On January 22, 2026, the Texas Tech University School of Theatre & Dance joined the Youth SUMMIT—Students Uniting to Make Meaningful Influences Together—for a day shaped by conversation, creativity, and care. Guided by the SUMMIT’s mission to partner with schools to help prevent substance and alcohol use and violence within our communities, the event unfolded as an invitation: to notice what is happening around us, to listen closely, and to use theatre as a way of making meaning together.

The day began not with a performance, but with a process. Graduate students Tori Denike and Destiny Dunn, alongside Dr. Mark Charney and Dr. George Comiskey (retired from TTU’s Center of Students in Addiction Recovery), led two interactive workshops for high school students, introducing Plays in Action, a flexible theatre model designed to help young people explore real issues in their own communities. From the start, the emphasis was clear—this work was not about being “good” at theatre or finding the right answers. It was about paying attention.

Students were asked to name what they see and feel happening around them: moments of pressure, silence, uncertainty, or support. Rather than focusing on individuals, they talked about situations and patterns, what tends to go unspoken, and where those tensions show up in everyday life. From there, participants were guided to find small, specific moments—a hallway exchange, a car ride home, a conversation that didn’t quite happen—and explore them through brief writing and improvisation.

Throughout the workshops, students were reminded that observation was enough. Personal disclosure was never required. Theatre, the facilitators emphasized, is simply a way of asking questions out loud, and sometimes listening to what emerges in the quiet.

Later in the day, that same spirit carried into the keynote presentation, Plays on Tap led by student representatives from the School of Theatre & Dance alongside Dr. Charney. A collaboration between TTU’s Center of Students in Addiction Recovery and SOTD, Plays on Tap brings together students in theatre and students in recovery to create short performance pieces grounded in real and observed experiences.

“We are members of a youth social project for students in theatre arts and students in recovery to come together to create a festival of plays,” Dr. Charney shared. “We aim to bring our community into the powerful experience of informed drama.”

The program featured three staged readings developed through collaboration between TTU students in recovery and theatre students. Performers included Robyn Conner, Tori Denike, Destiny Dunn, Justin Gonzales, Tayler Roberston, and Ayanna Tayler. Each piece offered a glimpse into the complexities surrounding substance use and addiction—moments shaped by peer pressure, care, fear, and the longing to be understood. Rather than delivering messages, the readings described the messiness of lived experience, inviting the audience to sit inside moments where no easy answers exist.

“We turn life into art that ignites compassion,” Dr. Charney said. “These shows bring people together because they dramatically depict a social problem that affects us all.”

Following the readings, audience members were invited into a talkback with the actors, Dr. Charney, and Dr. George Comiskey, one of Plays on Tap’s founding organizers. These conversations extended the work beyond the stage, modeling what it looks like to speak with honesty, listen without judgment, and remain open to complexity.

By the end of the Youth SUMMIT, students left with more than tools or techniques. They left having experienced theatre as a shared practice, one that values curiosity over certainty and connection over conclusions. For the School of Theatre & Dance, the day served as a reminder that when theatre listens closely to lived experience, it becomes more than performance. It becomes a way of being in community.