insideOUT, Out Youth’s Digital Storytelling Project, is a program designed to teach youth creative and innovative ways to tell their own personal stories or the stories of their communities.

The program begins with a focus on creative writing, collages, improvisation and storyboarding. All of these methods of expression are used as tools to create stories with the intent of using each person’s individual perspective as a way to contribute to community development, dialogue and education. With digital storytelling, youth can place themselves in leadership roles by calling community attention to issues related to their lives.

Through the program, youth also become familiar with video technology and are encouraged to film their stories at different locations throughout the community. Each story is edited together, and shared among group members and with the community.

Making a digital story teaches youth teamwork and how to express themselves through artistic expression.

insideOut meets from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday at Out Youth. For more information about this program, please contact Out Youth at 512-419-1233.

About Megan Alrutz

Megan Alrutz is an assistant professor of applied theatre and community cultural engagement. Her creative and scholarly interests focus on applied theatre and theatre for young audiences, including school-based, arts-infusion and community-embedded performance; devising and directing theatre and digital storytelling to explore issues of voice and identity; and developing new work that challenges ways of seeing/knowing and inspires dialogue.