In 2019, producer Bess O’Brien set out across Vermont to capture the stories and lives of teenagers. She wanted to hear about their joys and struggles in their own words.

O'Brien did this in 2005, and the result was an award-winning musical, The Voices Project. This time, following a year-long delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the students who comprise the cast of the Listen Up musical are finally taking their songs and stories to the public from August 4 through August 15, 2021. The students sing and speak their truth about a range of current youth issues ranging from racial justice to mental health, gun violence, sexual identity, disability, family, love and community.

On this week's Vermont Conversation, student cast members Theo Novotny, Miles Novotny and Sadie Chamberlain perform and discuss the issues raised in the musical and the process of making it, and producer Bess O’Brien describes how and why the musical was created.