Arts Learning

Stages Theatre Company was able to bring a touring production of The Diary of Anne Frank and a two-week theatre arts-integrated classroom experience to five Minnesota middle schools that would not have otherwise had access to this arts experience. For this project, Stages Theatre Company worked with middle schools in Big Fork, Duluth, Mankato, Columbia Heights and Minneapolis. In order to evaluate the project, Stages Theatre Company hired an independent professional evaluator to design teacher surveys and work with the teaching artists to design and review the curriculum and gather additional information needed to evaluate the project's impact. Stages Theatre Company's full evaluation report is included as an attachment to this final report. 2: By bringing the tour of The Diary of Anne Frank and the classroom experience to five middle schools, Stages Theatre Company provided a theatre arts experience to 801 additional Minnesota students who would not otherwise have had access to the theatre arts in their school. Two teaching artists worked directly with 801 6th-8th graders and collaborated with eleven teachers in the classroom on playwriting, adaptation for the stage, and staged readings. This project used Stages Theatre Company’s embedded professional development model where classroom teachers worked alongside Stages Theatre Company’s teaching artists and received hands-on experience in implementing the arts-integrated curriculum. Using the Create, Perform and Respond model, Stages Theatre Company teaching artists and classroom teachers guided students in the use of theatre and playwriting techniques to write their own scripted scenes adapted from literature. Stages Theatre Company artists worked with teachers in order to adapt this activity to use literature that students were reading in class.