Center Stage Youth Theatre

Archive for the ‘Performances’ Category

In the introduction to Seattle Children’s Theatre’s Volume II, Six Plays for Young Audiences, Linda Hartzell says:
I believe that people are hungry for a place where age is neither a barrier nor a restriction nor a requirement. I believe that an eleven year old and a sixty-three year old might respond to a piece of theatre together. I believe that people still yearn for some shared experience with their children, parents, grandparents… (Pg. vii)
This statement by the Artistic Director of the Seattle Children’s Theatre in 2000 speaks to the core of what I believe about Theatre for Youth. Multigenerational experiences are very rare for the citizens of our world today. We group children according to age as soon as we are able, beginning often in day care centers for infants and continuing this tradition throughout their school careers. It is my belief that humans can gain great insight into themselves and each other in spending time in activities that offer them positive intergenerational experiences, and that quality theatre for youth productions provide excellent opportunities for such experiences. If crafted with integrity, with proper production values and the same attention to detail that enables a mainstream theatrical event to shine, it is very likely that the theatre for youth production will inspire enthusiasm, enjoyment and thoughtful discussion among audience members of all ages.

I know that much of the emotional pain I feel about this subject comes from within me. The administration, my fellow teachers as well as the students’ parents claimed to be very happy and impressed with my work with the students, and many of the children claimed to love my classes. But the fact remains that I know in my heart that I did not serve them the way they all deserved to be served. I am very glad to be on the road to a greater understanding of the practical and philosophical aspects of teaching theatre as well and adequate practical experience that in the future will lead me to be a teacher worthy of the trust my students and their parents place in me. I hope to somehow become a resource to colleagues and to offer them an educated, backed-by-research perspective on how creative drama and theatre activities can help increase their student’s engagement with the curriculum. I hope I might also be of service in helping to foster learning that will become part of a student’s knowledge base in a way that opens up not only their understanding of the subject matter, but that I might be useful to them in helping to cultivate an understanding of and confidence in themselves as inquiring, successful, life long learners, no matter whether they are so-called “typically developing” or have been identified as having a learning impairment.
But now to return to the subject of new concepts I learned through my research, starting with the term, Theory of Mind (TOM). The Corbett et al article taught me much about this concept, starting with how TOM requires that one learn to “apply mental state concepts to interpret and predict self and other behavior.” (Corbett et al, 2010) Here again is another example of something I knew intrinsically was an important skill, and one that the special needs population often has trouble with, but reading research specifically discussing the subject and accounts of work seeking specifically to enhance it in students was incredibly helpful in enhancing my increased awareness of the topic.
I also felt this way about the discussions of the development of narrative ability in impaired students. The two Peter articles dealt explicitly with this concept, and the resulting knowledge I gained in how important it is to cultivate a child’s ability to play and express himself in narrative style and how that informs (yes!) TOM skills and communication abilities made me feel as if I was suddenly seeing through a fog that had lifted away from an important landscape. How odd it seems to have known this intrinsically (and am I not luckily to have been randomly born to effortless insight into communication?) but not to have actually realized until a research article epiphany just exactly the manifestations the lack of this narrative skill would have on so many aspects of communication skills.

The Myles and Simpson article and the discussion therein about the Hidden Curriculum made a great impression on me. How clear it now seems to me that we “normally” developed human beings learn effortlessly when to make a comment and when to withhold one. How we intrinsically know how to judge when a situation that seems similar to one we have previously felt comfortable asking questions during is now a situation that requires we withhold the questions simply due to the tension level in the room. All this serves to point up to me just how absolutely insurmountable it must feel to children with communication disorders to have any hope of successfully negotiating the minefield that social situations must present to them every day. I saw many of my former students in the examples given of complete and utter social faux pas experienced by the subjects of the study, and felt that pain once again, the pain that comes from the awareness that I did not understand my own special needs students enough during my time at my last teaching job in order to give them what they needed. I fervently wish I had the increased knowledge and understanding I have gained this year when I was working with them. I know that my heart was in the right place, and that my ideas were all positive and well meaning, but my lack of understanding the brain mechanics involved with their disorders and my lack of formal teaching training and experience which caused me to fail to be able to put my lessons and ideas into successful play haunts me still.

The first thing that occurs to me when I think of what I have learned from the lit review is that this assignment has given me a great opportunity to hone my skills in reading and understanding (and in having confidence in my reading and understanding of) scholarly articles. I read many more articles than made it into the summaries section, and while I had previously been dubious as to my ability to think and on a level with researchers, I have discovered to my delight that I have very much enjoyed and understood what I have read. Also, the process of discovery when seeking and finding articles online feels like Christmas Morning to me; the very idea that we can type in a subject on the library webpage and instantly be treated not only to the titles of helpful books amazes me! And in the case of the articles, many times one more click brings the entire text to my computer screen! As a woman who grew up in the 70’s (this assumes I am a grown up now, of course) and experienced years of seemingly endless searches through microfilms and the physical pages of actual reality journals, the ease with which one can now access information feels for me very close to magic.
But to the subject at hand: My research brought many new perspectives as well as strong emotions to the forefront of my awareness as a teacher. I think perhaps the strongest change in my understanding has to do with the way I now understand better the complications of communication disorders and the social disconnects that occur in the various populations of impaired children.

RUTLAND RECREATION & PARKS DEPARTMENT

RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD FOR PARKS AND RECREATION

Rutland, VT July 2012— Rutland Recreation & Park Department was recently selected to receive the National Dorothy Mullen Arts and Humanities Award by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). NRPA will present the award publicly at a special reception at the association’s 2012 Congress & Exposition in Anaheim, Ca on Wednesday, October 17.

Each year, NRPA National Awards are presented to individuals and agencies across the U.S. to honor their efforts—both professional and personal—in the field of parks and recreation. Recipients are selected from a pool of applicants by NRPA’s National Forum Awards Committee, and are chosen for excellence in a variety of topics, including professional and voluntary service, programming, leadership, research and public outreach.

The award was given to the department based on the success of the Rutland Youth Theatre program which is run through Rutland Recreation & Parks Department. Rutland Youth Theatre was started in the Fall of 2002 with workshops run by Susan (Baker) Scaccia. The first stage performance was Romeo & Juliet in the fall of 2003. By 2007 the program was running four performances a year and summer camps providing year round theatre programming for youth in the Rutland area from kindergarten through high school. Saskia Hagen Groom is the current director for RYT and has expanded the program to include a fall play. Rutland Youth Theatre provides a safe, accepting community in which youth thrive in the tradition of theatre arts.

EJay Bishop, Superintendent notes that “the receipt of the Dorothy Mullen Arts & Humanities Award is made possible by the tremendous dedication of our director Saskia Hagen Groom, professional guidance, management and passion provided by our Recreation Director Cindi Wight, the parents and community members who continually give of their time and our local businesses who through sponsorships contribute the resources needed to maintain this quality program. Starting with Susan and continuing with Saskia we have had the necessary leadership to provide a wonderful opportunity for the children in our community and we look forward to a long and continued success.”

“NRPA is pleased to honor our nation’s park and recreation heroes—agencies and individuals who work tirelessly and with passion to improve the lives of their citizens and make their communities great,” said Barbara Tulipane, CEO of NRPA.

Rutland Youth Theatre will be holding auditions for the fall production of the Jungle Book on Sunday 8/26/12 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. and Monday 8/27/12 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the Godnick Adult Center. Performances are October 19 and 20 at Rutland Intermediate School. We are excited to bring back Annie which will be performed December 14 & 15 at the Paramount Theatre including a youth orchestra. Auditions will be held 10/14/12 from 3:00-6:00 p.m. and 10/15/12 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the Godnick Adult Center.

The National Recreation and Park Association is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing park, recreation and conservation efforts that enhance quality of life for all people. Through its network of 20,000 recreation and park professionals and citizens,

NRPA encourages the promotion of healthy lifestyles, recreation initiatives, and conservation of natural and cultural resources.

For more information, visit www.NRPA.org. For digital access to NRPA’s flagship publication,

Drama and the Special Needs Student
Anna Smulowitz Clopton and Harriet Davis

Here is an article I almost discounted, as it was written in 1979, and I was sure it couldn’t offer me much. But this piece surprised me and gave me insight into how long the struggle to find the optimum ways to help learning impaired students has truly been going on. The two different programs described here involve middle school aged children.
Kingsbury Lab School was a place for children of average and above average intelligence with a variety of different abilities and disabilities. The Lab school was committed to the idea that “learning is facilitated and reinforced by the creative process,” (Clopton & Davis, 1979) but that in order for the drama activities to enhance learning in the disabled children the structure and planning of the activities must be painstakingly attended to. The structure of the activity was carefully taught to the children so that in case they became “lost or disassociated along the way” (1979) they could return to the basic structure for reference. The teacher at the Lab School, Anna Clopton, found that this was a positive way to build confidence in her students and to allow them the comfort level they needed to then take the risk of striking out into their own creative exploration.
The Mark Twain School was a school for special needs children who had been labeled with Emotional and Behavioral Disorder (EBD). Harriett Davis, drama teacher at this school reported, “Some of the children have learning disabilities, and others have physical disabilities, but they all have one problem in common – they are bright children who are failing in public school.” (1979) Ms. Davis also stated that this was almost universally because the children had emotional issues which interfered with their learning.
Ms. Davis’ drama program operated differently from the program at the Lab school. She had tried and failed to reach the children armed with her training as a Drama teacher and a well-designed program of previously successful activities she felt sure would captivate and enhance learning in her students. But the children at Mark Twain did not engage at all in what she offered them, responding either by refusing to participate or by acting out, and Ms. Davis felt that this was largely due to that fact that her students were so “terrified of failure that they would refuse to do anything.” Ms. Davis felt she had to reorganize her program to meet the kids “where they lived.” She began to give the children much more freedom in their choice of topics, and to “discover topics that had universal appeal.” She felt concern at first that she might be sacrificing her standards as a teacher but eventually came to feel that this was balanced out by the way the new, student led topics – “barroom fights, bank robberies, rock groups in performance, street gang fights, restaurant fights, horror stories” – were useful in that they found comfort in these familiar and well known subjects, and that the work that resulted from these story lines was useful in bringing the students to a frame of mind through which they could “upgrade their self concepts in a special way.” (1979) While this resulted in a rather chaotic time for the drama program at Mark Twain, eventually the program began to develop a sense of structure and creative success, leading to a sense of pride and accomplishment – for the students as well as their teacher – in what they were accomplishing.

Instructional Effectiveness of an Integrated Theatre Arts Program for Children
Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Their Nondisabled Peers

John McCarthy and Janice Light

Children using Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) systems face seemingly insurmountable challenges on a daily basis.  This article provides a fine look at how children using AAC can be benefit from engaging in creative drama activities with their nondisabled peers.  These activities can lead them to more success with engagement levels in their school and home lives as well as increasing their opportunities for and skills as communicators.

I found this article to be quite a fascinating look into the lives of this population young people, as well as another example of the positive effect drama activities can have in helping children with yet another manifestation of the possible communication issues.  The subject of engagement was discussed quite liberally in the piece, because the possibilities for students operating at this high level of communication impairment to disengage from the learning environment are common and extremely problematic.  Teaching through drama requires a high level of individual and group engagement, and so it is theorized by the authors that drama is a very positive way to secure optimum engagement with the impaired children in the study.
The authors also point out that in addition to providing enhanced experiences for the children using the AAC, there were benefits to the unimpaired children in the study as well, stating that “the high levels of engagement, participation, and success across children lend support to the use of theatre activities in integrated settings – an approach that may provide a nonthreatening way to help integrate children and their nondisabled peers.”

Drama: A Teaching Tool for Culturally Diverse Children With Behavior Disorders
Nathaniel Bynum and James Jackson

This article served to offer me a different perspective on the uses of drama with a different population of children. Culturally diverse children, while perhaps not afflicted with ASD, are often represented at a higher than average rate in classrooms for students with emotional behavioral disorders. This is possibly because the schools many culturally diverse children attend place little emphasis on “providing these children with information on how they can integrate the values of their culture with those of the schools,” leaving these children with a heightened sense of isolation and discomfort. (Bynum & Jackson, 2012) The authors cite as a hopeful practice the growing use of drama experiences and training in order to “enhance educational programming and help children understand the dynamics of their culture within the school and its expectations.” (2012)
The authors suggest that it is important when developing creative drama activities for culturally diverse students that they feel that the activities address their cultural heritage even as it incorporates a useful lesson. In addition, they feel that in presenting these activities to this population, attention must be “focused on three areas. These areas include creating the drama, presenting the activity and presenting the drama as lesson.” (2010)
The authors conclude with a statement regarding the theory that drama can offer a safe, interactive and emotionally safe way for children of diverse cultures to create a more healthy way of looking at themselves, as well as a way to communicate what is important to them about the place and people they have left behind. In this way, it is speculated, the child will find more comfort in his new surroundings, build skills that will allow him to communicate more easily and to relate – with a more positive outcome – to his new surroundings and community.

Brief Report:  Theatre as Therapy for Children with Autism

Blythe Corbett, Joan Gunther, Dan Comins, Jenifer Price, Niles Ryan, David Simon, Clayton W. Schupp and Taylor Roos

This very interesting study is an evaluation of an intervention program through a theatrical intervention program, Social Emotional NeuroScience Endocrinology (SENSE)Theatre.  This innovative program is designed to “improve socioemotional functioning and reduce stress in children with autism spectrum disorder.” (Corbett et al, 2010)

What captivated me the most about this article was its juxtaposition of theatre intervention and biological data collected from the children in the form of blood and saliva samples in order to demonstrate the chemical reactions the bodies of the involved students had as a result of the drama activities.  I also found interesting the fact that the researchers were quite interested in the heightened anxiety levels the afflicted children experienced as a result of their inaccuracy at interpreting  social cues and behavior, and in observing how these raised anxiety levels might in turn further restrict satisfactory social and cognitive function.

The SENSE program casts impaired participants along with typically developing peers in a musical production, and utilizes an intricate system of modeling by the peer actors who, in addition to rehearsing their own parts, record the impaired actor’s parts on video.  The impaired participants then have an excellent tool they can use to help them rehearse as they learn to imitate the performances on the tapes.  This system incorporates a number of useful approaches to social skills enhancement including “{peer}modeling, providing a nurturing, fun environment, natural reinforcers, multiple trainers

{as well as }video modeling.” (2010)

http://www.cas.sc.edu/thea/SDC/SummerDrama.html

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Registration Deadline Extended: Register by May 31! Click here to register! The USC Drama Conservatory is a summer acting intensive on the Columbia campus of the University of South Carolina. Directed and taught by USC Theatre Professor Peter Duffy, with the assistance of graduate theatre students, the conservatory program is dedicated to providing aspiring theatre artists with a challenging, stimulating and fun training and performance experience. Programs are available in the following age divisions: High School, Middle School, Upper Elementary and Early Elementary. Click the Divisions link above for more information on each area. The USC Drama Conservatory is hosted by the University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance. For over 35 years, the department’s theatre program has sustained a reputation as the state’s premiere resource for theatre instruction, offering undergraduate and advanced degrees in performance, design, directing and teacher training.