A new immersive theater experiences takes Colorado audiences inside the foster care system
Denver audiences have the opportunity to go inside the foster care system. It's a two-night performance of a brand new immersive theater experience called "Crossroads: The Journey of Rebecoming."
"We have a professional cast, and they're really going to show people not just seeing the experience of the foster care system, but actually feeling that emotion that happens for these kids," said Lara Smedley, Chief Executive Officer of Better Together Production, a Denver-based event and video production company.
Better Together Productions produced the theater experience for Cobbled Streets, a non-profit organization that provides experiences and resources for children living in foster care.
"We set out to provide experiences and opportunities for kids in foster care that are just childhood experiences. Things that we all may have had as kids, but not necessarily do you get those experiences when you're in foster care. It could be as simple as a bicycle or playing soccer or doing art. It could also be taking a trip or having a camp experience or going on a school event," explained Shari Shink, Founder & Executive Director of Cobble Streets.
Cobbled Streets commissioned this play because the organization struggles with people not understanding what foster care is like for children. They wanted to deepen the conversation around foster care by giving people a more comprehensive understanding of the system.
"I think foster kids are forgotten. They are rarely the priority in a community that they need to be. I think this opportunity to stop talking and do something differently like this immersive experience so people begin to understand what kids truly need, what they're experiencing, what they don't get and what they need, so they might be inspired to help. Because if you don't understand an issue, if you don't understand a cause, you can't care about it," Shrink said.
The play will be staged throughout the historic Sports Castle in Denver. The audience will move through 3-floors of foster care experiences. The first floor is a permanency hearing for 14-year-old Jayden Carter. An older version of Jayden narrates the action, as a teenage version of the character is asked to decide whether he wants to live with his dad or his current foster placement.
"The judge thinks he's giving me a choice, but it feels like a trap. If I choose to stay with my dad and he messes up again...that's on me, right? That's my fault. But if I stay with Ms. Ruiz...she's nice but she's getting tired. I can feel it. And, if I pick her, I'm telling my dad that I don't believe in him anymore," said the actor playing older Jayden during rehearsal of Act 1.
The character asks the audience to weigh in on the decision, drawing each viewer into the difficult dilemma that this 14-year-old boy is being asked to solve. Later in the play, the audience will be drawn in to the action in other ways.
"One of the cast members will put on a pair of head phones, and the audience will have headphones as well. So, they'll put on those headphones and really start to hear the inner thoughts of that character," Smedley explained.
"Crossroads: The Journey of Rebecoming" was written and directed by Jeff Campbell of Denver's Emancipation Theater Company. He spent hours talking with "folks who are ten toes down in the foster care system." The play is a composite of all the stories he heard.
"The system itself if just... it's just indifferent. There is no nuance. The system is what it is and it does what it does, and it doesn't so what people do, and at the end of the day, that is the heart of the story," Campbell explained.
At the end of the performance, the goal is that audience members will walk away with a new understanding of a hard system and the soft people impacted by it.
"People need to understand what's happening to these kids in the foster care system to then be able to take some type of action. That action could be donating money, that action could be volunteering their time, or it could be becoming a foster parent," Smedley added.
"There's never the wrong time to support young people, especially people as vulnerable as young people in the foster care system," Campbell said.
LINK: For Tickets & Information about "Crossroads: The Journey of Rebecoming"
"Crossroads: The Journey of Rebecoming" will be performed twice. First as a fundraiser benefiting Cobbled Streets on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Then again on Friday, May 1, 2026 for the general public as a kickoff for Foster Care Awareness Month.
LINK: Wednesday's Child on CBS Colorado
You can get more information on ways to help children living in foster care by reaching out to Raise the Future, call (303) 755-4756 or (800) 451-5246, or go to their website raisethefuture.org.
