The Dickens Project was thrilled to hear about the 2011 steampunk production of A Christmas Carol, put together and performed by the student-artists of the Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) Theater Workshop at the University of Southern California. The play used music, dance, zombies, and elements of steampunk to turn Dickens's 1843 classic into an exciting performance that became newly accessible to both students and audiences.
Jacqueline Barrios, friend of the Dickens Project and teacher in residence at NAI, reported that the most exciting aspect of working on such a production is seeing how students respond to literature in the dramatic form. "They're not just reading about it but they are in it," Barrios said.
USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative is a rigorous, seven-year pre-college enrichment program designed to prepare low-income neighborhood students for admission to a college or university. "NAI really is a lifeline in this neighborhood," Barrios said. "It takes students who normally would not have even the dream of college and then makes it a reality."
Since its inception in 1997, NAI has graduated more than 640 students from the neighborhood with a 99% college-going rate. The program has a high school graduation rate of 100%.
