The Grand in Ellsworth
Offering workshops for middle school and high school-age students, Mozart’s Magic Flute, Wednesday, April 11, 9-11:00AM. Curriculum materials available for teachers to integrate into the classroom. Cost is $7.00 per student. For more information please to to the Grand website at http://www.grandonline.org/.
Melbourne Festival 2011
This is fascinating, a combination of dance, theatre, and singing. Moving up and down as the voices go up and down, the intensity made me want to watch it over and over. Enjoy!
Thank you to Visual Art Educator, Chris Milliken, who is on sabbatical from his teaching position at Wells Junior High School while he does graduate work at Concordia University in Montreal for sending this link.
April and May calendar filled with student opps
“I have seen many of this theater’s school productions and they are always entertaining as well as containing some sort of message. It’s a great way to get the theater arts into schools”, states music educator Cynthia McGuire.
This year, the elementary school production is “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship” adapted by Bill Van Horn based on the Russian folktale by Andrew Lang. In the story, the fool sets of on an adventure to change his life. Along the way he learns the power of believing in yourself, the value of friendship, and the importance of following your dreams.
Also touring is a 50-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” This play is recommended for students in grades 6-9. Schools may choose to bring the productions to their hometown or take a field trip to historic Cumston Hall in beautiful Monmouth, Maine.
Information on the dates, plays, and workshops is available at this link:
http://www.theateratmonmouth.org/page-to-stage_brochure2012.pdf
If you are interested in learning more or if you have questions, please email producing director, Dawn McAndrews’ at dawn@theateratmonmouth.org.
Dance those thoughts
This post is about a TEDx presentation by John Bohannon, an American, who presented in Brussels on this theory of dancing to present information instead of using power point. He is a biologist and a journalist and uses an alter ego known as the Gonzo Specialist. He runs the “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest.
This presentation is not only about that concept but John does it with an example of teaching/conveying science ideas. It also is about the information age and creativity and so many other ideas may popped into my mind as I watched this TEDx. John has challenged his students to use dance to present findings for Ph.D. research and it has turned into a world-wide contest. If you google Ph.D. dance you will see numerous examples of submitted ideas for the contest. But if you don’t have time right now to look at several right you can bookmark this link that has the 2011 winners of the contest. I suggest on the next snow day you can view them. And, perhaps this might give you ideas on how to engage your students in their learning/assessment in a different way. And here is one example that shows the epic mating battle of the fruit flies stars three dancers who undertake extremely clever choreography to depict various stages in the process. Consider sharing this information with your students. It would be great to hear their feedback.
Thank you to Karen Montanaro for sharing this information.
Puppet as metaphor
Many of you are familiar with Figures of Speech, the puppeteers from Freeport. This is a brief explanation from their website to give you an idea of how much more they are then “just puppets”.
Figures of Speech Theatre incubates the creative energies of its artist members, catalyzes the creation of theater rooted in the expressive power of the puppet as a distillation of life forces, and challenges audiences to venture into realms that are mythic, larger-than-life, animated explorations of the numinous boundary world between being and becoming.
If you’ve had the chance to see them performing I am sure you’ll agree with me that they are fantastic. John and Carol Farrell started Figures of Speech, I think, 32 years ago. In September they contributed at the TEDxDirigo that was held in Maine and recently I was sent the link to their presentation that was about the”puppet as metaphor”.
Take a look at their presentation by clicking here and let us know what you think by posting a comment below.
Several years ago after returning from three weeks in Japan through the Fulbright Memorial Fund program Carol Farrell spent a week with my students creating puppets which we linked to a social studies/Language Arts unit on Immigration. It was a wonderful opportunity for my students to expand their thinking and for me as well.
NBC announces school programs
NBC is funding an initiative to create musical theater programs in U.S. schools in need of arts education. Twenty schools from throughout the US have received funding to pilot the program. The program will expand in the fall to another 180 programs and they have a goal of 1,000 schools by 2014. NBC is parterning with Make a Musical project by iTheatrics to reach the 1 million students by 2014. Read the article recently posted in the Huffington Post about this program by clicking here. You can learn more and obtain the application on the iTheatrics website.
A few good stories
I have been cleaning out as I start 2012 and found over 20 drafts for blog posts. Each of the segments below could be full blog posts however, in the nature of “cleaning up” I have compiled them into a “this and that” post because I didn’t want to leave any out. Enjoy! There may be another post similar to this one since there are still 14 drafts!
This is a story about a woman named Vy Higginsen who brings young people together each weekend in Harlem to study gospel music. Her original intent was to save the music however it has turned into a much greater project. She has auditions each fall for 13-19 year olds to select the participants. Vy says: “Learning the music of gospel as an artform.” And a comment from a viewer: “In Gospel for Teens, we see in the faces of the youth how lives are transformed when they are granted a vehicle of expression.” I suggest you take a look at these when you have a few minutes to view them them from beginning to end.
View Part 1 by clicking here.
View Part 2 by clicking here.
Thank you to Pete Mickelson for sharing this information.
A teacher describes her teaching experience with experiential learning. Students using their own voice to explore their learning. She has taught in several schools in different states and presently in a school in PA with one 2 one laptops.
Thank you to Pete Mickelson for sharing this information.
Article from the Art of Science Learning written by Martin Storksdieck that you can read by clicking here.
Thank you to Pete Mickelson for sharing this information.
The International Child Art Foundation has served as the leading art and creativity organization for American children and their international counterparts since 1997. ICAF organized the Arts Olympiad, hosts the World Children’s Festival, and publishes the ChildArt magazine for the development of students’ creativity and empathy. The link below will take you to the Children’s World Festival celebrating peace and diversity. Please click here to learn more. And one of Maine’s students artwork will be included in the event. Read about it by clicking here.
For Art and Neuroscience check out this article about an exhibit at the Franklin Institute on Automaton. Please click here.
Providing opportunities for artists to pursue their learning and creating the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation website gives you an overview and information. Please click here.
Thank you to Nancy Salmon for sharing this link.
When well-coached and inspired, kids are miraculous performers . . . and, they all deserve the opportunity to feel the nervousness and thrill of performing . . . shining as brightly as the spot-light they stand in.
Suzanne Farrell (George Balanchine’s muse) is quoted as saying, “The only place to learn is ‘out there,’ on the edge, when the beginning and end of your career hinges on that one performance, that one moment.”
Even though kids aren’t looking for a performing career, there is something about “being on stage” that demands their total commitment to every word they speak, every gesture they make, and every stage-direction they follow. They also experience the dynamic interplay between themselves, the other performers and the audience. In fact, I think the stage teaches one of life’s biggest lessons . . . the universal appeal of one’s vitality, awareness, presence and spontaneity.
Karen gives her permission to quote her with the above statement on the theatre.
The article written by Eric Fox for the December 13th issue is called “Every Student Is At Risk. I found it has ‘food for thought’ and recommend it. Please click here.
I am not sure when I stumbled upon this site but it has some good information that you might want to check out. Please click here.
Mrs. Girbino is an art teacher for grade 3, 4, and 5 at Leighton Elementary School. She has a blog with many wonderful ideas and examples of her students’ art work. You can check it out by clicking here.
“My grandfather taught me a valuable lesson, that there are a lot of boring people out there, the more unusual the people you hang out with, the more fun you’re going to have.”
Kents Hill School to present 25th annual Young People’s Holiday Show
From Capital Weekly an article about the Readfiled’s School holiday show that is scheduled for December 13th and 14th. The production is “St. George and the Dragon”. The students at Kents Hill have been performaning annually for the local elementary children since 1987. You can find the article by clicking here.
Hermon High School
A note about the process of producing Singin’ in the Rain at Hermon High School:
The arts are a gateway to real-world skills and ideas, and, for the first time ever, Hermon High School is proud to announce that this year’s fall musical has been completely produced by the students in Hermon High School’s Theatre Production class.
The Theater Production class features the Marvelous Marketers, Costumes at the Theatre, Felicia and the Fundraisers, the Bodacious Box Office, and the Glamorous Gala teams. For this fabulous production of Singin’ in the Rain these teams have created the tickets, promotional videos and posters; researched, organized and purchased costumes; solicited donations and sold advertisements, umbrellas, and t-shirts; orchestrated and planned the annual Gala Event; and managed all ticket orders, questions, and sales at the Hermon High School Performing Arts Box Office.
As with all classes in the Hermon High School Performing Arts program, the learning process is the most valuable element. In that spirit our students integrated the following 21st Century tools into the Theatre Production curriculum: Internet research for scripts, costumes, props, and historical references; text messaging to communicate with fellow cast members, crew members, producers, directors, and vendors; email and social networking to stay informed about rehearsals, costumes, set construction, prop information, as well as to share ideas, purchases, and scenes examples. Students used HD digital and still cameras to create the silent movie scenes for this show, take archival photographs, and shoot the cast headshots. Finally, Theatre Production students created the highest quality production and promotional materials by using the following programs and attending these professional development opportunities:
We are proud of the student work and learning that has occurred because of this real world project and know that our students will take the skills and techniques learned in this inspiring theatrical experience with them in whatever career they choose to pursue. We are lucky to have worked with state-of-the-art, 21st Century tools and to have had the opportunity to apply this work to real world business, marketing, development, technological, and theatrical experiences.
It will be raining on the stage during the performance and certainly happy rain drops. Just three short years ago Hermon High School had no musicial and only one theatre class. Today there are four theatre classes, and for the first time ever a STUDENT produced musical from our Theatre Production class. This is a great example of interweaving media arts with the others arts disciplines. The picture for the poster was taken by a student, photoshopped by other students and finally other students negotiated with the printing company on the cost. This post information was contrbuted by Cami Carter.
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