Crossroads started because of my passion for the arts. this gave me a way to tap into my potential and realize I had unlimited ability to express myself and make some accomplishments through writing plays that relate to everyday life situations and keeping it real. This has been a joy!

For years, I have worked with youth—and surfaced their unique talents—through the performance arts in community centers, churches, and schools. I started Crossroads Panorama organization, as a learning community through which young people and adults in crisis can find support and transform their lives. We welcome them into the theater at any level of skill, regardless of any barriers they may experience in their lives. Barriers include recovery from race-based trauma, incarceration, family addiction, violence, and poverty. As they take a role in acting out therapeutic issues, this equips and empowers them to learn how to cope, not only in a classroom setting but in their everyday lives.

Crossroads Panorama not only engages its actors in the transformative power of theater; it also provides a healing, convening space for parents and families. Families are given a community through which they can strengthen their healing and experience the unique impact of theater and art to simulate relevant social challenges, boost compassion, and dislodge individual and collective trauma. In addition to healing through theater, I have published stories by youth and young adults, including a compilation of poetry by a young man who experienced incarceration. Also, my work has been that of publishing many inspirational books, including Sojourner Truth devotionals for adults in crisis, and the Cherry Wood series for children in emotional distress.

“My mission is to bring change through a reflection, as to looking into a mirror and to see ourselves on the theater stage and the stages of our own daily lives. Where I am today is have our theater, which used to be the Old Block Buster’s Store in Richfield the HUB Shopping Center. We turned it into a Black Box Theater.
Comments from a supporter of my work: “Dr. Joyce Marrie believes whole-heartedly in her work—and it gets results. No matter what her actors are going through, she is dogged in helping them find liberation through drama therapy. Dr. Marrie has an uncommon, loving nature and a spirit of discovery as she models the way she breaks barriers herself! Having experienced her own housing instability and poverty, she shares experiences with those she serves.

Those she serves connect deeply to her warmth, humor, and creative resilience.
As the Executive Director, she leads the research and production of her plays, yet she gathers the voices of those engaged in each performance. Through her 40 years of writing and producing plays with people in distress, she creates space for the empathy-expanding effect of drama to shape and transform lives. Her knowledge of mental health is extensive, and she pulls from the arts for members of her program to experience deep internal shifts as they heal from trauma. As we learn more about how artistic engagement is a unique tool for healing from trauma, we can see that Dr. Marrie has always been at the cutting edge of providing venues for youth and adults in crisis to achieve greater health.”

What sets me apart is the work I do, going beyond the box and not a cookie cutter. it allows others to think and be creative for themselves. Also, to tap into their potential the unlimited ability that they have and discover who they are and who they can become.