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For White, the lessons of confidence built within AACT stand out as one of the greatest skills acquired from her involvement with the program.

“The theatrical training at AACT is top notch, but, there’s so much more to it than what’s taught,” White said. “You learn lessons you can carry throughout your life.”

In the nearly twenty years since Clark founded AACT, the children of inner-city Milwaukee are still surrounded by violence, poverty and crime. According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau, more than 40 percent of all children in inner-city Milwaukee live in poverty, the fourth worst in the nation. A Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel report in May 2007 revealed the number of Milwaukee Public School students expelled for violence and drug and weapon possession has doubled over the past five years.

Matthew Wisniewski/Curb
After a successful practice, students join together to cheer one another on.

“As an urban theater in inner-city Milwaukee, many [AACT students] live in rough neighborhoods and deal with violence and other stuff daily,” Martin said. “The theater provide[s] an escape.”

“Everyone comes to AACT with a story. Some of these are the saddest stories you’ll ever hear,” White said. “But personally, I can assure you that when you get on that stage, people are supporting you. For three to four hours, regardless of what’s going on at home or outside, you get to be a kid and to do something you love to do. This feeling…the service of it, you cannot accurately put it into words.”

Sisters Tarneshia Harrel, 13, and Amirah Graham, 10, recognize the service of AACT’s nurturing environment.

“Coming [to AACT] keeps you away from, like, gangs and stuff when you get older, and it keeps you away from negative people because the people you hang around is how you’re gonna end up some day,” Graham said.

“Kids do have big dreams, and this is a place where your dreams could be fulfilled and you could succeed in something,” Harrel said. “People might put you down, but AACT tell[s] you that ‘yes, I can do this. I am going to do this.’”

Even though AACT provides a valuable resource to the Milwaukee community, it is one that Mark Plumb, father of AACT student, Shelby Plumb, said remains unrecognized by the public.

“[AACT] and all organizations in [Milwaukee Youth Arts Center] are cool,” Plumb said. “You have this place in the middle of downtown [Milwaukee] in an area where most comfortable suburban people would never go…and all this is going on that you don’t see.”

“AACT offers the community a way to showcase our children and our children’s talents,” Martin said. “AACT creates a source of community pride, direction and hope. It is a place where young people can come to blossom.”

Although AACT has experienced growing pains over the years to keep the program up and running, its mission continues to live on today as students make their after-school pilgrimage to the Sondheim room to gather for evening practice. This year, Clark is teaming up with the Milwaukee Public School system to offer scholarships for students to attend AACT. Additionally, next year marks the beginning of a five-year musical series, “The Legacy of African American Women and Men of Courage,” which explores African American history. The first of these musical productions, “The Gift,” will begin in February 2008.

Clark said she looks forward to her students presenting the positive messages of African American history to the public next year and for years to come. It is a message Clark dedicates to the memory of her young nephews.