For the first Spotlight Series of 2019 I’m joined by Josie Whittlesey, the founder and Executive Director of Drama Club. The organization started in 2013, providing theatre programming to incarcerated and court-involved young people. They bring classes into juvenile detention centers, jails and community centers throughout New York City.

Currently, Drama Club works with about 500 individual students between the ages of 10-21, using improv as their core curriculum, empowering young people to tell the stories they want to tell, in the ways in which they want to tell them.

From her previous work with Rehabilitation Through the Arts and Girls Educational & Mentoring Services, Josie has proven to be staunch advocate for those who are underserved and in need of the outlet and experience that theater provide. I caught up with her at the Drama Club office in Long Island City, where she shares how this important organization began and talks about the lives they impact in such positive ways.

Find out more about Drama Club and Josie.