The R.Ed.I. Arts and Education Foundation Prevention Theater Show is based on a concept which was tested in the early nineties. The concept was created in part by Kimberly Farah, Richard Odell and Ben Vereen. Together the original creators, all performing artists and/or arts educators and advocates, saw an avenue for the collaboration of children and the performing arts that would be highly effective as a catalyst for social and personal change as it related to society and to the individual as a whole.
Society and young people at that time, being no different than today, were faced with challenging issues such as violence, drug and alcohol abuse, physical abuse, gang violence, sexuality, peer pressure, racism, rape, and low self esteem. The original show focused on providing young people with positive solutions when they were faced with these developmental challenges.
The program brought together children from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds with diverse cultural roots and created a live musical theater show using music, drama and dance to tell their real life stories, thus creating prevention theater. The nature of the authenticity of the show and the fact that the production was performed by young people, made for a powerful performance that ended up being performed and effecting the lives of over one million young people. The original show expanded to 95 performances a year in a small target geographic sector of the United States.
The original show was requested to be performed for schools systems, community programs, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, conferences both youth and adult oriented, Snowflake organizations, the Dare program, and hundreds more. With the success of this show, R.Ed.I. was born. R.Ed.I. is modeled after the philosophy, mission and success of this program. Plans for a national affiliate program are slated for development.