INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Each week on Community Link, Carolene Mays takes a look at an organization or business that is making a positive impact on the community.

This week, Mays was joined by Georgeanna Wade with React.

In providing theatre classes for students K through 12, React helps unleash the limitless possibilities of every student in ways that are unique, exciting, and easily accessible.

Wade shares with Mays the program’s background, which started in 1976 under the name Young Actors Theatre, and how they’ve evolved in the types of performances they do.

“About a decade ago, we started doing a different type of theatre,” Wade said. “Instead of traditional scripts, we started doing devised theatre, which means we start without a script. So, all the kids that are in the room, in the rehearsal room, form what the final project will be.”

Wade also says that because of their shift to devised theatre, students have started performing more social issues-based plays. “Our mission is to create original works with youth that react to social issues of the world,” she said.

Wade also explains the theatre’s belief that “the outcome of the student outweighs the outcome of the performance,” stating that the art of learning to collaborate, finding the courage to pitch an idea, and being able to take criticism is just as valuable as the art of theatre.

She also talks about React’s upcoming performance of “Dreamland,” an original play that the troupe describes as a “call for hope in a world that seems doomed for climate catastrophe.”

“We really hope that this is a love letter to students who are struggling with eco-anxiety,” Wade said. “We are not leaving them with pat answers. We don’t solve anxiety in this play, we don’t solve the climate crisis. But what we do hope (to do) is give them an idea that through their own little individual actions and the collective community, there is hope.”

“The world is still a beautiful place that’s worth fighting for,” she concluded.

“Dreamland” opens at 7 p.m. April 5. Tickets can be purchased on React’s website.

To learn more about React, follow them on social media and watch the interview above.