Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists
Institute News
Volume 1 Issue 2
Mar./Apr., 2009
What we’ve been up to
and what’s upcoming!
Mark Your Calendar!
June 1-5
Institute Summer Seminar
June 6
Affiliate Teacher Summer
Seminar
June 8-10
WAC Arts Learning
Collaborative
June 10-12
Wolf Trap Summer Seminar
July 31
FY09 ACE Final Report due
to Institute
August 28
FY09 ACE Final Report due
to GCA
Institute & VSA
arts of Georgia
Partner at
Jacob’s Ladder
“The Alliance Institute and VSA arts of Georgia
are in full-fledged partnership in the 2009-2010
school year at Jacob’s Ladder Neurodevelopmental
Learning Center in Roswell GA, a nonprofit private
school established to provide children with the
services they need in order to realize their full
potential,” says Jaehn Clare, Director of Artistic
Development with VSA. Jaehn serves as liaison
between the Institute and VSA, as Arts Education
Consultant. Teaching Artists with and without
disabilities will lead J. L. students in arts education
activities, like the puppets Jacob Wuttke, Shara
Barnes-Schwartz and Madison Rice made, pictured
above with their J. L. Artistic Director, Sally Walker.
continued on page 5
Table of Contents
Drama Partners
Community Foundation Book Donation
Page 2
Middle Stages
Playwrights Abound at Sandy Springs MS
Page 2
Collision Plus
Suffragettes and Superheroes at N. Springs Charter
Page 3
Georgia Wolf Trap
Drama and Literature Thrive at Dresden ES
Page 3
Best Practices
Theater Techniques & Language Arts by Adam Throne
Page 4
Education Dept. News
Auditions/Interviews for Collision Project 2009
Page 4
Institute Funders
Newell Rubbermaid Donation
Page 6
Other News
Alliance Children’s Theatre Guild Read ALOUD Workshop
Page 6
PAGE 1 OF 6
Institute News
Drama Partners
Community
Foundation
Book
Donation
Middle Stages
Playwrights
Abound
at Sandy
Springs MS
Starting with Aristotle’s six Elements
of Dramatic Theatre: Plot, Character, Thought,
Diction, Music, and Spectacle, Institute Teaching
Artist, Jennifer Hebblethwaite led Sandy Springs MS
students in exercises that analyzed dramatic and
narrative texts, exploring each one of the Aristotelian
Elements. They then analyzed “Class of 3000 LIVE,”
using these elements as guides.
“School plays a prominent role in the story, and
the plot examines artistic
expression and its place
in the community,” said
Wendy Courtade, Sandy
Springs’ Language Arts
Teacher. “Students were
encouraged to explore
these themes as they created a
final project grounded in the Aristotelian
concepts.”
Each student wrote their own 10-minute play as
their final project, that they then presented in a formal
reading for family, invited
guests and the school
principal.
Wendy has repeated
Jennifer’s techniques
and the lesson plans they
codeveloped in three of her other
Sandy Springs’ classrooms.
----------#----------
Drama Partners (Grades 1-5) Ten classroom session residencies
with 5 collaborative planning sessions by the teaching artist and
classroom teacher to infuse creative drama and ensemble skills
with specific curriculum governed by the Georgia Performance
Standards, including a field trip to the Alliance Theatre for an
authentic, live theatre experience.
Middle Stages (Grades 6-8) Same number of sessions,
collaborative planning and GPS curriculum infusion as Drama
Partners with a concentration on playwriting skills and dramatic
character development based on students’ discussions of
the play’s themes and their relationships to the students’ life
experiences.
PAGE 2 OF 6
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The Community Foundation
donated 12 books to each Media
Center of Institute Partner Schools Clifton ES,
Dresden ES, Garden Hills ES, Neighborhood Charter,
Parkside ES, Sawyer Road ES, and Woodland ES.
At three of those schools, C. F. made an additional
donation of the book, “Friendly Tales,” the Golden
Book stories by Margaret Wise Brown, author of
“Goodnight Moon,” to each student who attended
that Alliance production.
Pictured above, Kathy Ames’ Kindergarten
students at Dresden ES proudly display their personal
copies of this book and thank the Community
Foundation for the generous donation to their school’s
nine Kindergarten classrooms. Students in four
Kindergarten classrooms at Clifton Elementary and in
two 2nd Grade classrooms at Sawyer Road ES also
received their own, personal books. And, as already
mentioned, each of these three schools’
Media Centers received this
book and 11 others of
various titles.
Pictured here
with the Media
Center’s books are
Institute Teaching
Artist, Nancy Meyer
with Dresden’s ELL
Teacher, Nancy Foskey,
and Librarian, Phyllis
Smith.
----------#----------
Institute News
Collision Plus
Georgia Wolf Trap
Suffragettes and
Superheroes
at N. Springs
Charter
Drama and
Literature Thrive
at Dresden
Elementary
continued on page 6
Collision Plus (Grades 9-12) This exciting program optimizes the
classroom experience with the Teaching Artist by encouraging
the students to experience the themes of the play as writers and
actors, thus creating their own pieces of theatre.
All nine Dresden ES
kindergarten classes are exploring
the works of Eric Carle during their weekly
Wolf Trap times with Master Wolf Trap Teaching
Artist, Nancy Meyer. They have become Grouchy
Ladybugs, Little Rubber
Ducks, and various animals
from “From Head to Toe,”
like Ms. Donnell’s class of
a Mixed Up Chameleon
(in green, bottom picture),
elephants and Hermit
Crabs (2 pictures above), who
find and decorate their
new homes, and Ms. Hoatland’s
class of antlered Deer and pink
hatted Flamingos (pictured left).
As these wily animals go
“in” their shells, put antlers “on”
their heads and move “around”
their chameleon friend to
help him regain his original
chameleon form, language as story
and drama unify “into” learning.
The 1st and 2nd grade
students of Ms. Carlson, Ms.
Henry, Ms. Weir, and Ms.
Whitesell received standing
ovations and autograph
requests for self-publishing
student stories inspired
by “Goodnight, Moon” AND for
presenting their stories to kindergarten
classes, parents and administrators. Congratulations
from the Institute to you all!
----------#---------Georgia Wolf Trap Regional Program — Early Learning
Through the Arts (Grades PreK-K) Eight week residencies in 25
kindergarten classrooms and professional learning for teachers
and teaching artists.
PAGE 3 OF 6
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Since the Alliance Institute’s
residency began at N. Springs Charter
High School on the Monday before Election Day,
Adam Throne, Language Arts Instructor, began
the Collision with superheroes with an excerpt
from the novel, “Speak,” on the suffragettes, a
superhero cartoon (Superman) speaking on the right
to vote, and a newspaper article that compared
the Presidential Candidates. With this introduction,
superheroes became real life humans, who both
demanded and now exercise their rights as citizens.
Adam is shown in the picture above, nine
residency sessions later, videotaping his students,
as they performed their original plays, based on their
own Superheroes’ powers and themes.
Ms. Patricia Heys, ESOL Instructor, (picture far
right in photo below) and her class attended a few
days of classes in Mr. Throne’s room
to see how the Institute
Program operated
to implement an
ESOL-theatre-based
project in her class.
(See “Best Practices”
on following page to
learn more.)
Adam found another
use of Theatre Arts in the
classroom spurred by the
Alliance Theatre Institute with a Monologue Contest
for the school’s annual Teen Health Night. He had
his classes write teen health monologues and, if they
chose, submit them to the contest.
Several of the winners who were participants
in the Alliance Theatre Institute program were
Institute News
Best Practices
Education Dept. News
Theatre Techniques and
Language Arts: Alliance Theatre
Education in the Classrooms at
North Springs Charter School
© by Adam Throne, Language Arts Instructor
continued on page 5
Calling all Institute Classroom Teachers! This is your column to share the
planning methods and practices, that make your Institute Teaching Artist
Residencies successful. How do you assess a residency’s impact on
students? How do you keep your bearings? Share what works and how
you make it work. Send your Best Practices to
[email protected].
Audition Dates............................ April 6, 7 and 9
Audition Times.........................4:00 PM-9:00 PM
Where................................ The Alliance Theatre
1280 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309
Collision Project Description:
The Collision Project, a new play development
program, began 8 years ago at the Alliance Theatre.
Each summer metro Atlanta teens work three
weeks with Rosemary Newcott, the Artistic Director
of Theatre for Youth, and a playwright to create
theatre for and about themselves by “colliding” with
a dramatic text. You, too, can explore a classic
play through theatre games, writing exercises,
improvisation, and more. At the conclusion of the
project, you will perform the work you have created
for an audience of family, friends, Alliance Theatre
staff, and members of the Atlanta artistic community.
Eventually, the work you have done will become a
new play written by the playwright and will tour into
area high schools with a cast of university actors.
The Collision Project is free to you and a fantastic
way to become a part of the South’s premier
regional theatre company, meet and collaborate
with professional theatre artists, participate in an
innovative creative process, and make great new
friends from schools all over the metro area!
What we are looking for: Rising 10th-12th
graders. Young people with heart, soul and a voice.
The Ensemble of the Collision Project is made up
of actors, singers, dancers, writers, directors, and
techies. Anyone, regardless of experience is invited
to audition and interview to become a part of this
project. As long as you have something to say and
the desire to say, we would love to meet you.
For more information or to schedule your
audition/interview please contact Kirk Seaman,
Alliance Theatre for Youth Manager, at kirk.seaman@
woodruffcenter.org or call 404-733-4660.
----------#---------Please follow the link, below, to find more information about film classes,
stage classes and general acting classes for adults and children. All
actor training is done at the Alliance Theatre, located in the Woodruff
Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The Acting Program can be contacted at
404.733.4700.
http://alliancetheatre.org/education.aspx?id=50
PAGE 4 OF 6
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In addition to the intended use of Theatre Arts
in several 9th grade classrooms and one 11th grade
classroom (begun last year with Teaching Artist
Valetta Anderson and North Springs Language Arts
instructors Adam Throne and Jami Sieder), The
North Springs program has grown in scope and has
been implemented in other classrooms as well. This
year saw the continuation of the program in two of
Adam Throne’s 9th grade classrooms, and one of
Jackie Protos’ classrooms (Ms. Protos took over
the 11th grade project from Ms. Sieder following the
latter’s maternity leave), with both Ms. Protos and
Mr. Throne implementing the theatre strategies in
their other classrooms. Mr. Throne replicates the
entire project in one other 9th grade classroom
and borrows elements of it with his Honor’s 9th
grade classes; his comments about the program’s
effectiveness in motivating student interest and
participation have been shared in previous reports.
In addition, Ms. Protos commented that her students
really loved the interaction with the theatre games,
enjoyed acting out monologues – she said “the
literature they wrote was able to ‘come alive’ in this
way,” and that the students were able to connect the
text of Frederick Douglass to their own characters
and time periods.
Because of the successful implementation of
the project in these classrooms, Language Arts
Department Chair Judy Roseman asked Mr. Throne
to present a summary and demonstration of the
project to his department colleagues, as well as to
members of the North Springs ESOL department.
Mr. Throne and Ms. Seeder brainstormed ideas
based on their experiences with the program and
Auditions/Interviews for the
Collision Project Summer 2009
Institute News
Institute & VSA
continued from page 1
developed a plan that could easily be implemented
by other classroom teachers. The goals and
effectiveness of the following activities were
discussed in this meeting:
1. Zip Zap: Students love this game.
2. Clap around / Clap around w/ Vocabulary:
Helped with student memorization
techniques.
3. Clap around w/ Vocabulary, Definition,
and Part of Speech: Provided additional
memorization support when these elements
were added to the basic game.
4. “VocabProv” game: Mr. Throne developed
a game where players must give words,
definitions, parts of speech and sentences
“on the spot” or have to sit out the game.
5. “VocabProv” Acting – Mr. Throne’s classes
acted out words/meanings (Like a game of
charades).
6. Story Study & Literary Elements: The
effectiveness of this study coupled with
theatre was discussed...
As a result of this Interdepartmental meeting,
Ms. Patricia Heys, a North Springs ESOL instructor,
took a keen interest in the motivational success of
the program and how it could translate with her
ESOL students. Ms. Heys and her class attended
a few days of classes in Mr. Throne’s room to see
how the program operated, and used her findings
(and the ensuing enthusiasm of her students) to
implement an ESOL-theatre-based project in her
class. Here is what she said about the results:
“The ESOL students in my classes (English
language levels beginner, intermediate and
advanced) had the opportunity to visit and observe
the Alliance Theatre Institute’s work... The students
were not only observers of the program’s curriculum
but participants as well. Students were instructed
on communication skills in the areas of eye contact,
oral communication and body language. Students
collaborated with each other and the instructors on
creating, developing and presenting improvisational
skits for an audience of their peers.”
----------#---------Adam Throne’s methods of sharing Theatre Techniques
will continue in the May‑June Issue of Institute News
PAGE 5 OF 6
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“Institute Teaching Artist,
Claire Ritzler came to J.L.
to enhance a project that
the teen group had started.
Based on animal characters
from ‘The Prince Child,’
she worked with our students to
create head puppets on poles,” explains
Arnie Barnes-Schwartz J.L’s Grants Coordinator and
Instructor in the Arts Program.
“But first we worked with a puppet, that I built
years ago,” says Claire, “to practice movement with
a large puppet and gain the idea of the scale of the
puppets they would be building.” (See photo above
with Rhett Lovell, Claire Ritzler and Shara BarnesSchwartz.)
“Students involved in the upcoming school year
will be our teens,” Arnie continues, “extended day
students, transitional students going to public and
private schools, as well as several students, who will
have some type of arts on their individual programs.
This program will enhance our students’ general
education through 100 hours of arts programming in
music, dance, drama, and visual arts.”
Says Institute Director, Carol Jones, “This is the
first partnership between the Institute and VSA arts
of Georgia and we are thrilled to be combining our
efforts for Jacob’s Ladder students.” Jaehn Clare,
a Georgia Wolf Trap artist since 2006, is part of the
creative team of diverse educators and teaching
artists, who will offer the students a rich learning
environment designed to further enhance the
educational culture provided by Jacob’s Ladder staff
and faculty.
Arnie concludes that, “VSA arts of Georgia has
experienced artists, who work with developmentally
delayed students and we are most pleased to have
an opportunity to be in partnership with the Alliance
Theatre and VSA. Their expertise and professional
approaches to Arts Education will be of significant
value to our mission, ‘that every brain is capable
of new growth and change. No matter what the
condition or diagnosis given we know that the brain
can change based on the input and stimulation it
receives. Our job is to provide that intense interaction
and stimulation.’” (See www.jacobsladdercenter.com)
----------#----------
Theatre Techniques
continued from page 4
Institute News
Newell
Rubbermaid
Donation
The Guild’s Read ALOUD workshop,
held February 23, was lead by Master Wolf Trap
Artist, Nancy Meyer. Pictured above from left to right
are Guild members Becca McCoy, Elaine Eisemann,
June Tompkins (Guild President), Renie Faulkenberry,
Betty Brewer‑Calvert, Nancy Meyer, and Julie Greer.
Each lady brought her own favorite story, which they
all worked with, along with “Who Will Tuck Me in at
Night?” by Carol Roth, which each received.
On Read Across America Day, this March the
Guild will read at Dresden ES and Garden Hills ES.
If an Institute partner school would like to submit a
request for Guild volunteers to read aloud at their
school, please contact AT Institute Project Assistant,
Elizabeth Neidel at 404.733.4661 or elizabeth.
[email protected]
----------#----------
Suffragettes & Superheroes
continued from page 3
Jennifer Peterson, Jade Hall, Wilmeica Jenkins, and
Imani Quarles. Institute Program students Jennifer
Peterson and Arielle McKenzie performed their
own work. Jade Hall’s monologue was selected as a runner-up for “Best Monologue.” And Kelly Young’s
performance of Imani Quarles’ monologue won Ms. Young first place in the “Acting” category.
----------#----------
Carol Jones, Director
Institute for Educators
and Teaching Artists
1280 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta GA 30309
For more information contact
Michele Mummert, Institute Program Manager
404.733.4708
[email protected]
or go to
http://alliancetheatre.org/education.aspx?id=180%20
Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists is made
possible by support from Atlanta Foundation, Callaway Foundation,
Community Foundation, Brad and Mary Foster Fund, Fulton County
Arts Council, Georgia Council for the Arts, Georgia Pacific Foundation,
Goizueta Foundation, Newell Rubbermaid, UPS Foundation,
U.S. Department of Education, and Wachovia Foundation.
PAGE 6 OF 6
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Newell Rubbermaid
enjoyed a site visit
at Woodland ES
so Jackie Parker, VP
Global Inclusion and Diversity at
Newell Rubbermaid, could see for herself the
difference their generosity makes in this Institute
Partner School. Pictured above are Sharon Brewer,
AT Director of Education, Jackie Parker, Tony
Lawson, AT Associate Director of Institutional
Partnerships, and Davia Weatherill, AT Grant
Manager.
Newell Rubbermaid’s donation includes a gift of
$25,000 dollars and potential classroom supplies
such as Sharpies and other relevant products that
are requested by AT which are produced and
manufactured by Newell Rubbermaid.
In the next picture,
right, AT Teaching
Artist, Nancy
Meyer leads Dawn
Bramlet’s class, as
Jackie Parker (far right)
observes.
----------#----------
Alliance
Children’s
Theatre Guild
Read ALOUD