Students: We Are the CSC Nextgen Program, and Channel One News Starts Right Now

Students: We are the CSC NextGen program, and Channel One News starts right now.

Arielle: Thanks to those theater students for kicking us off today. They are part of a pretty cool program that you will get to hear all about later on in the show. But first, let's take a look at what is making news.

And first up, remember when we told you about the skyrocketing cost of the EpiPen? That is the tool that looks like a marker that people with severe allergies can jab into their leg and get lifesaving medicine. Well, there was a lot of negative feedback, and now the makers of the EpiPen are changing their tune.

EpiPen maker Mylan is launching a generic and less expensive version of the allergy medicine. It will cost about $300 for a pack of two; that is half the cost of the original.

You may have heard the controversy over a pro football player who chose to sit rather than stand during the playing of a national anthem before a game. Even after backlash, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick says he is sticking to his decision, saying he will protest until he sees changes to race relations in the U.S.

Kaepernick chose to sit during “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the 49ers' preseason game Friday night. He said, "I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me, this is something that has to change. When there is significant change, and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing the people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."

Critics are calling themove “un-American,” saying it is disrespectful to our country not to stand during the national anthem. But Kaepernick’s supporters say it is exactly what America represents because he is exercising his right to freedom of speech.

Now, we want to hear from you: do you think it is disrespectful not to stand during the national anthem? Head to ChannelOne.com to weigh in, or send us a video message to .

Okay, next up, a year on Mars — or at least a replica of it.

Arielle: Now, Tom, imagine never leaving your house, with limited food, water and spotty communication.

Tom: I definitely can't do that, Arielle, but a group of researchers in Hawaii did that for a year — part of an experiment to simulate life on Mars.

An excited crowd gathered Sunday in Hawaii to welcome this six-person crew back to Earth after they spent a year on Mars. Or, more accurately, after they simulated living a year on Mars. They have actually been spending all their time in a solar-powered dome on the side of a volcano in Hawaii, part of the NASA-funded program HI-SEAS.

Kim Binsted: It's really exciting to be able to welcome the crew back to Earth.

Tom: Last year the group, including an architect, astrobiologist and aerospace engineer, came from across the globe to live in the nearly 1,500-square-foot dome. Over the next 12 months, they had limited food and water and used a computer with at least a
20-minute delay to communicate with the outside world.

It is the fourth, and longest, time HI-SEAS has performed this type of mission.

Binsted: A mission to Mars is going to be a complex system of systems.

Tom: Kim Binsted is a principal investigator of the project.

Binsted: Some of those systems are going to be technological, and some of them are going to be human. And it’s just as bad if the human part of the system fails as if a rocket blows up.

Tom: But this project is one of several, a renewed interest in sending humans to Mars with the hopes of finding clues to the planet's mysteries: Did it once have life, and can humans one day call Mars home? These questions now are sparking a new space race.

The first space race was a political one, which started in the 1950s. It was a race between the U.S. and its rival, the Soviet Union, to show off its superiority. The Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite, Sputnik, into space and the first to shoot a living creature into space — a dog named Laika — both in 1957.

But the United States was determined to win the competition, and in 1969 the U.S. became the first country to put a man on the moon. And now, nearly 50 years later, our sights are set on our neighbor planet one rock over in our solar system.

President Barack Obama: By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth.

Tom: Alongside NASA, other players in this game of planetary leapfrog are private organizations like Mars One, Inspiration Mars Foundation andSpaceX, led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Back at HI-SEAS, based on this experiment, the crew is optimistic about travel to Mars. They say they would make the trip themselves if they could.

Cyprien Verseux: I can give you my personal impression, which is that a mission to Mars, in the close future, is realistic.

Tom: Tom Hanson, Channel One News.

Arielle: Okay, sign me up; I am ready to try out Mars. Well, on second thought, maybe not.

Okay, up next, we are leaving the big red planet and following a group of teens down the Great White Way.

Arielle: The lights — the stage — the live performance!There is nothing like it, and no place better to see it, than on Broadway, in the heart of New York City. Now one company is taking Broadway performances to a whole new level with an interactive experience designed just for the next generation of performers, producers and theatergoers. Azia Celestino hits the stage.

Azia: Young people are getting a front-row seat to the theater world thanks to Classic Stage Company's NextGen program.

What are you here for today?

Jackie Minelli: I'm here to watch “Nathan the Wise.”

Thomas Piazza: It has a good story line. It gets you thinking.

Leonardo Vega: I thought it was really good.

Azia: Today's performance of “Nathan the Wise” was an all-teen audience.

Stark Sands: What I've learned about this show in the two and a half weeks we've been running it is that the younger the audience is, the more responsive they are — the more audibly responsive.

An older audience may not have the energy to be vocal in their laughs or their applause or their — you know, much of anything. And sometimes it can hold youback, but when you get laughs at all the places you hope to get laughs, and when you get, like, ”woooooo" whenever, like, the young lovers meet, it's really, really fun.

Azia: And CSC NextGen gives students a rare opportunity to go behind the curtain.

Vanessa: In most other programs, you learn more about acting, or you learn more about one specific thing, whereas with CSC we had different people every week that would come and talk to us about different aspects of theater.

Azia: During the 9-month program, NextGen members practice scenes in acting workshops, dance it out in choreography lessons, block a punch in stage combat practice, get creative in playbill marketing chats, shed a spotlight in lighting direction — all while having the opportunity to work side by side with professionals in the theater community.

Melissa: I’m starting to fangirl now about the people we met. I remember, like, I was sitting up watching a stage manager, Alana, call the show for “Othello” one night, and I was just freaking out because that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I don't know any other high school student has had.

Sands: I know that there are people looking up to me, and it makes me feel really good, and I want to do whatever I can to inspire them.

Azia: NextGen also pushes for diversity in the theater industry.

Jahir: When I met the lead for “Othello,” I was really, like, surprised because it's nice seeing someone of my background — nationality — as a lead role instead of, like, a secondary character, which is also good. It really, like, gets to me, so I feel like I could do that too.

Azia: NextGen fills a void for the students who don't have drama programs in school.

Melissa: This year they cut our theater class, so we didn't have any play readings or anything, and that really bummed me out. Schools are pushing, like, math and science, math and science, math and science.

Azia: But the teens here say that NextGen is prepping them for the next steps in their career.

Vanessa: It’s not just all about theater; it’s not just all about Classic Stage, even. It’s like you're learning more about real-life interactions and real-life jobs that, like — there's a lot of jobs here I didn't even know existed.

Azia: Career paths for students in the program vary from producing to performing, but the one thing they have in common is a love for theater.

Melissa: They might not know what they want to do yet, but they know they want to be involved in this beautiful thing called theater.

Azia: More than their passion for the performing arts, they are building a community.

Melissa: I’ll look out in the audience sometimes and I’ll see a kid there… And I’ll say, “That's the future of theater right there.” It's just so inspiring because everyone is having a similar experience, but it's all individual for each person, but we come together as a community to celebrate theater.

Azia: Azia Celestino, Channel One News.

Arielle: And we have got even more Broadway behind the scenes. Check it out on ChannelOne.com.

Okay guys, time to head out, but we will catch you right back here tomorrow.

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