TheatreWorks S I L I C O N V A L L E Y
Education Final Report 2010/11
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Our Mission To provide the means for students of all ages to discover the power of theatre; to teach and inspire creative thinkers and theatre professionals of tomorrow; and, by our work, to engage our community in vital discourse, innovative artistry, and valuable educational opportunities.
�Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play. This turns possible underachievers into happy warriors.� Sir Ken Robinson, Leading Educator on Creativity & Innovation; The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
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Letter from Robert Kelley TheatreWorks Artistic Director “To succeed today and in the future, America’s children will need to be inventive, resourceful, and imaginative, [and] the best way to foster that creativity is through arts education.” Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
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reat theatre is art achieved collectively. A collaboration of every art form, it inevitably reflects the community from which it grows. Theatre is a premise that can inspire the life of every child.
A few months ago, I received a letter from a school Principal: “You do not know how badly we need more of TheatreWorks’ type of curriculum in our school district! We need to keep the arts alive in our school.” It haunted me. Imagine a school without art, a child without imagination, a culture without concern. We believe that an instinct for art defines a great community. That’s why TheatreWorks intends to “keep the arts alive” in every school we can reach. This report from TheatreWorks’ Education Department chronicles a year of outstanding success in the field of Arts Integration. It recounts thousands of eager students learning to engage their imaginations and create collectively; it describes hundreds of connections built between classroom teachers and our exceptional teaching artists, all aimed at integrating arts into students’ lives and theatre techniques into the teaching of core subjects; it defines a student matinee program highlighted by classroom discussions with each production’s professional actors; and it celebrates the widely acclaimed Oskar series of touring performances that explore critical student concerns, most recently bullying of all kinds. Overflowing theatre camps, professional training conservatories, an in-school development program for emerging playwrights, theatre games for severely ill patients at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford—all reflect TheatreWorks’ commitment to inspire every student we reach, to invigorate every teacher we assist, to electrify every school we visit. We know that an instinct for art lives in every child. We believe that the impulse to create collaboratively is an essential of the human experience. And we are determined to keep the arts alive, and well, in this remarkable Silicon Valley community.
Robert Kelley TheatreWorks Artistic Director
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Our Partners in Education
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heatreWorks would like to thank our partners in education for their continued dedication to the educational activities at TheatreWorks. Their financial support enables us to provide in-depth arts education throughout Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. This year we served over 23,000 students, patients, and community members, making almost 90,000 educational interactions during the 2010/11 season.
SPONSORS Anonymous Air Systems Foundation, Inc. American Century Investments Foundation Applied Materials, Inc. Avant! Foundation Bank of America C.M. Capital Foundation The David & Lucile Packard Foundation Dodge & Cox Investment Managers Intero Foundation The Leonard C. & Mildred F. Ferguson Foundation Lockheed Martin Luther Burbank Savings Microsoft Mission City Community Fund Morrison & Foerster LLP Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund Robert Half International, Inc. The San Francisco Foundation Sand Hill Foundation SanDisk Corporation Silicon Valley Community Foundation Silicon Valley Bank Foundation Stanford Federal Credit Union The Palo Alto Community Fund Union Bank Wells Fargo Foundation The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
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ALL PHOTOS BY MARK KITAOKA AND TRACY MARTIN
INDIVIDUALS Anonymous Suzanne Amato, in honor of Kim Selby Mrs. A. Augustin Richard & Thea Benthin Helen & Stuart Bessler David & Lauren Berman Jody Buckley and Mark Horowitz Ron & Sally Carter The Craft Malcolm Family Peter & Melanie Cross Frances Escherich Gwendolyn & Frederick W. Farley, Sr. Sylvia & Ron Gerst Sudhanshu & Lori Jain The Guy Kawasakis Mike & Bonnie Laster Richard & Charlene Maltzman, in memory of Carol Adler & Dr. Howard Wech Nicole McClain Patricia McClung & Allen Morgan Tim Millet Carey & Josh Pickus Mark & Margot Rawlins, in honor or Aubrey Rawlins Martha Seaver & Scott Walecka Joyce Reynolds Sinclair & Dr. Gerald M. Sinclair Catherine & Jeff Thermond Suparna Vashisht & Manish Goel Watkins Family Charitable Trust
“While there is support for the intrinsic value of developing cultural literacy and teaching artistic skills and techniques, leadership groups typically emphasize instrumental outcomes derived from high quality arts education in one or more of the following categories: •
Student achievement, including transfer of skills learning from the arts to learning in other academic areas—for example, the spatial-temporal reasoning skills developed by music instruction;
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Student motivation and engagement, including improved attendance, persistence, focused attention, heightened educational aspirations, and intellectual risk taking;
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Development of habits of mind including problem solving, critical and creative thinking, dealing with ambiguity and complexity, integration of multiple skill sets, and working with others; and
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Development of social competencies, including collaboration and team work skills, social tolerance, and self-confidence.”
Reinvesting in Arts Education—Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools U.S. Conference of Mayors 2010 Resolutions Section on Arts Education
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Education Programs Overview AT A GLANCE We provided our community with
89,163 educational interactions. We served:
23,107 students
1,900 adult learners
981 teachers from
THEATREWORKS FOR SCHOOLS Concepts at Play: These two-week residency programs use theatre arts in the classroom to enhance student understanding of core subjects, from English language learning to language arts to science. The TELL Project: This new program harnesses the power and fun of theatre to enhance speaking, listening, reading, and comprehension skills among English Language Learners. Oskar and the Big Bully Battle!: Our annual touring production makes stops at elementary schools all over the Bay Area, helping students identify and combat the growing trend of bullying in our schools. Student Matinees: School groups and homeschool families make up the audience for these special daytime performances, enhanced by study guide materials, in-class visits, and interaction with mainstage artists. The Young Playwrights Project: High school students learn the art of playwriting from an accomplished, professional playwright during this ten-week residency program.
82 schools in
7 counties.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Research and Development Partnerships: Long term relationships with local schools have developed into a breeding ground for new and innovative programming. Professional Development: Our teacher training initiatives and mentorship program trains classroom teachers to integrate arts into core curriculum.
38 schools participated in TheatreWorks programs for the first time this year.
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS The Children’s Healing Project: TheatreWorks Teaching Artists use creativity and self-expression to help aid the healing process for patients at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Career Development Program: Exceptional interns share their talents with TheatreWorks staff, and learn what it’s like to work in a professional theatre company. Additional Enrichment Opportunities: Learners of all ages benefit from a variety of educational opportunities surrounding our mainstage works.
DRAMA SCHOOL Through our Summer Camps, Saturday Classes, and The New Works Conservatory, TheatreWorks Drama School introduces students to the art and joy, as well as the personal and intellectual growth to be found in theatre. Financial assistance is often available for our families who are most in need.
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TheatreWorks for Schools We bring the most innovative, applicable, and powerful arts education resources to Bay Area schools. The wisdom of teaching core curriculum through an art form is proven to be a fantastic way to address all learning styles—it’s fun, active, and opens profound analytical connections in your students.
Concepts at Play Bringing Science and Poetry Alive
AT A GLANCE PLAYING WITH POETRY
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“I was impressed that many of our fifth grade graduates mentioned TheatreWorks. One young lady recalled important moments of her time at Henry Ford and she said she had a very funny teacher named Kyle [TheatreWorks Teaching Artist]. She said that she had not known anything about the body's systems and that he had taught her quite a lot. She explained to parents that she was very grateful to have had such a good time learning.” Lynn Griffths, Principal, Henry Ford Elementary School, Redwood City
residencies in
18 schools
90 classes
2,700 students
31,428 educational interactions
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or the past nine years, Playing with Poetry has been a cornerstone of the TheatreWorks for Schools program. By employing theatre arts and creative play, students engage in elemental 21st Century Skills such as collaboration, creativity, and communication, all while strengthening literacy and exploring core subjects. Last year we expanded our Concepts at Play series to include Playing with Science. The program served 10 schools, bringing 12 dynamic science arts integration residencies into schools. Students who experienced Playing with Science created the different parts of an electrical circuit, acted out the life of scientist Alfred Wegner and physicalized fault lines, demonstrated the life cycle of a butterfly, traveled through the respiratory system, and created tableaus of endangered habitats. As one parent at North Star Academy observed, “The kids had so much fun! They understood the terms and will probably remember them forever because they used their bodies and imaginations to do it.”
__________________ PLAYING WITH SCIENCE
12 residencies in
10 schools
31 classes
935 students
11,220 educational interactions
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In addition to expanding the Playing with Science curriculum we also made significant changes to Playing with Poetry. Working together with classroom teachers and our teaching artists, we created a curriculum to better serve the diverse needs of elementary classroom teachers. This new curriculum is more directly tied to California State Standards. We also incorporated the “Studio Habits of Mind” from Project Zero at Harvard. These habits include such invaluable life-long skills as persistence, envisioning, expression, reflection, and stretching. “One choice [during Playing with Poetry] I am most proud of is that [I was] confident and in control of my body.” Student, 3rd Grade, Ohlone Elementary
This year, a total of 101 classes at 28 schools engaged in Concepts at Play residencies. In each case, a TheatreWorks teaching artist spent roughly one hour a day for two weeks, helping students make kinesthetic connections to core curriculum concepts, culminating in a demonstration of learning open workshop where you might see forth graders acting out a circuit and a light bulb, or singing a song about the digestive system.
The TELL Project Theatre for English Language Learners
AT A GLANCE We served:
6 schools
1,160 students
13,920 educational interactions
“It allowed my shy students and English Language Learners to have a safe place to push themselves out of their comfort zone.” Arts Integration Network Teacher Kristina Hays, 3rd Grade, Nixon Elementary
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his program addresses the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Our philosophy, allows students to feel safe using their existing knowledge to acquire vocabulary. The TELL Project is an exciting, language-learning experience for all students. They create material from their lives helping them with presentation skills, public speaking, and confidence by learning to value their own stories. One elementary school student said, “The most important thing I learned was to think positive and to be brave.” Teaching artists guide students through exercises that engage students physically, emotionally, and cognitively to investigate language through original work. The curriculum includes improvisation, theatre games, exploration of movement and voice, and (for older grade levels) the writing of monologues and short scenes. This year we brought The TELL Project to six new schools, including Luther Burbank School in San Jose where we worked with grades 2-5 to create original choral speaking poems. These original pieces were presented to enthusiastic groups of family and friends at the end of each 10-day residency.
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Oskar and the Big Bully Battle! TheatreWorks Touring Assemblies
AT A GLANCE 53 assemblies
31 schools
15,263 students In addition to the performance, each school received a comprehensive study guide containing activities and discussion questions specially designed to help teachers incorporate the play’s lessons into the classroom.
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he 2010/2011 season marked the last tour of our incredibly popular Oskar and the Big Bully Battle! For this production’s third and final tour, we extended the tour to six weeks and were able to bring the show’s important message to many more students. In the play, ten-year-old Oskar vows to take revenge on a classmate after an unfortunate playground mishap. Students in the audience witness Oskar as he bullies his friend, struggles with his conscience, realizes the error of his ways, and ultimately makes amends. The play clearly illustrates the roles of victim, bully, bystander, and upstander, and teaches audiences how to respond when they observe or are involved in bullying episodes in their own lives. Just as in previous years, the feedback for the show was exceedingly positive. One teacher commented, “The kids were able to witness how bullying really diminishes a person’s self-esteem. This will give me a point of reference (that all of my students can relate to) for further discussions. Having professionals visit the classroom is one of the most impressive ways to teach. The kids will remember this forever.”
Spring 2012, Oskar Learns to Be Resilient! Though the Oskar shows deal with their subject matter in humorous fashions they have had deep impact. It is because of this impact that we, along with Palo Alto Unified School District, have commissioned a third and final installment of the Oskar series from Prince Gomolvilas. This new production, called Oskar and the Last Straw!, again follows Oskar as he navigates the trials and tribulations of childhood. This production will address behaviors necessary to boost resiliency and will draw on the work of Project Cornerstone and Project Safety Net. This tour is scheduled for February–April 2012.
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“I have seen a few assemblies educating about bullying but this was by far the best! Great actors! Good music!� Teacher, Durham Elementary School
Oskar: The Kid That Could! reached 22,940 students. Oskar and the Big Bully Battle! reached 36,673 students.
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Student Matinees Exposing Students to Professional Theatre “The North Pool student matinee audience was so intently watching the performance that you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre. I can’t remember ever being around that many teenagers who were so still and paying complete attention to a shared experience. Many of our students wanted to talk about The North Pool after the show. They felt it was so real—unlike any theatre they had seen before.“
AT A GLANCE
1,853 students total
Cathie Thermond, TheatreWorks’ Board Liaison, President of Saratoga High School’s Drama Booster Club
A Christmas Memory The student matinee series kicked off this winter with the world premiere musical, A Christmas Memory. Based on the short story by Truman Capote, this semi autobiographical story follows Adult Buddy as he relives his last Christmas in his hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Through his special bond with his cousin Sook, a neighborhood girl named Nelle, and his caretakers, Jennie and Seabon, Buddy navigates his way through the trials of childhood and the transition into adulthood. As one student from St. Raymond’s School stated after the play, “I learned to be nice and thoughtful just like Sook and you will be rewarded and remembered.”
The 39 Steps In February, a total of 739 students from 12 different schools attended the two student matinee performances of The 39 Steps. Based on Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of John Buchan’s book, the play told the story of an English man trying to clear his name of a crime during the 1920s. The play is a pastiche, or a direct imitation of the film, so the stage production was a huge feat accomplished with minimal set pieces and just 4 actors playing over 40 roles. This play had a heavy emphasis on classic theatrical techniques, and the pre-show workshops worked to help students identify these conventions. A student from Crystal Springs Uplands School said, “The set design was really really innovative—blew me off my feet! Truly wonderful to see a production like this. Best field trip ever!”
3,452 educational interactions
27 schools and homeschool groups
51 pre-show workshops In addition to attending the play, participating schools receive in-depth study guides, pre-show workshops with TheatreWorks artists, and a postshow discussion with the entire cast.
The North Pool TheatreWorks’ world premiere production of The North Pool offered extraordinary learning opportunities for the 411 students from 5 different schools in attendance. Written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph, the play is a window into a real time conversation between high school Vice Principal Dr. Danielson and Syrian transfer student Khadim. Over the course of this 90 minute play, Dr. Danielson and Khadim deal with some very complex issues that affect teenagers today, including various forms of bullying and peer pressure, sexual situations, rumors, uses of electronic communication devices, racial profiling, and stereotypes. The pre-show workshops were vitally important for this matinee, and the two actors, Remi Sandri and Adam Poss, made a point of being at each discussion. This matinee also afforded students at Menlo-Atherton High School a special workshop with the actors and director Giovanna Sardelli during the rehearsal process. Students answered questions and gave the actors a window into what being in high school is really like. One Saratoga High School student remarked,"The riveting performances given by the two actors sucked me in, giving me a chance to reflect upon my own relationships with teachers and admin and how my actions affect how others might perceive me.”
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Young Playwrights Project Creating a New Generation of Playwrights
AT A GLANCE 5 schools
160 students
2,465 educational interactions
Many students have continued on to prestigious writing programs after participating in this project. This year residencies were taught by three professional producing playwrights, two of whom graduated from local high schools that participated in the Young Playwrights Project.
“This project is the BEST school-to-career experience my students have had. They have a new respect for playwriting and writing in general. Many approached the project with the attitude of not being a good writer—at the end they all considered themselves writers and they could all point to the play they wrote.” Cindy Skelton, Drama Teacher, Capuchino High School
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his year, students from five local high schools had the chance to learn the art of crafting plays from accomplished, professional playwrights. In the fall, students at Hillsdale and Capuchino High Schools worked with playwright Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Saratoga High School students worked with playwright Jake Arky. In the spring, playwright Dan Moyer taught at both Palo Alto and Gunn High Schools. In each of these residencies, the first four weeks were devoted to writing exercises and skill-building workshops. At the end of the month, each student put these new skills to the test by writing an original one-act play. From each class, six scripts were selected for further development. These writers then embarked on another four weeks of revisions, workshops, and one-on-one mentoring with the playwright-in-residence. The projects each culminated in a whirlwind day of rehearsals leading up to an evening of staged readings of the students’ work. The event gave student playwrights the unique opportunity to see professional actors and directors give life to their words onstage.
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In addition to developing writing skills, participants in the Young Playwrights Project come away with a sense of accomplishment and pride that boosts their self confidence. It’s something that sticks with them long after the program ends, and many look back on the performance day as “One of the best days of my life.”
Research & Development “Arts Integration engages ANY student in learning. It makes them more focused on the topic and it helps them understand and retain the information more fully.� Arts Integration Network Teacher Laura Levy, 5th Grade, Juana Briones Elementary
TheatreWorks Research & Development Partnerships AT A GLANCE This year, we worked with
19 partner schools.
“The more I listen and watch, the more I really understand the benefits of a partnership with TheatreWorks beyond those of ‘just’ expanding one’s exposure to the arts. The power to open conversations and observe and appraise one’s actions from afar, and then to ponder the actions and results of those actions through an observer’s lens is a singularly powerful experience…So thank you for supporting and promoting this partnership...for working with me to craft a rich and diverse educational program at Duveneck…for keeping the arts alive in this district and community.” John Lents, Principal, Duveneck Elementary School
East Palo Alto: East Palo Alto Academy
Redwood City: Henry Ford Elementary Roosevelt Elementary
Santa Clara County: Kathryn Hughes Elementary
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chool partnerships allow us to research and develop innovative yet completely practical programs for teachers and schools, and have been a cornerstone of the department since its inception. This year, we took a giant step forward in research and development. Through Professional Development opportunities for teachers we’ve deepened relationships in many schools. In addition to the Arts Integration Network (see page 20), we gave four teacher training sessions at San Jose State University’s Marion Cilker Conference for Arts Education, The Oak Grove Literacy Program and the Montalvo Arts Center’s Arts in the Classroom conference. Participating teachers gained invaluable tools to practice arts integration. Our work with ongoing partnerships flourished as well: •
We continued to work with incoming freshmen during the Summer Bridge program at East Palo Alto Academy. With help from playwright Jake Arky, drama students wrote their own piece,The Rooftops of East Palo Alto, which was performed by professional actors for a sold-out audience of their peers.
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We strengthened our long standing partnership with Redwood City schools by providing subsidized residencies, and laid the groundwork to extend our reach within the district in 2011/12.
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Palo Alto Unified School District remains a close ally, helping us to develop Oskar and the Last Straw! (see page 12). Additionaly, we supplied meaningful teacher assistance throughout the district.
Cherrywood Elementary Lakewood Elementary Horace Cureton Elementary
Palo Alto Unified School District
Additionally, through a generous grant from the AVANT! Foundation, we refined our assessment process. Teaming with four Title I Santa Clara County elementary schools allowed us to assess our curriculum in a much wider swath of student and teacher populations. To measure student engagement, skills, collaboration, and classroom climate, we aligned our work with four nationally recognized frameworks: Project Zero’s Qualities of Quality Report, Studio Thinking’s 8 Studio Habits of Mind, Thriving Mind’s 6 Dimensions of Quality, and The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. In starting, testing, and refining a multifaceted system to collect, record, and manage assessments we are poised to develop even more potent arts integration residencies that truly meet the needs of students and teachers.
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“Using theatre games to teach literacy concepts has been fantastic! I’ve really noticed an improvement in their stories and oral language—their vocabularies are much broader and they choose a variety of words to describe their characters. Previously they used ‘nice’ and ‘good.’ Now, I see ‘virtuous’ and ‘courageous.’ They also use a lot more detail and imagery.” Arts Integration Network Teacher Ginna Park,1st Grade, Nixon Elementary
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Professional Development Integrative Arts Curriculum for Teachers
AT A GLANCE
“The children were able to retain and incorporate what they learned in their day to day behavior.” Arts Integration Network Teacher Candy Takahashi, Kindergarten, Walter Hays Elementary
SUMMER INTENSIVE
54 teachers __________________
ARTS INTEGRATION NETWORK
13 teachers
260 Hours of one-on-one mentorship
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any elementary teachers are assigned arts education though they have little training or intrinsic capacities. Yet, a positive experience with arts education in primary schools affects life-long learning, future participation in the arts, and student achievement in other academic areas. So, five years ago we identified professional development in arts integration to be our number one priority. We have been steadfastly developing a model that we believe is very effective and nationally innovative. Before we began our first lab we conducted focus groups of elementary teachers, and the number one need was time to lesson plan. The teachers’ second concern was practical hands-on experience. They felt that if they had no theatre background they required time with age appropriate students to master the theatre techniques. So, using our Concepts at Play Summer Camp program as a “lab,” TheatreWorks offered in-depth teacher training to give elementary educators a much needed opportunity to develop curriculum to integrate standards-based arts education into their daily lesson plans. The summer intensive allowed these teachers to observe teaching artists at work with TheatreWorks campers, brainstorm possible uses for arts integrated strategies including tableau, pantomime, and improvisation, and create lessons plans that integrate those strategies into core subject areas.
The Arts Integration Network After four summers of arts integrated professional development with teachers from the Palo Alto Unified School District, we piloted an expansion into the school year. Thirteen teachers attended the fifth annual summer teacher training laboratory and received 20 hours of mentoring during the school year from Master Teaching Artist Piper LaGrelius. During the school year, Piper planned with and taught alongside these teachers in their classrooms once a week from January–April 2010. Teachers each chose a subject area and “Big Idea” that guided their arts integrated work. For example, one 4th grade teacher chose to integrate tableau with the core literature book Island of the Blue Dolphin. Her big idea was “empathy with people from different backgrounds.” 100% of participating teachers expressed interest in returning for another summer intensive to plan, refine, and create sharable arts integrated units of study.
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“For me it was my growth and confidence in using theatre throughout teaching. This will help and involve students beyond this current class. My teaching has significantly changed, and I have been teaching for over 30 years.� Arts Integration Network Teacher Abby Bradski, Kindergarten , Walter Hays Elementary
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Community Programs Education in and through the Arts can inspire an individual, electrify a school, and invigorate a community. Through our programs we strive to nurture the roots of creativity and encourage the instinct for art that lives in every corner of our community.
The Children’s Healing Project AT A GLANCE 666 contacts with patients, parents, and siblings
132 educational interactions
184 bedside visits
“One of the recreational therapists thanked us for getting one of the middle school students up to school. We worked with her bedside last week. She was very shy, but interested and then she showed up for acting class this week. She rarely speaks in group settings, but by the end of the class she was giggling and speaking in gibberish.” Emily Jordan, Teaching Artist
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heatreWorks’ longstanding relationship with the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital continued to flourish in the 2010/11 season. Now in its ninth year, The Children’s Healing Project brings joy and normalcy to patients and their families as they struggle with life threatening illnesses. Every Wednesday, three gifted Teaching Artists visited the hospital, serving patients and siblings in the Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. Through improvisation at patients’ bedside with patients leading the games, creative drama workshops in school classrooms and the comprehensive care unit for teens (an eating disorders unit), and monthly special family workshops, these artists shed a special light in patients’ lives. Program Director Kathy Ho wrote to us saying: “We have a young student who we've seen blossom with the help of the TheatreWorks drama program. When we first met him as a kindergartener he had never been in a classroom, and the hospital was his first school experience [...] With the gentile support and guidance from Em and Jenn, he began to build his confidence. TheatreWorks was there for him on both good days and bad, continuing to encourage him and helping him find his classroom voice. Through Em and Jenn's patience and diligence, he is now thriving in the classroom, enjoys TW, and fully participates in school.”
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Career Development Program AT A GLANCE 16 summer interns
4 year round interns were served by the TheatreWorks Intern Program during the 2010/11 season.
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ach season, TheatreWorks helps budding artists and arts administrators develop valuable skills and experiences through our celebrated internship program. This year, a total of 20 young people had the chance to experience first-hand what it really takes to keep a professional arts organization thriving. Based on their skills and interests, each intern was matched up with a primary mentor in the department of their choosing. This year, interns had the opportunity to work in special events, marketing, dramaturgy, stage management, education, and arts administration. In addition, each intern was invited to learn more about the entire process of making theatre. Design presentations illuminated the artistic vision and production process for each show, and weekly lunchtime speaker events held during the summer gave interns a look at the roles of the artistic, production, and administrative staff and how they integrate to keep the wheels of the organization turning. Ultimately, interns gain a valuable understanding of the options available to them as they embark on their own careers.
Additional Enrichment Programs AT A GLANCE
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PLAYSHOPS A few times each year, TheatreWorks invites students and parents to come take a behind-the-scenes look at our offices, scene shop, and props and costume collections. On these visits, guests gain an insider’s perspective while engaging in games and educational activities.
playshops
1,900 adult learners took advantage of additional enrichment opportunities at TheatreWorks.
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FACILITIES TOURS Occasionally, school groups arrange for special private tours of TheatreWorks’ headquarters or backstage at our performance venues. These tours are led by TheatreWorks staff, and are a wonderful opportunity for students to learn more about what it takes to put exceptional productions on the stage.
DISCUSSION WEDNESDAYS Following each regular Wednesday evening performance, TheatreWorks patrons are invited to stay after the show to engage in lively discussion with the cast and artistic staff. Audience members have the opportunity to ask whatever questions come to mind. Various discussions have covered scenic and costume issues, actors’ backgrounds, the nuances of new works, and any number of show specific topics including various types of discrimination/racism, the complications of four actors playing over 40 characters, and the modern high school experience.
Drama School Five years after launching our first summer camp, the Drama School is still going strong. We have continued to bring exciting, dynamic after-school programming to students throughout the Bay Area. This year we successfully piloted three sessions of our newest program, KBAM! (Komic Book Adventure Musicals) and ran five fantastic vacation camps. The Drama School’s programs are in high demand and next year we are hoping to expand our offerings to include more classes for middle school students and more evening classes for adults.
New Works Conservatory Intensive Professional Training for Teens
AT A GLANCE 18 students
2,250 educational interactions
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n the summer of 2010 we held the second session of the New Works Conservatory. This year, 18 students from across the Bay Area came together for 5 weeks of intensive theatre training in Acting, Voice & Diction, Movement, Improvisation, and Playwriting. Working with professional playwright Laura Schellhardt, whose new play Auctioning the Ainsleys opened our 2010-2011 season, these students wrote and later performed original monologues as part of their final performance on the Microsoft campus. Our mission is to provide an intensive atmosphere likened to national conservatories. In this setting we want to provide students interested in careers in the theatre a place to push themselves beyond their comfort zones and test out new artistic territory. Our hope is that they will leave our program with life skills as well as theatre skills that will serve them as they pursue their dreams. The New Works Conservatory students presented their original piece of theatre in two special performances on the Microsoft Campus. “I feel like my acting talent that I had before was completely stripped away and replaced with a new way of interpreting, seeing and really being the part. I will take these new skill sets with me when I do shows from now on. I feel I’ve been changed for the better and it’s all thanks to you guys!”
2010 Conservatory student
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Drama School Additional Camps and Classes CAMPS For yet another year, Vacation Camps were an extremely popular program. Due to high demand, we were able to run several camps simultaneously throughout the Peninsula. As always, the camps ended in a celebration filled with excitement and love in which the students got to show off some of their new skills. Those workshop performances became so popular that fathers had to take standing room only spots in the back, proudly holding their iPhones high in the air hoping to capture the smile on their child’s face as they got to show off what they learned. “You have helped my daughter overcome her fear of being in front of a lot of people!” 2010 Summer Camp parent
AT A GLANCE SUMMER CAMP
148 students
VACATION CAMPS
98 students
CLASSES Continuing on the success of last year's classes, this year we again offered Saturday Classes. Once a week for 4–6 weeks, students joined us on Saturday mornings to participate in specialized workshops in theatre. Here, our students got to stretch their skills in new and creative ways to delve even further into their emerging talent. In these classes, students played, learned, and grew, beginning to bridge the connections between merely having fun, to truly learning an appreciation for acting as a craft. This year we also piloted a series of improv classes for teens and adults taught by teaching artist (and actor in Oskar and the Big Bully Battle!) Ben Johnson. Ben led a lively group of teens and adults through exercises in quick characterization, physicalization, and thinking on your feet. One parent told us that, after seeing how much fun her son was having in class, she was going to sign up the next time the class was offered.
SATURDAY CLASSES
20 students
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS
77 students
“Excellent in helping children with social skills, being attentive, and listening to directions!” Improv Class parent
KBAM! Komic Book Adventure Musicals! This year we piloted a new afterschool program called KBAM! (Komic Book Adventure Musicals). This 10 session program had students work as an ensemble and create, from scratch, their very own original musical theatre piece. Using the archetypes of superheroes and villains, students created their own characters and superpowers and then plugged them into a story they invented. These new heroes and villains then presented their adventures to an enthusiastic group of parents and peers in an open workshop facilitated by the teaching artist. “Es un programa excelente que ayuda a los niños a desarollar sus abilidades (It is an excellent program that helps children develop their skills).” KBAM! parent, Castro Elementary
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Letter from Mary Sutton, TheatreWorks Director of Education
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his spring, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) released a comprehensive study on arts education entitled Reinvesting in Arts Education—Winning America’s Future through Creative Schools. The report is 100 pages of sound research aimed at reinvigorating the creativity and innovation that is seeping from our schools. While class time is more and more focused on multiple choice high stakes testing, the spirit of innovation that has been deeply held in the American psyche since the Declaration of Independence is slipping away from us. Yet, we continue to sacrifice subjects and activities that introduce our students to the practice of using their imaginations—the very stuff of creative thinking, innovation, collaboration—all the needed skills to flourish in the 21st century. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times has said, “Your ability to act on your imagination is going to be so decisive in driving your future and the standard of living of your country. So the school, the state, the country that empowers, nurtures, enables imagination among its students and citizens, that’s who’s going to be the winner.” In the education department at TheatreWorks we are in the business of teaching students and classroom teachers to use their imaginations! We can’t help it. It is the very essence of the art of theatre. In this report we are pleased that we are already well on the way to meeting PCAH’s five recommendations for actions to be undertaken to advance arts education and help build creative schools:
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Build collaborations among different approaches—Connecting arts specialists working on standards based approaches; classroom teachers trained in arts integration; and project-based teaching artists.
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Develop the field of arts integration—growing the field of arts integra tion through strengthening teacher preparation and professional development.
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Expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists—expanding the role of teaching artists, in partnership with arts specialists and classroom teachers, through sustained engagement in schools. This should include supporting high quality professional development in pedagogy and curriculum.
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Utilize federal and state policies to reinforce the place of arts in K-12 education—moving beyond merely “allowing”the arts as an expenditure of comprehensive education.
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Widen the focus of evidence gathering about arts education—support ongoing data-gathering about available opportunities, including teacher quality, resources, and facilities at the local and state level.
This year, with the expansion of our standards based arts integration curriculum, abundant offerings for Professional Development, refined assessment tools and ongoing partnerships, I feel we have taken up the charge, the charge to help our schools and teachers engage students and ensure we will all have thriving futures. We hope you are as excited about our work as we are. Sincerely,
Mary Sutton TheatreWorks Director of Education
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“You can think of creativity as applied imagination.� Sir Ken Robinson, Leading Educator on Creativity & Innovation; The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
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