“Even the most oppositional and low functioning patients participate due to the talent and skills of this dedicated group of people. I highly recommend the program that Hip Pocket provides to the youth in our community.”
Carolyn Presnall, Director of Psychiatry, Cook Children’s Medical Center

Hip Outreach Programming Experience (H.O.P.E.)

Hip Pocket Theatre is acclaimed for its dedication to a unique vision of theatrical staging. But just as important is the quiet determination of the Theatre to make a difference in the lives of our area young people. Hip Pocket Theatre continues to have one of the strongest and most diverse outreach programs in this region. Over the past twenty-three years, the theatre has provided hundreds of hours of workshops and performances through outreach programming in Tarrant County for a wide variety of children and adults. Hip Pocket Theatre shares relationships with a wide variety of organizations serving our young people.

H.O.P.E. continues to sustain its many successful collaborative outreach projects among Cook Children’s Medical Center, JPS Health Network/Trinity Springs Pavilion, Daggett Elementary and Middle School, Bass Performance Hall, Arlington Museum of Art, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Imagination Celebration, Latin Arts Association, Kimbell Art Museum, Samaritan House, and our new literacy collaboration with the North Texas Regional Library System.

Creative Expression Workshops at Cook Children’s Medical Center and JPS Health Network/Trinity Springs Pavilion engage troubled adolescents in activities and exercises that teach them to express themselves in an appropriate, honest manner. This is extremely important for this group of young people due to the problems that they currently face. These adolescents are dealing with severe mental illness, behavior problems, drug problems, and family crises. Paricipants may have Bi-Polar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Major Depression, pervasive developmental disorders such as Autism or Asperger’s Disease, or may be addicted to alcohol, illegal drugs, and/or inhalants. Many have never been taught or allowed to express the emotions that they are feeling. These workshops teach them how to do this in a healthy way. The children come away having learned communication techniques and coping skills that they are able to demonstrate to hospital staff.

Theatre artists are in partnership with mental health workers and counselors to enhance the in and out patient care of emotionally handicapped, chemically-dependent, and abused youth. Healthcare professionals are able to evaluate participants behavior during and after workshops to discern their stabilization and growth. The hospitalized youth earn points for their participation toward privileges and their eventual release.

The classes begin with a series of one-hour sessions towards building self-confidence and self-esteem through participation in exercises and activities based on acting and theater games. These classes then segue into specific theater games and activities designed to encourage creative thinking and problem-solving skills. These consist primarily of theater-based activities, and include mask making, puppetry, and storytelling.

Cowtown Puppetry Festival workshops offer a variety of constituencies the opportunity to work alongside nationally acclaimed puppeteers in the creation and performance stages of puppetry. “The exciting thing is to create a puppet out of just anything and give it personality…you discover creatures in your imagination that live with and around you.” -Lake Simons, HPT Artist In Residence

Workshops focus on pageantry puppets, found-object puppets, and bun-raku style puppetry. Workshops culminate in a performance usually opened to the general public.

In other programs H.O.P.E. targets literacy and developing After School programming that suits the interest of a changing youth population. These programs partner with the North Texas Regional Library System and the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Worth. All H.O.P.E. programming is recognized by city and state organizations as unique and meritorious programs.

Hip Pocket Theatre Outreach Programming contributes to this community through collaborations with several community museums, theatres, school districts, community centers, and hospitals while continuing to pursue new
collaborations. Through a focus on discovering new ways to communicate with every person in the community HPT continues the exploration and expansion that began over 29 years ago.