FARMINGTON – The Foothills Arts Center is inviting high school students to join the fifth annual Theater for Peace. Led by actor and theater instructor Jeri Pitcher and Foothills’ director Anne Geller, the Theater for Peace participants create and perform their own theater scenes based on issues of concern to teenagers.

The workshops will be 2:30 to 4 p.m. at Mount Blue High School starting Monday, Dec. 1. Workshops will take place Mondays and Thursdays in December and Mondays in January and early February.

Students from all western Maine high schools and home-schoolers are welcome to sign up for the program. No previous acting experience is required.

In a relaxed and friendly environment, Theater for Peace begins with theater games that establish group focus and awareness. The group learns acting and scene development techniques, such as how to make a scene believable, how to help draw the audience into the story and how to respond sensitively to each actor on stage.

Another important element will be the brainstorming and discussion sessions about issues that the students select. In past years, the group’s topics have included peer pressure, harassment, substance abuse and stereotyping. The group creates scenes that confront its selected issues. Each scene will end with questions for the audience.

Following rehearsals, the high school actors will present their scenes and lead discussion sessions in seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms at Jay, Livermore Falls and Mount Blue Middle Schools and for community groups. The performances in the middle schools will be Feb. 10 to 12 during the school day.

Since Foothills Arts Center founded Theater for Peace in 1999, 35 high school students have participated and presented their scenes to a total of 400 middle school students.

For more information and to sign up, people can contact Anne Geller at Foothills Arts Center at 778-0448 or by e-mail at [email protected] There is no charge for participating. It is funded by Foothills Arts Center as a community service.