Arts Empower Mega Conference 2017

In this session you will learn the steps to create a piece of Verbatim theatre with your students. This verbatim theatre project uses a student-centered consensus building model to create a new work of documentary performance. The program was piloted during the 2015-16 academic year in collaboration with the Blindspot Collective and saw Advanced Drama students at Canyon Crest Academy develop an original performance exploring adolescent mental illness. Students selected the topic themselves, developed inquiry questions, and interviewed various community members including peers, family members, social workers, therapists, and even a mother who lost a son to suicide the previous year. Those interviews were then transcribed, curated, and collated to create a script that might raise awareness of this sensitive and timely issues.

An enticing introduction to the power of using puppetry in the classroom to enrich the curriculum, excite student participation and deepen learning. Includes demos, hands-on experiences and handouts.

We all desire to prepare a more engaged, mindful and reflective student who requires infrequent behavior management, is a confident risk-taker, and can harness the clarity to make good decisions, right? Where is this dream-model student? In your class, of course! Through the use of social-emotional learning strategies like self-awareness, responsible decision making, relationship skills, social awareness, and self-management within performing arts curricula, we can help students maximize their time in school, reach their potential, and learn a lot about our own power in the process.

Improvisation is a key component of any theatre program and is a huge benefit to language and communication skills. This session will take educators through many of the skills necessary to help add an improvisational component to their curriculum. Through a series of specific exercises and simple techniques, you will learn how to jump start a program in improvisation, and gain an understanding into the key concepts of a successful improvised scene. Taught by National Comedy Theatre Artistic Director, Gary Kramer, this fun and interactive session will be both educational and entertaining and will spark ideas to bring to your classroom.

Whether you've been asked to put on a production at your elementary school for the first time or just need some new ideas, this session will cover the audition process to striking the set and everything in between! We are teachers at a fine arts elementary school who will share practical, "tried and true" methods and resources to help you put on an impressive production at your school.

To be a theatre critic means that you have to go to the theatre, or any arts event wearing multiple hats. There is the constructive criticism and analysis, the theatre fan, and it requires an awareness of what the audience around you is experiencing. All of this has to be articulated when assessing and writing your review which can make this process seem a bit daunting! Yet these same traits are useful beyond the seat in the theatre as well. Creative and critical thinking help promote problem solving, encouraging multiple perspectives, and the ability to articulate on these with others in all walks of life. This will cover how the aspects of a life lived in theatre, and then moved into critiquing theatre; can develop transferable skills to help others grow in their future pursuits in education, business, and life. You will leave knowing how to make a theatre review assignment really relevant and meaningful to your students

Did you know that Reader's Theater aligns with over 50 Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy? In fact, Reader's Theater can be used for all subjects and at all grades and reading levels. Reader's Theater is engaging, fun, and doesn't require memorization! When students are engaged in and enjoy what they are reading, they experience effective literacy development, they establish a strong foundation for future academic and vocational success, and they become lifelong lovers of reading! In this highly interactive session, attendees will explore and participate in Reader's Theater, telling stories and relating information in subjects such as science, math, and physical education as well as in English language arts and social studies. Great for teachers and teaching artists!

This is a fun and easy way to do a special effect make up in your classroom