Students in the YMCA of South Florida’s Teen Broadway—an enrichment literacy program focused on the arts in assisting and educating students to develop life skills, such as problem-solving, team building, collaboration, creativity, public speaking, and media production—will present Adamma The Enlightening, February 18-19. Students from the program will direct and perform in the play to provide a view into the lives of victims and survivors of human trafficking.
This play provides a dramatic retelling of stories from victims and survivors, and all Teen Broadway participants have assisted in writing, directing, producing, and set designing for live performances.
“Adamma is a modern-day version of Annie. It’s a community story that happened in 2019 that the kids chose to talk about,” said YMCA of South Florida’s Family Services Program Director Sharon Hughes. “We want to bring awareness to a huge problem in many communities.”
With an estimated 24.9 million victims globally at any given time, human traffickers are known to prey on both vulnerable minors and adults. Alarmingly, more than 57 percent of all juvenile prostitution arrests are youth of color from underserved communities. To date, Florida is ranked third with the highest human trafficking statistics behind Texas and California.
“This live production is a change maker because it provides a realistic aspect to the lives’ of victims and survivors of human trafficking,” Hughes added. “Our curated version of storytelling provides bias-free and data-driven context, oftentimes mainstream media creates a custom narrative to fit their storyline. However, this production adopts the real-life stories of real victims and survivors of human trafficking.”
The YMCA of South Florida’s Teen Broadway production team includes Hughes as creator and writer; Garrin Decembre as teen director; and Jahziah Defoe as teen assistant director.
Adamma The Enlightening will be on stage in the Victory Black Box Theatre at the L.A. Lee YMCA/Mizell Community Center (1409 NW 6th Street, Fort Lauderdale), at 2 p.m. February 18 and 19. Tickets are $10-$15. For tickets and information, click here. The performance is suitable for audience members ages 8 and older.
Reporting human trafficking is confidential. If you see something, say something by calling the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.
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