Photo by Susan Fan Brown
Why bring Theater
to my classroom?
In addition to being fun and exciting, putting on a play can make your students better readers! Research shows that theatre education in school:
* Improves students' verbal skills;
* Boosts achievement in reading and comprehension;
* Helps students identify basic elements like character, setting and conflict;
* Builds listening skills;
* Fosters social ability and cooperation.
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Animated Puppetry
Mentor Artist: Liebe Weitzel and Lunatique Fantastique puppeteers
Grades: 3-12
Students arrive in class wearing a coat and hat that is transformed into a stagestruck star performer through the magic of object puppetry. In subsequent sessions, students learn basic object animation techniques with found objects and pieces of foam. Using techniques adapted from Japanese bunraku puppetry, students work in pairs or groups of 3 to create and move one character, developing character traits through improvisation and audience response. Students also draw storyboards for their character and develop a final performance.
Commedia dell'Arte
Mentor Artist: Eliot Fintushel
Grades: 3-12
Through the colourful characters of Commedia dell'Arte—Pantalone, Capitano, Columbina, Dottore, Isabella, Pedrolino, Pulcinella, Zanni—students will learn the history of Commedia, the use of masks and costumes, and physical and acrobatic skills. The course culminates in a short lazzi (comic routine) grounded in improvisation.
Creative Arts Therapy
Mentor Artist: Lizzie Domash
Grades: Pre-K-12
The C.A.T. program provides opportunities for emotional, cognitive, social and physical development through the exploration of visual and performing arts activities. Students can experience Music Making, Visual Art, Expressive Dance, Theater and/or Video Creation at a level that fits their cognitive and physical levels. Activities will enable a child to understand and express emotion; increase attention span and impulse control; develop communication and language skills; improve fine and gross motor skills; and enhance self-esteem.
Electric Theater
Mentor Artist: Jesse Bliss
Grades: 3-12
Elements of Hip-Hop Theater are incorporated into this course including rhythm and beat. Students are exposed to theater through writing and video and learn critical acting techniques through games and improvisation, creating their own original work. This Theater class is electric and alive, eliciting a passion and deep respect for the craft. Participants grow and change drastically with the work, developing a keener understanding of themselves, each other and the world around them.
Improvisation
Mentor Artist: Jesse Bliss, Melissa Briggs
Grades: K-12
Through a series of theatre games, students learn to use their bodies and voices to enter a world they create, complete with original characters, settings and stories. Music, art, costumes and props help students explore ideas, feelings, characters and stories while they develop physical and vocal skills. Group projects enhance cooperation and collaboration skills.
Introducing Shakespeare
Mentor Artist: Melissa Briggs
Grades: 4-9
Students experience first-hand the power of Shakespeare's prose as Melissa introduces students to ways of incorporating Shakespeare's language into their own style of speaking and knowledge. Actors explore the use of their bodies and voices as they create characters and explore storytelling.
Mask Theater
Mentor Artist: Eliot Fintushel
Grades: K-12
Students experience first-hand the transformative power of masks. The importance of movement, posture and gesture on stage and in life is fostered. Self-image and self-expression are enhanced. Sessions involve theatre and movement exercises, character development, improvisations with masks and the creation of short sketches.
Arts Learning Links: Assembly with Eliot Fintushel
Mime
Mentor Artist: Eliot Fintushel
Grades: 3-12
Students will explore the marvelous silent world of mime, learning styles including black box, graphics, and tableaux. Through improvisation techniques and movement exercises, students will create their own silent stories. Students may be divided into mime troupes to create several different group mime pieces that can be showcased in class!
Arts Learning Links: Assembly with Eliot Fintushel
Music Theater
Mentor Artist: Hannah Dworkin
Grades: 3-12
Explore the wonderful world of musical theater! Students will learn songs and scenes from great, kid-friendly Broadway shows. Course will incorporate music, movement, and related games and culminate in a performance of the work developed.
Playwrighting
Mentor Artist: Melissa Briggs or Awele Makeba
Grades: 3-12
Using improvisation, theater games and creative writing exercises, students learn the elements of playwriting. Students will be on their feet taking risks, making dramatic choices, and inventing, analyzing and reworking stories and scenes. Mentor Artist will cover concepts such as conflict, objectives, action, character development, tension, climax, and basic composition. This course will be particularly useful students with low reading and writing levels as it approaches literacy through movement, emotions and action.
Playwright's Freedom
Mentor Artist: Jesse Bliss
Grades 3-12
Students explore writing that is relevant to their lives through poems, songs, letters, raps, and plays. Students read and discuss these works and participate in a series of games and exercises, to make playwrighting accessible and fun. In this safe and creative environment participants develop a love of writing, and an appreciation for plays and storytelling. Each participant develops an original one-act play, which is presented in a Staged Reading at the end of the course.
Production
Mentor Artist: Melissa Briggs
Grades: 3-12
Production involves students in the creative process of play development from initial concept to final production. Students learn basic theater concepts, terms, and skills. Actors explore the use of their bodies and voices as they create characters and explore storytelling. Students utilize their own creative talents to transform raw material onto a finished piece. The course culminates in a performance of the work created.
Reader’s Theater
Mentor Artist: Melissa Briggs
Grades: 3-12
Learn the basic techniques of Reader's Theater, which taps students' desire to perform to motivate oral reading practice. Reader's Theater offers an entertaining and engaging means of improving fluency and enhancing comprehension. Students will explore how delivering text conveys intent and meaning. They will then adapt text being studied in class into script formats for discussion and presentation.
Storytelling
Mentor Artist: Melissa Briggs
Grades: PreK-12
Students will learn the basics of storytelling including the use of body and voice. Students will learn the importance of eye contact and how body language can create character, mood and emotion. Students will learn how the voice can be flexible enough to create character’s special effects, and help set the environment and tone of a story. Stories can be created from the imagination, classroom assignments and the world around them (newspaper headlines, family stories, etc.) This is a great way to transform classroom conflicts into a positive experience for students.
