Since its inception five years ago, First Generation Ensemble, the youth-focused arm of Springfield’s social justice-inspired theater company Performance Project, has worked with area teens to create, develop and present performances in which the young adults “claim a public voice in their communities, and beyond,” their website reads. Their work “is rooted in the belief that our cultural legacies and family histories are sources of strength as well as struggle, as we shape our own lives, our communities, and our futures.”
First Generation’s newest production, fo n’ ale (Haitian Creole for “we must go”), which debuted last weekend at Springfield College’s Fuller Auditorium and takes the stage at Hampshire College this Saturday, uses dance, music (compositions by Charles Neville), and multiple languages (English, Spanish, Amharic, Creole, Nepali and Kirundi) to tell the personal stories of its performers.
Sept. 29, 4 p.m., Hampshire College, 893 West St., Amherst, (413) 374-4938, www.performanceproject.org.
