Madison High School Focuses on the Community with the Teen Oriented Musical, "The Lyrics Moved In"

(SANEPR.com) June 2, 2009 -- Madison Heights, MI –Madison High School will be putting on a new dramatic musical, “The Lyrics Moved in”. The play examines issues many teens face today. It focuses on the lives of a Detroit family and how it deals with current life challenges such as negativity, violence, sexuality in music, self esteem and conflict resolution. The play, which is open to the public, will be performed by the students of Madison High School (located at 915 East Eleven Mile Road, Madison Heights, MI 48071) May 15th and May 16th 2009 at 7 p.m. Admission for the play will be $5 at the door which will open at 6:30pm on performance days.
The play was written by Lisa Lapides Sawicki and David Sawicki with the help of the Madison students and Drama director, Dana Brewer. All the music featured is from the group, “Mello D’s Youth Under Construction,” (MDYUC) at www.youngpop.com) which has won four national awards. The students have been practicing most school days, doing various performance jobs such as acting, dancing, rapping, break dancing and even set design. The process has exposed the students to many important character building skills such as literacy, empathy, and teamwork.
MDYUC music CD’s, this play, and all of the youth programs are the legacy of David Sawicki, a musician and business owner, and Lisa Lapides Sawicki, a publicist, who both founded the program over 15 years ago. David and Lisa were very disturbed by the messages and lyrics in today’s music. They decided to take action and create a new lyric and rap but keep the cool rhythms and beats. It worked. Thousands of youth in Michigan have either performed MDYUC’s music, seen a performance or have been in one of the school or after school programs.
Mello-D’s “Youth Under Construction,” exists to counteract the negativity in today’s pop music and culture because its founders believe “kids deserve a better rap.” Co-owner Lisa Lapides Sawicki is overseeing the play, which has never been done in a school setting. She chose Madison High School to be the first to do the play as their students have been dealing with the issues that are relevant to it. Sawicki had a vision to reach out to the community and to make a difference. “This project is important because it will strongly impact the community and create an open dialogue about these issues between the teachers, students and their parents. Teen violence has already erupted into this region of Metro Detroit, and it’s our responsibility to take action and be part of the solution. This musical is part of that solution,” quotes Sawicki. “Kudos, to Dana Brewer for taking on such a large and important project.”
Pizza One, a Madison Heights establishment, is donating pizzas for the students’ cast party. To become a sponsor or for more information, contact Lisa Lapides Sawicki, 248-399-3311 at Lapides Publicity Giragosian, or direct emails to lisapublicity@gmail.com.