Up with People

This article is about an organization and its performances. For other uses, see Up with People (disambiguation).

Up with People (UWP) is an international education organization founded in 1965 by J. Blanton Belk. Up With People is best known for their musical performances by international casts consisting of 70–100 students from, on average, 20 countries. The main components of the Up with People program are international participants, traveling the world, host families, performing arts, community service and global education.

Up with People tours with "casts" of young people (ages 18–29) who travel for one or two semesters of 5–6 months each, to communities on at least three continents.^{[citation needed]} Along with performing the show, cast members participate in volunteer activities and assist local organizations as a way to give back to the communities that host them. Currently the organization has two casts traveling each year, one beginning in January and the other in July. The one-semester tour format began in 2004 when Up with People re-opened its doors after ceasing operations in 2000. Prior to that time there were on average five casts touring. Each traveled for one year.

Up with People has a long history which includes large numbers of participants, performances, and audience members. Since 1965, 20 million people in 38 countries worldwide, have seen Up with People performances, 3 million hours of community service have been provided, and 450,000 families have hosted cast members in their homes. There are over 20,000 UWP alumni in 79 countries.

These numbers keep growing every six months.

History

The 1965 debut roster featured a cast of 140 volunteers performing at a summer conference of Moral Re-Armament (MRA) on Mackinac Island, Michigan. MRA, a controversial Christian spiritual group founded by Rev. Frank Buchman in 1938 as an outgrowth of the earlier Oxford Group (OG), continues to operate under the name Initiatives of Change. MRA produced many plays and shows in the early years to promote its message; the performers were mostly adults.

The Executive Director of Moral Re-Armament in the mid-1960s, J. Blanton Belk, described MRA at that time as an "expeditionary force from all faiths and races engaged in a race with time to modernize the character and purpose of man. It is love of home, homeland, and humanity. It endorses absolute moral standards as a compass in personal and national life. It is the firm conviction that enough God-loving men and women can be found who, by example and dedication, will provide leadership whose aim is to right what is wrong in the world..." Belk left MRA in 1968 to found Up with People. The current Up with People organization has had no ties to MRA for more than 45 years and has no connection with "Initiatives of Change".

Young people from many countries were represented in the performance of "Sing-Out 65". The cast of Sing-Out 65 traveled to Japan at the invitation of the Prime Minister, with cast members staying in private homes, including the homes of members of parliament. The cast performed on Japanese television and on the Kabuki Stage in Tokyo. Traveling throughout the country from the island of Hokkaido, in the north, to Tokyo and by train to Kobe, the cast then took a ferry to South Korea. In South Korea the cast performed at military facilities and visited the Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom. Sing Out Asia was formed from the visits of the US national casts and several albums were recorded from Sing Out Asia.

Back in the U.S., the cast became "Sing-Out 66". The show toured around the country, attracting volunteers and leading to the formation of three Up with People casts (A, B, and C). These multiple casts sang and performed for audiences around the world, including mainland U.S. and Hawaii, Canada, Europe, Central, South America, and Japan. Training and recruitment festivals were held at a deactivated army base, Fort Slocum, on David's Island off New Rochelle, New York, for several summers in the late-1960s. A doctor or nurse usually traveled with the troupe as well as a tutor for the kids still in high school, who took instruction during the day. Older members performed promotional duties, matinee assemblies, and small medley-shows and did venue and stage set-up for the full (usually evening) show.

In 1968, the name was officially changed to "Up with People" and incorporated as a non-profit organization with no ties to MRA. Up with People's relationship to local "Sing Out" casts waned in the late 1960s and finally broke affiliation with the Sing-Out Program in 1968. Without the support of UWP, the local Sing-Outs across the country began to fade. A loose confederation of Sing-Out groups, by the name of National Action Council (NAC), formed in 1971. NAC conferences, held three times a year, allowed the groups to share songs and regain a common spirit. NAC was the forerunner of the still-existent People International, Inc. (PII).

Over the years, Up with People played in diverse venues, including universities, dozens of military bases, high schools, hockey arenas, race tracks, the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, DAR Hall, Waikiki Shell, Royal Albert Hall, numerous TV Specials, National Conventions for Republicans and Democrats, the Air Force Academy, and many more. In 1974, Up with People spent the summer performing at Expo '74, the international World's Fair in Spokane, Washington, and in 1976, they performed the National Anthem at the Indianapolis 500. Most notably, from 1976 to 1986, Up with People performed in four Super Bowl halftime shows, more than any other performer.

Faced with dire finances, Up with People's Board of Directors voted in December 2000 to suspend operations. The organization had some problems in Denmark, where people strongly disagreed with the price-quality ratio. While it appeared to be the end of the popular upbeat performance and service group, many approaches to re-organization were explored. In 2004, Up with People re-launched as UWP's WorldSmart Leadership Program, and soon after reverted to their original brand as "Up with People."

WorldSmart Leadership Program

In August 2004, the first semester of the WorldSmart Leadership Program was launched. Designed as a 20-week program, the first crew traveled to about 18 cities in North America, Japan, and Europe, starting off with an orientation session in Denver, Colorado, United States. Each crew spent a week in each city, living mainly with host families.

While there was a highly simplified performance element, it was not the core focus of the program. Known as the "Community Celebration", it was a short presentation of dance, music, singing, multimedia, speech, and acting, as well as sharing their experiences of the city. The Celebration's aim was to get the people of the local community together with people from all over the world.

Besides the Celebration, other main elements of the WorldSmart Leadership Program included:

• Direct Instruction — college-level courses and discussions on topics such as leadership, intercultural communication, and world conflict. Some students elected to take actual college classes offered by the University of Colorado-Denver, while others attended general discussion sessions (known as "Stone Soup").
• Regional Learning learning about the local area and community through tours, guest speakers, courtesy visits, and special activities (e.g. scavenger hunts, workshops, panels). Some of these activities included a visit to a juvenile detention center, a tea ceremony, the World Expo in Toyota, Aichi, and lunch in a high school made up predominantly of immigrants.
• Community Impact — various community service projects based on various issues, such as education, the environment, immigration, discrimination, the arts, and many more. Projects ranged from visiting schools and interacting with students, to learning about different world faiths.
• Professional Development — internships and special projects in various sections, such as external relations or applied education. Students were also free to organize and run special projects of their own — such projects included a Language Exchange and an in-house magazine.

Besides this, many other side projects and activities were also run and organized by both staff and students, allowing them to use the skills they learned through the program.

Up with People - Global Education Program

In 2006, under the direction of a newly constituted Board of Directors composed principally of UWP Alumni, a restructured Up with People program was introduced. Essentially, the program combines elements from UWP's four decades of success: a commitment to exploring leadership in a global context, host family living, international participants, service learning and using musical performance - a universal language - as a means to share a message of hope for the world.

Today, participants in the Up with People program travel for 5 and a half months beginning in January and July of every year. Each cast has between 70-90 young people, from approximately 20 countries, learning how to work cooperatively while exploring the similarities and differences of people from other nations and cultures. Each tour visits over 18 communities on at least two continents providing personal insight from diverse cultural, political, and economic conditions. During their 22-week experience, cast members perform in a vibrant musical show that brings the community together and highlights local partnering organizations. Members also give back to each city through service projects to make an impact and improve the lives of others. Projects often contain painting and gardening because of the large scale group of people. The Up with People program underscores that it's not 'getting', but 'giving' that leads to personal growth and can make a positive difference.

Up with People exists today to "spark people to action in meeting the needs of their communities, countries and the world while building bridges of understanding as a foundation for world peace."

Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up with People Story

The documentary film Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up with People Story premiered at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival. It is an unofficial documentary of the organization's mission based on historical research and the troupe's own never-before-seen archival footage. The film was directed and produced by Lee Storey who is married to early alumnus William Storey.

The film documents the troupe's history from a religious and political perspective from its origins in the late 1950s within Moral Re-Armament and the Sing-Out groups, through its successful years in the 1980s and subsequent decline in 2000 with an annual $31 million budget. The film includes a post-script on the troupe's tours since Up With People re-opened in 2005, with a focus on community service.

Smile 'Til It Hurts includes commentary by P.J. O'Rourke, Peter Yarrow and Mark Crispin Miller, with rare archival footage from Up With People,and archival footage of the troupe with Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, Bob Hope and Glenn Close, among others. The film reveals board membership with funding from corporate entities including Halliburton, General Motors, Exxon, and Searle, and highlights how the troupe carried a pro-Western political ideology with a corporate agenda to counter the hippie subculture and bring a more positive propaganda message of Freedom and Democracy from the troupe's inception through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The film further reveals that the musical group emphasized extreme right wing politics, while participants allege that the troupe rules included aspects of a religious cult, including arranged marriages and control over sex in marriage. In later years, participants discuss changes in the cultish aspects of the organization and how it softened to happy groupthink persona.

Reviews have noted that while the film is a critique of the organization, the film has also shown respect for those who were involved and demonstrated their good intentions.

Notable former members

• Actress Glenn Close
• Author Tim Gallwey (The Inner Game of Tennis)
• Composer, Performer, Writer, Lyricist Cecil Broadhurst
• Oarsman Rusty Wailes
• All American Record Holder Ross Anderson (skier)
• Country music artist Travis Rush
• Contemporary Christian artist Mark Schultz
• Real Estate Expert John T. Reed
• Dutch singer and actor Bastiaan Ragas
• Dutch TV-host Tooske Breugem
• Filmmaker Tag Purvis (Red Dirt)
• Country Music Radio Personality of the Year 1996 and Nationally Syndicated Radio Host, Barry Keith Marlow
• Producer Tina Kendrick
• Actress Amy Hunter-Cornelius
• Jazz Drummer Randy Brush
• Biggest Loser Contestant Allen Shepherd
• Filmmaker & Actor Keith L. Davis
• Actor Kurt Krakowian
• Fostering & Adoption Advocate Marc Judson
• Former Much Music VJ (Host of Rap City) Michael Williams

External links

• Up with People official website
• Up with People Cast Blog
• Up with People International Alumni Association
  • Up with People German Alumni Association
  • Up with People Swiss Alumni Association