Around the world theater is widely used as a tool for community empowerment. Theater professionals work with grassroots groups in order to create short plays about community issues. Community members then perform the plays at meetings and rallies, inspiring people to organize and speak out against injustice in their societies.

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The Mime Troupe is famous for creating political satire with music. We do not do pantomime. We do mime in the ancient sense of "to imitate, to mimic." Our work is grounded in the American Melodrama and Commedia dell'Arte traditions. We use larger the life characters, fantasy, and a strong story line with an avowed point of view. The goal of the Mime Troupe education programs are to teach the tools and put the power of creation into the hands of the community.

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The SFMT Educational Programs promote artistic expression, discipline, and cross-cultural understanding as creative alternatives to drugs, gangs, prejudice, hostility and violence for youth and students. Our programs are founded on the belief that youth in our society grow up lacking the attention and respect they need to love and respect themselves and to understand each other. The workshop experience fosters an increase in the participant's self-confidence, expands their world view, and leaves them inspired to continue using art as a means of personal and political expression.

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