FOLKTALE PLAYWRITING Our most popular program focuses on oral tradition, literary genre, elements of story, sequencing of events and creative writing, and enables students to create their own folktales in play form. A performance of these plays at course end gives the students confidence with self-expression and live performance. Study materials for this course are from Scholastic’s Folktale Plays from Around the World, written by Attic Salt Theatre Company staff. LITERATURE IN THE NEWS This program allows students to create their own newspaper and live news report using a book already being studied in their Language Arts class. The concentration is placed on important Language Arts skills, such as informative narrative, voice, hyperbole and objectivity vs. subjectivity. TRUE-LIFE PUPPETS Our puppet program uses a cross-curricular approach that focuses on Social Studies, Writing and Oral Presentation as well as Puppet-making. Creating and performing with puppets drawn from their History or Geography lessons requires the students to do a lot of correlative thinking, a skill that is often difficult for elementary and early-middle school students. SHAKESPEARE CLUB Over the course of the program students will study one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays and then modernize selected scenes by re-writing them in Standard English and updating the setting to modern day. This gives the students a chance to glance at history, translate a language and interpret meaning. The new scenes will be performed at the end of the program giving them confidence and allowing self-expression. SONGWRITING Creative Writing and Poetry are paramount in this class, which focuses on the Language Arts, such as strong storytelling, character point-of-view, main idea and supporting details, as well as rhyme scheme and syllabic structures. Finally, it’s a singing class where students will have the opportunity to perform their own melodies (based on a classroom theme) in a creative, group environment. THEATER PERFORMANCE This program takes a student-created script from start to finish, with the focus on everything that leads up to a performance, including script analysis, character development, storytelling, stage presence, theater terminology and the rehearsal process. Using critical thinking skills, students will analyze every aspect of the performance process as they bring a show —encompassing short scenes, poems, monologues and music, based around a theme—from inception to curtain call. CREATE-YOUR-OWN-PROGRAM! Because the needs of each school are different, we are always happy to work with teachers and administrators to create programs that work for you. We can fashion programs for any specific course of study, including Language Arts, Social Studies and even Math and Science. Call us with your ideas and we’ll be happy to design a program especially for you!
Please contact Marci Bernstein at [email protected]for information about bringing a residency or workshop to your school. All of our programs are fully adaptable to your time and budgetary needs.