This group of Baton Rouge artists will go global to perform at a popular festival in Scotland

Ivy Roberts didn't talk much at first.

To be honest, she was a little scared, and who could blame her? She was the only kid in the group of 13 making random trips to the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center in Baton Rouge, which made her feel like an outsider. One could say she was on the fringes.

But time has a way of changing things, and Roberts not only found her niche within the group, she's become its leading lady.

This isn't a metaphorical scenario. Roberts has, indeed, stepped into the leading role of Sarah in "Soundscapes," a drama the Arts Council's regional youth theater program, the BRIDGES Project, will perform at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

Fringe is the largest and most prestigious theater festival in the world. And though the BRIDGES Project won't be the first Baton Rouge-based group to attend, it will be the first with no affiliation to a high school or college.

"LSU has been sending a group over there for years," said Chris Adams, the Arts Council's director of technical operations and coordinator of the BRIDGES Project. "We are actually the first non-high school to be offered this opportunity."

Adams previously has taught theater at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. 

"I've realized as an educator that there are lots of times schools aren't interested in this for whatever reason, either economic status or low arts interest," he said. "But we still have a handful of students that are interested in participating in this festival, and I started thinking, 'What if we took a larger geographic approach to this?'"

The BRIDGES Project

So, Adams and the Arts Council developed the BRIDGES Project with the idea of linking Louisiana through theater. These links are bridges connecting students through theater, hence the name BRIDGES Project. Then he opened the program up to high school students in the arts council's 10-parish area: Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupée, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, West Feliciana and West Baton Rouge.

Then the Arts Council hosted the Louisiana Arts Summit last October, and word spread throughout the state. The BRIDGES Project received more than 100 applications statewide.

The list was whittled down to 13 students representing Baton Rouge Magnet High School, East Ascension High School in Gonzales, Jewel Sumner in Kentwood, Lutcher High School and Hanson Memorial High School in Franklin.

A trip to Shakespeare's home venue

Adams began meeting with the students last November.

"So, we're using this as a model, and then we're going to hand this model off to the American High School Theatre Festival, which will disseminate it around the country," Adams said. "We've created a successful model in how they can do this."

And it was the American High School Theatre Festival that selected the BRIDGES Project to perform in Edinburgh. 

After eight months of meetings and rehearsals that were split between Baton Rouge and Franklin, Adams, his cast and the Arts Council staff left for Scotland on Friday for two weeks of promoting and performing their play. Shell Corp. is funding the trip for the entire group, and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor has officially proclaimed BRIDGES participants as Louisiana Ambassadors.

The first three days of the trip will be spent in London, where students will watch productions in the Globe Theatre — Shakespeare's home venue — and theaters on London's West End.

After that, it's to Edinburgh, where they'll not only perform but interact with other theater groups and fans while handing out flyers and other promotional materials to try to lure audiences to their production.

It's all a part of the festival experience, which is also minimal when it comes to sets and costumes.

"The Fringe Festival is very much like guerrilla warfare," Adams said. "You just sort of pack the very few things that you need, and that's it. There are no fancy trappings of theater. You know, there are really only three things that I ever think we need to do theater: You need the story, you need someone to tell the story and someone to listen to the story. And we're going to provide this."

So, props are minimal, as are costumes. But music by Baton Rouge-based Grammy and Emmy award-winning composer Michael Esneault will be plentiful.

"He's created an amazing soundscape for us, which is the name of the play," Adams said.

A two-year journey becomes reality

Roberts, 14, will enter her sophomore year at Kentwood High School in the fall. Initially, she was nervous about joining the BRIDGES Project.  

"When I went to the first rehearsal, it was really scary for me," she said. "Everyone kind of already knew each other, and I was scared I wasn't going to make any friends. I just didn't really connect with anyone until the start of rehearsals in July. I think it was because we all went out to go eat together and started talking. And I think I am good friends with most people in the cast now."

Roberts, along with her fellow cast members, were required to audition for the project. After that, they were assigned parts with Roberts standing center stage as a teen art student with synesthesia.

"This is a new piece, a lovely play by Claudia Haas and Sarah Grace Kraning, and it's really Sarah's story," Adams said of her character. "Sarah has synesthesia, and she likens it to having dyslexia."

Synesthesia is a neurological condition where stimulation of one sense, such as hearing, can involuntarily activate another sense, such as sight, causing the individual to see colors, shapes or other sensory perceptions.

The condition causes problems between Sarah and her peers. She feels like a freak and becomes a loner until her classmate Tim, played by Tristan Olivier, reveals that he, too, has the condition. Olivier, 18, graduated from Lutcher High School in May and plans to enter Northwestern State University in Natchitoches in the fall, where he'll major in theater.

"Tony also has synesthesia, and he chooses to hide it," Olivier said. "The reason is, during his childhood, Tony allowed himself to be expressive, and he chose to wear his favorite color, which was orange. And it got him beat up. So now he wears only black and tries to go unnoticed."

Olivier jumped at the chance to be a part of the BRIDGES Project, an opportunity he might not have had through his school.

Also in the group is Sara Milton, 18, a recent graduate from East Ascension High School in Gonzales and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She's planning on majoring in theatre at Drake University in Iowa.

"I met Chris at a table read for a show that I was doing at the time, and he was talking about the festival with one of my teachers," she said. "My teacher looked over at me and said, 'This is a big deal.' This seemed like a really like crazy deal, and I wanted to experience it."

Then there's 17-year-old Mattie Judice, who will be a senior at Hanson Memorial High School in Franklin in the fall. She's joined by 16-year-old Hanson High junior Johnae Herbert.

Both love acting and also wanted a chance at experiencing the Fringe Festival.

"This project has been a two-year journey for the Arts Council," Adams said. "Now it's become a reality."