Brenda Cotto and Gloria Celaya, New World playwrights, conduct workshops with New Visions youth and staff in playwriting, acting, staging and set design. They also guide and support each production from start to finish. The process for each production, which runs 30 to 45 minutes in length, is to talk about personal and social issues that concern the youth and to choose the one that most interests them. Youth research the topic by talking to individuals in the community, arranging guest speakers from community agencies such as the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and reading articles. The group then brainstorms ideas for characters, plot and message.
Youth choose and make their own costumes and help choose the music.
Besides providing theater training, New World provides opportunities for New Visions youth to meet theater professionals and see professional theater companies in action. In the drama Dreams , the message is how badly teen pregnancy interrupts a girl's dreams for herself. Iris, the heroine, may continue to pursue her goals but it will be much harder. Dreams also addresses the reality of going to college, that it's not all fun, that you have to leave some things behind, often including friends. Finally, the play casts a skeptical eye in general at the promises of success this society makes.