"This is not my place, this is not my home…"
Kaaliyah, shelter resident


"I feel like this is the place."
Travis, shelter resident



Two years ago, Project: Humanity brought a young, middle class playwright into one of Toronto's roughest neighbourhoods to conduct on-camera interviews with the residents of a youth shelter. That striking encounter is THE MIDDLE PLACE. Written by Andrew Kushnir and directed by Alan Dilworth, this documentary play has five actors portray 16 remarkable youth, 3 caseworkers and one well-intentioned outsider.

Contemporary in content, form and aesthetic,THE MIDDLE PLACE deconstructs both an obscure part of Toronto and the very familiar stigma surrounding youth and the homeless... ...The play has been crafted from over 400 pages of transcribed video interviews and has us hearing from these young people – in their own words and with startling candour – about their sense of identity, their relationships, their methods of survival, and most potently, their tenacious hope. Since its first outing at the Toronto's SummerWorks Festival in 2009, these voices have connected emphatically with diverse audiences ranging from at-risk youth to general adult audiences, high school youth to youth practitioners.


For more information about Project: Humanity, please visit www.projecthumanity.ca


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THE MIDDLE PLACE is the product of The De-Shelter Initiative – a two-fold community outreach program devised by Project: Humanity in 2007. This ongoing initiative has artists leading drama workshops for shelter youth in an effort to bolster their confidence, communication skills, and above all, give them an opportunity to de-stress. Concurrently, an artist is afforded the opportunity to develop a piece of theatre inspired by the interface between youth and theatre practitioners. THE MIDDLE PLACE is the inaugural project emerging from this community work.