The QUESTion Project @ Theatre Arts Production Company, South Bronx

TAPCO, or the Theatre Arts Production Company School, is located in the Tremont section of the Bronx, NYC. In 2016, TAPCo was acknowledged as one of the “Best Public High Schools in America” at the Bronze level by U.S. News and World Report, and in the Huffington Post for our 100% acceptance rate into college. With a close-knit team of TAPCO teachers and administrators, we are running QUESTion Classes five days a week for the entire fall 2016 semester while working to create a school culture that embraces authentic artistic expression and values big questions.

Complimenting this, TAPCO provides a supportive, stimulating and creative culture for students to express their individuality and deepen their connection with others.  At TAPCO, the principal, dean and staff are fully dedicated to providing students with an exciting journey into big questions so that they can step forward as confident authors of their lives.

Here in the Bronx we’re faced with violence. On the streets, every problem is dealt with through violence. With the QUESTion Class we are creating a counter culture where we can look at things more deeply and not just as they appear on the surface. We are planting seeds. We have kids who have dealt with problems through violence in the past, but they are now sitting through this class and they are listening to other points of view. Where they have similar questions, they are realizing they are faced with similar difficulties so they are starting to see common ground. They may still be adversarial, but they are finding common ground. They are seeing the same experience from different points of view. There’s a feeling of not needing to accept each other, but a realization that they can at least understand each other and no longer be at odds.   John Sandrowicz, Dean TACPO, South Bronx

Someone from my school went to the QUESTion Class in another school and came back really excited.  It is imperative that students and school community engage with the larger questions in life, giving oneself the freedom to ponder deeply without rigidity and giving oneself time to do so. It gives participants a grounding and focus on what it means to be individually and collectively successful. We need to couple our wisdom and experience with that of young people to create a better world and confront what exists that is not good. There is a real urgency to this. Ronald Link, Principal, Theater Arts, Production Company High School