Dedicated to eye-opening theatre for our nation.

Founded in 2009, Trust Your Gut Productions has brought its touring, musical theatre productions and Talk-Backs to over a dozen schools and 2,000 children.

 Trust Your Gut Productions was founded by the son/mother team of Michael Maricondi (Creative Director) and the late Carol-Anne Gaetano (Co-Founder, Member Emeritus) in 2009 with the original vision of bringing eye-opening theatrical productions to our nation’s youth to combat the bullying epidemic, beginning with the North-Eastern tour of their first original musical, When Push Comes to Shove, with book and lyrics by Michael Maricondi and Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and music by Maricondi. The production, conceived to fit into an hour long class assembly period, tackled the subject of bullying and each performance culminated in a talk-back between the students in attendance and the characters from the show. These talk-backs helped many schools, community centers, and beyond to breach the subject of bullying, begin to heal their environments, and create “No Bully Zones”, by encouraging children to speak up, speak out, and support each other. Trust Your Gut Productions believes to this day that children are the future, and that helping them to understand that their stories, voices, and experiences are valid, important, and worthy of being heard can help lead our nation to a better future through art.

With the economic downturn of the mid 2010’s, TYGP went on hiatus, to return in 2023 with a production of an original youth musical, Looking For the Little Mouse, with book, music, lyrics, and direction by Maricondi. The production was held over one weekend at a regional theatre in upstate New York, which served as TYGP’s de-facto home-base until the end of 2024. During TYGP’s time at this theatre, they developed and produced several shows including musicals (Looking For the Little Mouse, Picture of David), plays (Antigone, Blithe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), original cabarets (Love American Style, Home For the Holidays) and worked with the Glove City Youth Coalition to produce Prevention in Acti-ion, which used open-ended theatre techniques to help spark discussion in the Fulton County community about the on-going drug and opioid epidemic affecting their county’s youth. Prevention… featured a one-act play, Prescription For Disaster, that received massive positive community press coverage in newspapers and on radio. Several youth participants in this program went on to win regional awards and recognition for their efforts.

TYGP’S current projects include new original cabarets, development of a new musical (The Ledge, book/music/lyrics by Raphael J. Cohen), development of murder mysteries, and collaborations with local municipalities on “Shakespeare in the Park” series. Trust Your Gut Productions is proud and privileged to have attracted so many incredible regional artists from all walks of life and levels of experience, and prides itself on being an all-inclusive space for artists to safely develop their skills, projects, and technique through a supportive and ever-growing network of artists.

Abstract

Trust Your Gut Productions seeks to guide children in the development of their personal, moral compass by using “open ended” texts.  These texts, from which multiple meanings may be gleaned, offer students the ability to “read” and interpret them critically, drawing parallels between Greenville, TYGP's own "hometown", and their own.

Abridged Mission Statement

“BULLYING IS THE PROBLEM, TYGP IS A PART OF THE SOLUTION”

Over the past several months, reports of children of all ages killing themselves as the result

of unrelenting bullying have dominated the news and those deaths grow in number.

 This is a national epidemic and must be addressed and stopped.

            Trust Your Gut Productions is facing this problem by use of educational musical theatre to reach out to young children (K-6) in an effort to educate them to alternate ways of dealing with both bullying and in some cases the tendency toward being a bully.  We believe that education in the formative years is the answer, for it is in these years that the moral compass is developed.

            We have had successful productions at Connecticut schools reaching over a thousand students (and their families) with our message.  More importantly, by supplying the educators with Study Guides/Lesson Plans we have opened dialogue in the classrooms as well by making it easier for the educators to broach this problem with their students, as introduced by the production they have just seen.  This is accomplished by means of the end of show talk back between the students and the characters wherein the students willingly and anxiously discuss not only what they learned in the play but, more importantly, their own feelings and experiences.  This discussion is then very naturally carried forward in the classroom by means of the Study Guide/Lesson Plan provided to the educator for this purpose.  Each student is also provided with a Take Home Activity Poster on which they complete their own thoughts and pledge to create a “No Bully Zone”.  These posters are proudly taken home and shared with their parents/guardians/caregivers to further open dialogue in the home as well on this subject. In addition, a “No Bully Zone” Poster is provided for each classroom (with extras for the cafeteria, gym, or wherever administration deems appropriate) in order to make the school a “safe” area for the students, so they can grow and learn.  Finally, each student is provided with a “No Bully Zone” sticker of their own to post wherever they feel they need to feel safe.  Copies of all these materials are proudly posted on our website.

            We understand that budgets are very tight in today’s economy and are thankful that law has mandated every school have an anti-bullying program and that grant money is available to fund this project.  We have put together a list of agencies that may be able to assist you in funding this production in your school.  If you visit our site and follow the links, you may find one such agency.   We also offer a “Joint-Venture” for two schools in the same town on the same day, which substantially lowers the cost for each school.  Details can also be found on our site. We sincerely hope that these efforts will enable more Connecticut Schools to participate in this very important project.

Our Program Consists of: