for Community Well-Being) to bring live theater to the city through a collaboration called “Every Age. Every Stage.”
“This is an opportunity for folks to get to know us at their local Y, and then for us to say, ‘Hey, actually, we would love for you to see more of what we’re doing. Come join us at the theater,’” Desai said. “And to set up an environment that feels welcoming for folks who maybe have never come to the theater or to CTG or the Music Center for the first time.”
A few planks make up this new platform: Y nights at CTG, “¡Sí Se Puede!” performances at the Y, as well as theater workshops and creative career mentorship. Beginning next year, CTG will bring theater workshops led by local professional teaching artists to YMCAs around the city. The initiative will also offer mentorship and hands-on exposure to careers in stagecraft, design and production for Y members from ages 16 to 24, and talk-backs connecting live theater to the Y’s civic leadership programs.
Y nights at CTG will allow YMCA members to access free tickets to select performances: “The Music Man” on Nov. 3, “Destiny of Desire” on Nov. 17, “Fiddler on the Roof” on Feb. 16 and “John Proctor Is the Villain” on March 23. “¡Sí Se Puede!” at the Y, on the other hand, will bring CTG’s community tour of the story of activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, to the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA on Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m.
“If you love theater, there’s a class at your local Y, and you can take that,” Desai said. “It’s all about learning to find your voice, whether you’re learning to find your voice as an actor or as a writer. For kids these days, there’s so much around health and well-being and social isolation, and what I love about theater classes is there’s an opportunity for folks of a generation to find their voice together and also interact live and in-person.”
For now the collaboration is geared toward middle and high school students, with a focus on the latter, in a few partner Y locations (not yet specified). But the hope is to expand to younger ages and all 28 Y centers across L.A.
“For folks to be lifelong theatergoers, they have to be exposed to the arts — it’s been documented, usually by 8 years old — and this allows us to do that,” Senai said. “Particularly when we’re in a time where arts education programs are being cut from a lot of our schools, so the traditional pathways of engagement to the arts are not there.”
For almost 145 years, the Y has centered well-being through physical health, but also through connection and a sense of belonging, Victor Dominguez, president and chief executive of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Partnering with Center Theatre Group brings world-class theater into our centers and opens the doors of L.A.’s greatest stages to our members. Whether it’s a family seeing their first musical, a teenager discovering a career backstage, or a grandparent stepping into an acting workshop, this collaboration is about making sure every Angeleno, at every age and every stage, has a place in the arts.”
