‘It Gets Better’

Slow Burn Theatre reaches out the LGBTQ community.

All this week, Slow Burn Theatre Company has been hosting a workshop for local members of the LGBTQ community. The “It Gets Better Project” residency is creating songs, poems and skitsfor a show to be performed today at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

The workshop and resulting show will explore themes of bullying, self-image, tolerance and acceptance. A troupe of eight actors from the “It Gets Better Project” are facilitating the workshop.

“Slow Burn chose to partner with the ‘It Gets Better Project’ to better interact with the LGBT community,” Michael Mendillo, the theater company’s managing director, explains in a text. “In celebration of Pride Month, Slow Burn brought this troupe of artists to lead locals to create a unique performance. This workshop allows LGBT locals to learn, grow and share their stories with others.”

The Project started in 2010, when columnist Dan Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, created a YouTube video campaign assuring young people who felt bullied in school that “it gets better.” The “It Gets Better Project” performance will begin 4 p.m. today in the Mary N. Porter Riverview Ballroom at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $10. To order, call 954-462-0222 or go to BrowardCenter.org.

BROWARD CENTER/COURTESY The Slow Burn Theatre’s “It Gets Better Project” culminates in a performance of poems, songs and skits tonight at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale.