When audiences have gathered in Cleveland neighborhoods this summer to watch Cleveland Public Theatre's (CPT’s) Student Theatre Enrichment Program (STEP), they aren’t just seeing a free play—they're experiencing an original production created by the young artists themselves.

“Getting Back to Once Upon a Time” opened on Thursday, July 23 at eight outdoor Cleveland locations and runs through this Sunday, Aug. 2.

The technical theater crew members build sets.The original production explores how storytelling, imagination, and community can bring people together, despite differing perspectives.

Founded in 1994, STEP is the longest-running arts-based workplace development program in Cleveland. The summer youth program brings together young artists aged 14 to 19 to create, produce, and tour an original play while gaining hands-on experience in performance and technical theater.

"[The students] create, craft, write, produce and tour an original play," says Melissa Crum, CPT's director of education.

Unlike many youth theater programs, STEP participants are treated as professional artists and compensated for their work throughout the summer.

"Our mission is twofold," Crum says. "It's part work job training... but simultaneously, it's really about being able to lift voices and make sure that they have agency to know that what they have to say is important."

Crum says the program gives students the opportunity to discover the value of their own voices while sharing their stories with others.

"They have something really beautiful that they can share with our Cleveland community," she says.

An original story built by students
Unlike traditional theater productions that start with a completed script, STEP students help create the play they work on from the ground up.

Instead of arriving to rehearsals with prepared lines and dialogue, students spend weeks journaling, improvising, and collaborating with STEP’s teaching artists to gradually shape each scene. The performers are credited as co-writers—helping shape the final production alongside the creative team.

This year's STEP program includes 29 performers who develop and bring the narrative to life onstage, and nine technical theater students who help build sets, prepare props, manage sound, and support each performance as the production travels throughout Cleveland.

“Getting Back to Once Upon a Time” encourages audiences to rediscover imagination while exploring familiar stories from new perspectives.

STEP program manager and director Avery LaMar Pope says the production asks audiences to consider what happens when information begins to overshadow imagination.

"I think there becomes an issue when the deconstruction gets in the way of delight," Pope says, adding that the play invites audiences to question familiar stories while remembering the joy they can inspire.

“’Getting Back to Once Upon a Time’ is basically the process and the practice of finding a world where all of these perspectives and all of this information can still exist,” he explains, “while also holding even more space for the imagination that I think brings people together more often than information does."

Finding confidence through collaboration
For 16-year-old Jayla Alvarado, STEP offers a theater experience unlike anything she had experienced before.

The technical theater crew members build sets."I've learned to move my body and show more, physically, instead of just saying a bunch of stuff," Alvarado says of her experience. "We built it together and then we created together."

Returning participant 17-year-old Caesar Diaz says one of the program's greatest strengths is that students are encouraged to bring their own perspectives into the creative process.

"Our characters are based on our personality," Diaz says. "I really enjoy that."

Both students say the collaborative environment allows everyone to contribute—regardless of previous theater experience.

Diaz adds that performing outdoors has become one of his favorite aspects of the program.

"A stranger can walk by and be intrigued by it and never knew they would like theater," he observes. "I love that we're doing it outside."

While “Getting Back to Once Upon a Time” encourages audiences to reflect on storytelling and imagination, both Alvarado and Diaz say the lasting impact of STEP extends well beyond the performance itself.

"When I first came in here, I was very closed and reserved," Alvarado says. "Now I wish I opened up sooner because I'm finding out I have connections with a bunch of people."

CPT education director Crum says creating those opportunities for connection is central to the program's mission.

"We really truly believe that everybody in their soul is already an artist," she says. "It's about giving a space where folks can explore their creative side."

'Getting Back to Once Upon a Time' performers in rehearsal.Bringing stories to the community
Rather than asking people to travel to Cleveland Public Theatre for a show, STEP brings performances directly into neighborhoods throughout Cleveland, making theater more accessible while also allowing students to share their work with the broader community.

For program director Pope, the production is also an invitation for audiences to reconnect through storytelling.

"People should come see ‘Getting Back to Once Upon a Time’ because I believe it will remind them to exist in a world with community,” he says, “and to imagine a world where their community expands.”

“Getting Back to Once Upon a Time” is a free, family-friendly, 60-minute original production incorporating theater, music, spoken word, and dance. The show runs through Sunday, Aug. 2.

Remaining performances are:

• Tuesday, July 28, 6 p.m.: Outhwaite Homes Community Center, 2452 E. 46th St. at Quincy Ave. in Woodland.
• Wednesday, July 29, 7 p.m.: Halloran Park, 3550 W. 117th St. in West Park.
• Thursday, July 30, 6 p.m.: Riverside Park Estates Community Center, 17800 Parkmount Ave. in Kamms Corners.
• Saturday, Aug. 1, 1 p.m.: Romanian Cultural Garden, Cleveland Cultural Gardens, 870 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., University Circle.
• Sunday, Aug. 2, 7 p.m.: Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave.