Meet the middle schoolers who uncovered oral histories of Meacham Park

This past September, the Meacham Park Celebration took to the stage at The Rep. Featuring a small ensemble of performers, the show featured paintings, poetry and theatre based on the real stories of residents of Meacham Park – the historic St. Louis neighborhood that is now a part of Kirkwood.

That performance was the culmination of more than a year of work, beginning with an Audience (R)Evolution Grant from the Doris Duke Foundation via the Theatre Communications Gorup that united The Rep with Webster Arts and Springboard to Learning. Our joint project, entitled "Connecting Community through the Arts," aimed to bring the stories of Meacham Park to life through visual and performance arts.

And kicking it all off was a group of journalism students at Nipher Middle School, who spent their school year interviewing Meacham Park residents past and present. The stories they transcribed formed the basis for amazing works of art that would later appear on The Rep stage.

We've just released a 15-minute documentary showing how those students and residents connected, and the many heartfelt lessons that happened along the way. Watch it below to get a sense of how this fantastic collaboration came to be!