This session requires preregistration and payment in addition to the conference registration. Although shown in two time slots on the schedule, it is a single continuous session, and your break (if any) may not match the general session break. Michael Rohd has been exploring the intersection of theatre and democracy for years with his company Sojourn Theatre and through his projects with collaborators and universities around the nation. 'Civic theatre' (a term he has begun using to describe some of his own work) aims to bring an adventurous theatricality to a focused interrogation of contemporary issues by offering spaces for civic engagement throughout the process of developing new performance-- it's a porous series of events combining research, participatory activity, and studio (artist-focused) sessions that allow, invite and demand community members and community expertise into the dramaturgy before and after production in a variety of ways. This session will offer a sequence of physical activity, solo to group work, and devising strategies that investigate the relationship between story, site, idea & event. We will examine and play through devising as a process for ensemble-created performance material.

A physical theatre system developed by Richard Schechner in the 1990's, rasaboxes blends ancient Sanskrit performance theory with contemporary emotion research and neuroscience. The exercises combine breath, sound and movement with nine of the Sanskrit rasas, or "flavors" of feeling, creating a step-by-step system that helps young (and old) actors safely and effectively explore a wide range of emotions. Rasaboxes exercises are immediately applicable to the classroom and stage. The workshop covers the theories behind rasaboxes, while also giving hands-on training in how to use the techniques.

Ashes and Hope is an ethnographic/documentary theatre piece based on memories of eight members of the Detroit community in 1967. Summer of 1967 Detroit was home to one of the most destructive riots in modern U.S. history. Ashes and Hope is an intertextual script was constructed using interviews and personal narratives from primary and secondary sources as well as video and audio connected to this period in history. Originally developed as a solo performance for a current Detroit resident, Ashes...grew into a ensemble performance for eight actors. This session will include a presentation on details regarding the creative process, a brief viewing of selections from the work and hands-on experience with the original source materials.

Tips, tools, and effective practices will be shared that can be utilized by educators and teaching artists to engage youth as peer educators and advocates for change. Through the use of film, music, and theatre, young people have a compelling, influential voice to promote health and create change. Examples of student created work will be shared, as well as successes and lessons learned along the way. The session will also provide information on research demonstrating how young people avoid risks and embrace success when given an environment comprised of caring adults, creative activity, and a meaningful role in their community. Teaching artists from Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Programs will facilitate a lively, interactive, and practical session.

This panel brings together a diverse group of TYA professionals (including artistic and education directors, playwrights, community-based artists, K-12 teachers, researchers, and parents) to explore the responsibilities that TYA companies, educators, parents, children, funding agencies, and other parties involved in TYA production share when they present/attend/fund performances with/for youth. For instance, if a production deals with strong themes such as death from gang violence, is it necessary to talk with the children about these issues before/after the show? Who is responsible for having this conversation –Theatres? Parents? Educators? Panelists will describe their perceived responsibilities to the other parties, and what they expect in turn, with the goal of charting out a web of perceived obligations between the many parties involved in making and seeing TYA, and revealing the areas in which parties perceive their responsibilities differently, allowing for fruitful dialogue.

The goal of this session is to understand the role of a facilitator and to appreciate how reflective practices and thoughtful planning inspire creativity. Equal parts of creative drama, applied theatre, poetry and movement infuse this workshop for classroom educators and teaching artists. Designed to promote personal growth and professional development, participants are invited to explore how (and why) they initiate a collaborative process. This is an interactive experience in teaching and learning to understand that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, that everyone has a story to tell and how powerful stories fuel the art of theatre.

This panel of faculty and students will describe how an undergraduate research project was developed into a full-scale university production. The presenters will chronicle the development of an original play and reflect on the challenges of the devising process. The panelists will describe how they collected oral histories, crafted monologues, developed scenarios for improvisation, and collaboratively wrote the script. They will show video clips from the devising sessions, the workshop production, and the revised production. Teacher resource materials that were created for the production will be distributed.

This session requires preregistration and payment in addition to the conference registration. Although shown in two time slots on the schedule, it is a single continuous session, and your break (if any) may not match the general session break. Led by Company Members of Theatre of Yugen, the internationally recognized San Francisco-based company dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence of Yugen: an unearthly, deep, dark, quiet, and profound beauty. This workshop will look at the ancient and on-going Japanese theatre forms of Noh (drama) and Kyogen (comedy), and will explore the many aspects of these forms as vital ways to study and create contemporary theatre.

Join two theatre and sexual health educators for a participatory workshop using drama to explore the impact of gender norms on sexual responsibility. Participants will take part in a process drama designed to challenge social “rules” of gender and sexuality. Learn interactive ways to engage youth in discussion about gender stereotypes and to create debate about shared sexual responsibility. Discussion will follow about how to best use this work with teens.

This is the continuation of a workshop that requires preregistration and prepayment. You must also attend the first session and the break (if any) may occur at a different time than indicated. Michael Rohd has been exploring the intersection of theatre and democracy for years with his company Sojourn Theatre and through his projects with collaborators and universities around the nation. 'Civic theatre' (a term he has begun using to describe some of his own work) aims to bring an adventurous theatricality to a focused interrogation of contemporary issues by offering spaces for civic engagement throughout the process of developing new performance-- it's a porous series of events combining research, participatory activity, and studio (artist-focused) sessions that allow, invite and demand community members and community expertise into the dramaturgy before and after production in a variety of ways. This session will offer a sequence of physical activity, solo to group work, and devising strategies that investigate the relationship between story, site, idea & event. We will examine and play through devising as a process for ensemble-created performance material.

A physical theatre system developed by Richard Schechner in the 1990's, rasaboxes blends ancient Sanskrit performance theory with contemporary emotion research and neuroscience. The exercises combine breath, sound and movement with nine of the Sanskrit rasas, or "flavors" of feeling, creating a step-by-step system that helps young (and old) actors safely and effectively explore a wide range of emotions. Rasaboxes exercises are immediately applicable to the classroom and stage. The workshop covers the theories behind rasaboxes, while also giving hands-on training in how to use the techniques. This is the second part of a double session. Participants are expected to attend both sessions.

This session is an active discussion on how mainstream theatre for youth models do not meet the needs of a blind/visually impaired children, and how that model can be adjusted to meet those needs and create an engaging experience for blind/visually impaired child audiences. Research at Arizona State University will be presented as a catalyst for this discussion.

This participatory session will present a model of an interactive mystery that uses techniques from process drama and TIE that promote critical thinking and literacy skills such as prediction, sequencing, cause and effect, and theme/main idea. This session is geared towards grades 1-3. The session will begin by framing the dual role of teacher as educator and teacher as participant. As participants they will take on the role of "mystery explorers," an elite detective agency. Approached with a report of mysterious circumstances, they will work together to solve the case. Throughout the course of the drama participants will be presented with clues and have opportunities to interview witnesses as they solve problems, decode information and make predictions through small and large group work. After the drama, participants will have an opportunity to assess and discuss the conventions used and their efficacy, and how the session can be used and adapted in their own work.  

The AATE New Guard Network proudly supports three new presenters to the AATE Conference. This session will explore a variety of issues, ideas and challenges being grappled with new members to AATE and/or graduate students in the field of educational theatre. Join us for these fresh, new and innovative presentations by the newest members of the field. Christina Ulrich, “Drama Strategies to address social skills, communication, and socio-emotional intelligence in young people affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)” Enza Giannone, “The Documentary Theatre Classroom: Searching for Methods and Codes” Rachel Hull, “Project Discovery: A Unique Model of Theater Outreach Programming within a Regional Theater”

Members of the Playwriting Network will make their AATE conference debut. They will discuss issues related to the writing and development of new plays for young audiences and actors. Key questions will include (1) How can a writer of plays for young audiences and actors best mentor young writers? (2) How does a writer balance the artistic and educational demands of a play written for a school or a theatre for young audiences? (3) In a school residency situation, how does the writer meet both her or his own needs for the script's development while meeting the students' needs to learn how plays are written and rewritten?

An interactive exploration to surface core values that drive our work. By speaking with passion and consistency of what we know to be true about the intrinsic and extrinsic value of the arts, we can change the way society values the work of artists and the role of artists in a thriving and sustainable community. While we know a lot about the power of art, we don't always know how to position it in relation to a world in chaos and society under increasing stress. Under relentless and increasing pressure to articulate what value we bring to schools and communities, we need to take time for self-reflection and opportunity to connect with others to remember why we entered our field in the first place and what change we hoped (and still hope) to make in the world. This session will be a facilitated a "Creating Public Value" conversation guides individual discovery, small group problem-solving, and large group discussion toward shared language that can make a difference.

How do we sustain quality programs in difficult economic times? Partnerships. This panel discussion will focus on the qualities of a successful partnership. The following key questions will be addressed: Who makes a good partner? What's in a partnership for all involved? Why partner and with whom? How do we find appropriate partners with similar and/or diverse ideals? Join this stimulating discussion with representatives from Kaiser Permanente's National Educational Theater Program (ETP). We will hear from Oregon where ETP is partnering with a professional theatre company, Georgia will share the complexities of partnering with non-traditional age groups and organizations, Ohio will share the benefits of working closely with a large urban school district, and the mid-Atlantic region will focus on their work with the American Diabetes Association. Partnerships are key to our success!

Johanna will share the experience of The Odyssey, a TYA/Puppetry production she directed for CSUSB in 2007, which was subsequently invited to a puppetry festival in Bulgaria and a professional tour of 4 cities in China. How did this happen? What did her diverse, low-income group of student puppeteers and actors experience? And most importantly, how on earth did she fund it in this economic climate? Come join her for lively discussion, useful grant information, and inspiration.

This is the continuation of a workshop that requires preregistration and prepayment. You must also attend the first session and the break (if any) may occur at a different time than indicated. Led by Company Members of Theatre of Yugen, the internationally recognized San Francisco-based company dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence of Yugen: an unearthly, deep, dark, quiet, and profound beauty. This workshop will look at the ancient and on-going Japanese theatre forms of Noh (drama) and Kyogen (comedy), and will explore the many aspects of these forms as vital ways to study and create contemporary theatre.

Collaborative play-creating with a large cast and crew is a powerful way to pedagogically explore a theme, to build up the enrollment of your secondary theatre program, to nurture student-leadership, and to generate a thriving arts community in your school. The workshop will begin with a sharing of a collaborative play-creating model in order to illustrate the co-curricular structures and the interconnectivity of co-creating with a large mix of grade 8-12 drama classes. Most of the workshop will be participatory as we engage in the art-making process in order to better understand the model and ways to adapt it. This process works best when the students are free to explore a theme and create their own script, or free to experiment with various text sources. This workshop is based on eighteen years of facilitation and experimentation of over a dozen play-building projects involving 75 to 200 students per production.

Since its creation in 1965 by playwright and director Luis Valdez, El Teatro Campesino has been committed to affecting social change and raising public awareness surrounding various issues, from farm worker rights to immigration, and most recently even the environment. The plays and musicals created by El Teatro Campesino(ETC) have always had educational relevance and have served as important texts in both university and high school theater classes. Recently, the California based theater company launched an Educational Theater Program which presents various ETC plays as well as conducts workshops for student. This workshop session will explore the classic Chicano theater forms of the Acto, Mito and Corrido. Participants will read excerpts from several classic ETC text such as “La Carpa de los Rasquachis”, “Zoot Suit” and the exciting new “Basta Basura” and learn how to integrate them into various lessons for university, high school, and even elementary lessons. And no ETC workshop would be complete without a few movement exercises and theater games! Join us and learn how to apply this rich and unique theatrical style of El Teatro Campesino to expand cultural competency and present students with diverse perspectives.

In this workshop, we will move into the story of The Tricycle by Elisa Amado and Alfonso Ruano (2007), a book about children who live in a world of economic disparity. Do come and join as we work this one out together!

In a world where the actor creates the character, the setting, the props and the sound effects, magic happens. The simplest and most difficult story telling through action and choices the actors bring folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends to life. In this workshop, participants will create stories from world cultures through action and dialogue. They will experience and take home step by step discovery lessons to share with colleagues and students. This type of theatre is based in "let's pretend"

This session builds upon last year's Beyond the Books panel by addressing the suggestions that were made and describing attempts to put them into practice. Specifically, panelists will look at student and faculty perceptions of students' preparedness relative to entering graduate school or careers. Through interactive dialogues between students, faculty, and mentors, they explored effective practices, myths, and omissions of information. Panelists will share what they learned about the transition from undergraduate education and the challenging walk along the fault line that change sometimes presents for students. Session topics include networking skills, technology, graduate school expectations, what students bring to faculty, curriculum and accountability, and job hunting. Results should inform more effective practice for educators and more realistic expectations for students.

We live in an increasingly complex, diverse, globalized, media-saturated society. Education is being reinvented to meet the needs of our ever-changing 21st century world. Students have to be able to function, create, and communicate personally, socially, economically, and politically in local, national, and global venues. Schools must subsequently develop an interdisciplinary culture of inquiry where students work independently and collaboratively, employing critical thinking and multiple intelligences for imaginative problem solving. How is this possible? Theatre, which is inherently multidisciplinary, is a perfect exemplifier of collaborative 21st century learning. Session participants will actively explore how theatrical concepts and processes can be illuminated and propagated for more creative and meaningful instruction throughout the curriculum.

Arts-based media provides a dynamic and engaging learning vehicle for today's students. This workshop will introduce new ways to incorporate performance studies into existing K-12 curricula through short-form documentaries from SPARK, the San Francisco Bay Area documentary series produced by KQED Public Media. Offering a media-savvy approach to teaching, this presentation will provide a blueprint for incorporating theater arts and new media tools into existing curricula. Discover simple methods for teaching thematically to expand your students' knowledge and understanding of contemporary theater. This workshop will also introduce best practices for media use in the classroom, with a special focus on developing students' critical viewing skills. All participants will receive a free DVD of twenty short documentaries and curriculum guides related to a diverse range of local performing arts organizations including The Marsh Youth Theatre and the New Conservatory Theatre Center.

Learn how to use the newly created tools for accessing the books and manuscripts in the largest collection in the world documenting the international history of theatre and education. Discover how personal papers and organizational records can save you research time, connect you to other experts, and inspire you as a director, teacher, designer, producer, student, playwright or administrator. Examine, during this session, primary source materials for professional theatre for young audiences' Childsplay, practitioner Cecily O'Neill, designer Irene Corey and playwright Suzan Zeder. Join Katherine Krzys, Curator of the Child Drama Collection, and two theatre for youth graduate students as they describe their personal journeys unearthing research treasures. Other tactics for searching the web for valuable practical and historical documents will also be explored.

This round table continues a conversation begun at the AATE/ATHE conference in NYC, which focused on university professors working with marginalized populations. We would like to deepen and broaden the discussion to include high school educators, education directors and artistic leadership from professional theatres. In NYC we realized that those of us working with marginalized populations, had a responsibility to educate our artistic colleagues about the work we are doing. The goal of this roundtable presentation is to bring together professors, students, professional artists and community members in a lively discussion about programs that serve diverse communities and constantly negotiate the fault lines between theatre and education. We will present some of the challenges and solutions we have found in our home institutions. Our goal is to engage our colleagues who come from both positions of leadership and from the margins of theatre institutions, in a lively dialogue.

Join the Research Committee in honoring exceptional research from the last year.

This presentation will examine the Venn connections between Career Preparation Theater programs(CTE) and traditional approaches to theater education (VAPA) in California secondary schools. It will examine differences in mission, content, and structure as well as similarities in content, instructional strategy, and delivery systems relative to CTE and VAPA Theater training. It will also examine certification/credentialing issues, the role of industry advisories, post-secondary articulation. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how a traditional VAPA Theater program could transition to the Career Technical Theater program and where this transition might be appropriate.

After a two-year collaborative process with world-renowned playwrights, teaching artists, early childhood specialists and performers, Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company (CTC) has reached a new level in developing classes and plays, tailored expressly for the needs, interests and abilities of early learners. Informed by the latest research in child development for ages 2 ½ to 5 years old, an early childhood adaptation of CTC's signature critical literacy program, Neighborhood Bridges, has emerged. This new program, Early Bridges, places teaching artists in day care centers where stories are both explored and created, and where early learners are engaged in interactive theatre and language arts exercises that promote language development, encourage rich creative play, enrich peer interaction and develop cognitive, problem-solving skills. In addition to Early Bridges, session participants will learn about a new commissioned work for very young audiences in partnership with playwright Barry Korhnhauser. Kornhauser's WHOOPS! will engage students in day care centers as well as bring the early childhood community to CTC.

This ground-breaking project was developed as a partnership between the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley. For six years, our theatre artists have enriched the lives and promoted healing for critically ill children and teens struggling with eating disorders. Our teaching artists visit patient's bedsides, conduct classes in the hospital school, and engage in creative play during group therapy sessions. This “How to” workshop will spotlight The Children's Healing Project Workbook, designed to help arts organizations and hospitals work together to build a strong and effective on-going program. Participants will learn how to garner adequate funding, design suitable programs with hospital limitations in mind, and hear about the challenges inherent in bringing drama into health care settings. Limited to 25 participants, workbook is free.

Compared with other urban school districts in California, San Francisco is home to one of the largest achievement gaps between high and low achieving students. This achievement gap also exists between special needs students and their general education peers. Performing Arts Workshop is using Theatre Arts to level the academic playing field for students with special needs. The proposed workshop will begin with a 20-minute presentation on how the Workshop's research-based Project ARISE is helping close this achievement gap through year-long theatre arts interventions. Session attendees will then engage in 40 minutes of participatory theatre activities that can be easily adapted for working with all special education populations, grades K-5. The session will conclude with a 30-minute question and answer session and dialogue on other strategies used to teach theatre with special education students.

Teaching with dance and movement can bring a lesson to life, motivate a student to think in different ways and make for memorable moments in the classroom. In this session participants will be guided to create movement phrases for science, social studies, math, and language arts lessons. While integrating the vocabularies of movement and subject matter, participants will experience the techniques of learning through creative dance. We will also focus on why this approach is valuable and the impact of its long term effects. This session will speak primarily to those working with grades preK-8 and handouts will be available.

Directors from all theatre milieu, (freelance, comm. theatre, youth theatre, middle/high school, university and Equity) will informally lead exploration into specifically chosen areas of discussion. This is a continuation of former sessions with attendees polled so we can focus on common goals, problems and solutions. We build connections among the various areas of directing. Our panel serves to moderate an open discussion to facilitate the continued exchange of ideas. Session has had immediate appeal to directors from every network and arena and has proved to be very popular as a director's forum for those with little or extensive experience. Panel represents AATE, AACT, ATA and ATHE. We strive to examine our similarities and appreciate our differences with an emphasis on cooperation and communication in order to benefit and facilitate our professional growth. A first-day, 90-minute session would facilitate networking from early on in the conference.

A workshop for anyone working with children and teens to promote an understanding of narrative structure, a rich use of language, verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and foster a love for the oral tradition. “Once the storytellers were our elders, who, like great skin containers, held the wine of story for their communities. They doled it out, sip by sip: history, mystery, lineage, and law. They were both entertainment and enrichment. They carried wisdom in the mouth, adventure on the tongue.”

“Students are complaining you are casting black people.” This was the message a high-ranking administrator had for me last year. She then went on to state that if I continued to cast black people, and students continued to complain, she would not be able to defend me. For the last four years, I taught theatre in a private, Liberal arts school in a very diverse yet drastically segregated part of the United States. The institutionalized racism was hidden in the rhetoric of the school's mission, yet thriving in its treatment of faculty and students. In this session, participants will work with a few key issues including: How do we navigate the waters of administration that punish artists who challenge students and audience members in issues of social injustice globally, but especially in relation to their own institutions? Using techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed, specifically Forum and Image Theatre, participants will create an expressive dialogue on this very important issue.

Word for Word is a professional theatre company that performs short stories for the stage, using every word the author has written. Our Youth Arts program brings the Word for Word process, used to develop our professional productions, into the classroom. Using a combination of text analysis and theatre exercises, students create a script from the story and use their bodies and voices to bring the images of the text to life for an audience. In this session, we'll present a short performance in the Word for Word style and then guide participants through our process to create a Word for Word performance of their own.

Join the Research Committee in honoring exceptional research from the last year.

In Chicago there is a growing need for theater companies to be innovative and think outside the box. I know that this situation is not isolated to just the Chicago theatre scene but is a nation-wide problem. By helping co-found the Chicago Arts Educator Forum (CAEF)I find myself in the center of a new movement in Chicago for enhanced Arts Education infrastructure which is being helmed by the Chicago Arts Learning Initiative (CALI). My lecture would focus primarily on CAEF, sharing the websites resources and describing how it came about, reflect on our first 2 day-long conferences and discuss the potential for events such as this to provide networking and professional development opportunities that have so far been lacking and how it fits into the bigger picture as is currently being drawn by CALI.

Participants will review two large scale drama projects (grades 4 to 7) carried out over six years in Jersey City NJ by the Educational Arts Team and funded by US DOE Arts Integration Grants that resulted in significant gains for students on standardized tests in language arts; experience the series of activities used in Professional Development with over 200 participating classroom teachers and reflect on the findings through the frame of higher order thinking.

Teachers and pre-service teachers experience site-specific political and social challenges. Comparison of these challenges in different communities, and solution-based analysis of them, will lead to stronger and more confident teachers. This session will be the culmination of a series of recent conference sessions devoted to the challenges embedded in pre-service theatre education. Presenters will synthesize questions that have been generated from previous well-attended conference sessions on the topic. Next, participants will dialogue about the significant themes that have emerged and contribute perspectives to an article intended for publication in Incite/Insight, drafted by session presenters. Finally, the group will discuss plans to organize a pre-conference on the subject of pre-service theatre education, the ultimate goal of which will be the development of a Guiding Standards Document for pre-service teachers and teacher educators.

We're back!! Join us for a hands-on exchange of dynamic and purposeful games and exercises for those working in Youth Theatre. The goal of the exchange is to help identify and share games and exercises for building foundational theatre skills (e.g. ensemble, trust, risk-taking, active listening etc…) and an understanding of the process' of theatre (e.g. character creation, sequencing, objective/obstacle, etc...). Participants receive packets with detailed games for rehearsal and for class.

This innovative workshop will explore the intersection between Hip Hop Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed; two contemporary theatre forms that focus on creating social change and community empowerment. Just as Hip Hop DJs and Rappers sample and re-mix music, participants in this session will do the same by blending these two popular theater styles. Activities and discussion will be centered around the creation of a hybrid theatre piece drawing from the four elements of Hip Hop as well as image and forum theatre techniques. Participants will examine popular Hip Hop lyrics, music videos, and print media from both mainstream and underground sources to critically analyze current social issues and brainstorm for solutions. Participants will learn several classic and exciting games from Augusto Boal as well as new writing exercises and activities to be used in the creation of Hip Hop theater.

Margaret is co-author of "Arts at the Heart: A Practical Guide to Dance and Drama in Elementary Schools". In this workshop, participants will explore an integrated curriculum unit from the book using Drama and Dance as the base for building and consolidating student learning about the environment while making cross-curricular connections to the Arts, Science and Language Arts curricula. We will focus on 21st Century learning skills that emphasize creativity, collaboration and problem solving.

This highly interactive session brings together the expertise and experience of some of Detour's actors, (Deaf, Blind, DD) coaches, designers, and director. Beginning with games that "take us to the stage," and ending with a brief sharing/performance demonstration by Detour company members, we will share what it means to be both accessible and authentic from both sides of the proscenium. A Q/A time will offer an opportunity for session participants to ask designers and actors specific questions from the brailing of materials and audio description to the placement of interpreters, during performance and/or performance and finally how do you keep a nonprofit theatre company up, running, and legit. This group will leave you AWED as they live, share, and show what it means to make the magic of theatre an opportunity that's there for all.

“The realization of most societal goals, even in situations in which the actor's commitment and knowledge are considerable, requires the application of power.” Etzioni. Drama, in its many forms, is an ideal vehicle for helping students explore their own ideas about power, experiment with exercising power, and develop skills for using their power to achieve societal goals, as individuals and in groups. In this workshop, participants will experience a variety of approaches to working with these ideas with middle and high school students, and will explore their own ideas about power and its uses. This workshop will feature both hands-on theatre work and analysis/discussion. The integration of power-focused work with existing curricula will be addressed.

People of color are historically under-represented in the field of TYA. The purpose of this panel discussion is to examine and explore/discuss the representation and future of people of color in TYA's dramatic literature. Some of our research questions are: How are people of color represented in TYA historically and contemporary? Are there general themes and subjects regarding people of color in TYA? What aspects are flourishing and which are lacking in TYA's dramatic literature? What is next for people of color in TYA? The subjects are focusing on Asian, Asian-American, African American, and Hispanic/Latino American. (We're currently in searching for researchers that are interested in Native American plays.)

This is a highly-charged, highly positive participatory workshop for and for students. The experiences can be used in classroom, Drama Club meetings, and rehearsals to help put the play back in "play." This is recommended for elementary, middle/high school Theatre educators. There will be "take-aways" for participants.

The Living Art curriculum was created by Milton Academy's K-8 performing arts teacher Eleza Kort. A graduate of NYU's Gallatin program, Eleza's masters thesis focused primarily on devising theater with youth. Eleza has been able to combine her expertise in leading children through the process of devising plays with her passion for the world of art. Through a comprehensive artist study, Eleza created the Living Art curriculum integrating theater skills, music, art appreciation, literature, technology, and storytelling. Students engage in an in depth study of a variety of artists such as Ringgold, Hokusai, and Rembrandt among others. Students create devised plays inspired by actual paintings. The curriculum culminates in a live performance where students present artist biographies and share their devised plays alongside the actual image of the painting. Join Eleza as she shares with you this rich curriculum and all of its resources. Together, you will also devise a Living Art piece.

Using presentation and interactive demonstration techniques, this session will explore ways in which TYA productions can blend audience engagement and education throughout the production process. Using the University of Texas at Austin's fall 2009 production of There's A Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar as an example, Director Brian Fahey, Dramaturg Anne McNamee, and Actor/Dramaturg Talleri McRae will take participants through the multiple points of engagement with the production's young audience members—from pre-rehearsal, to preshow workshops, lobby display, performance and structuring post-show discussions. Come ready to play and discuss!

Overcome your reluctance to try open staging! Theatre-in-the-round offers many benefits, both for the audience and for actor training. This session for directors will clarify those benefits and demonstrate essential techniques of arena staging. Particular emphasis will be placed on the use of open staging for productions that tour to elementary school settings.

We're back!! Join us for a hands-on exchange of dynamic and purposeful games and exercises for those working in Youth Theatre. The goal of the exchange is to help identify and share games and exercises for building foundational theatre skills (e.g. ensemble, trust, risk-taking, active listening etc…) and an understanding of the process' of theatre (e.g. character creation, sequencing, objective/obstacle, etc...). Participants receive packets with detailed games for rehearsal and for class.

BWIA is a program that uses theatre skills to build vocabularies. It teaches students new vocabulary in a fun and efficient way. Students retain words and their meanings by creating mnemonic devises via theatre games. BWIA works with standards based education yet it is a revolutionary way of learning. Progress is measured by the use of a quick vocabulary test before and after each session of BWIA. This session will include a demonstration of the program through active participation and a presentation of the evaluation methods.

Through interactive exercises and team reflection, participants will explore how the central tenets of improvisational theatre can support the contingent, collaborative skills teachers need to effectively facilitate classroom discussion. Although scholars and researchers have discussed the importance of teacher moves such as authentic questioning and the uptake of student responses, the literature rarely addresses what skills teachers need to acquire these moves and how teacher educators can best develop these capacities. Improvisational theatre training offers a safe space for teachers to sharpen skills central to effective classroom discourse facilitation. Such skills – listening, adapting to new situations, embracing mistakes as learning opportunities, and valuing others' ideas and experiences – are highly relevant to the kind of work teachers must do to critically engage young people through meaningful classroom discourse. {Jscribd document_id:=36493563 access_key:=key-1qytaby0m61a9rko4057 viewmode:=book}

This session is an introduction to web Content Management Systems (CMS), the powerful, open-source software used to run the conference site. Intended for individual artists, teachers, and members of arts organizations with basic computer literacy, no specific technical skills are required. Following an overview of how CMS systems operate, the process of evaluating your needs and how to implement them will be discussed using the conference site to illustrate the specifics of the concepts covered.

Marsh Youth Theater's 2010 Teen Troupe will perform scene selections from the world premiere production of Ron Jones musical theater piece, '"The Wave." "The Wave" is based on the true story of a classroom experiment in Fascism conducted by Jones in 1967 as a history teacher in a Palo Alto High School.  During a five-day period students gave up their freedom for the prospect of being superior to their classmates. Almost immediately, the experiment got out of control. "The Wave" challenges young actors and their audience to examine their deepest beliefs about politics and social pressure. MYT Teen Troupe's "The Wave" is directed by Cliff Mayotte with Music Director and pianist Frederick Harris; Composers: Emily Klion, David Denny, Kathy Peck; Author: Ron Jones and The Marsh Artistic Director: Stephanie Weisman.

Encouraging and helping educators to use playwriting in the classroom is one of Young Playwrights Inc.'s primary goals. What better way to insure the future of the American theater than by empowering teachers to unleash the artistic voices of America's youth? It takes a dedicated teacher to introduce playwriting into the curriculum, but the rewards are found in every student who finds her/his voice through this unique medium. This workshop will demonstrate how playwriting can be used as a bridge to be a catalyst for learning and challenge participants through a carefully devised curriculum that allows them to sample some of our Write A Play! exercises.

This interactive workshop prepares participants with techniques and guidelines to easily create user-friendly activities, discussions, and cross curricular content that will give teachers many options to prepare their students and provide follow-up in concert with a live performance. Special emphasis will be given to understanding and incorporating the California Content Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA.) The workshop will be led by Kamala Kruszka, Theatre for Young Audiences specialist at California State University at Bakersfield. Ms. Kruszka holds her MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences from Arizona State University and has worked as an educator/artist for Childsplay, Theatre of Youth in Buffalo, NY and The Great Arizona Puppet Theatre in Phoenix, AZ in addition to Omnipresent Puppet Theatre, which she co-founded.

How do we accomplish both exceptional theatrical productions and the communication of clear and relevant educational content? Is it inherent that one takes a backseat to the other? In this session, Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Program, a collaboration with Oregon Children's Theatre in the Northwest, will present a reading of their newest work-in-progress, “1 ½.” This production explores one of the greatest health threats in America: childhood obesity. Through an innovative, interactive structure, upper elementary school audiences will gain insight into the complex issues related to this challenging health crisis. We'll discuss the practices and relationships that fuel the creation of work that is held to the highest standards of both artistic and educational integrity.

This session will highlight the 15 year program at California State University, Fresno that was devised to create a service learning course between university and urban high school students. The course design introduces pre-service elementary and secondary teachers to leading drama activities and developing and directing play projects with and for youth. An integral part of this service learning course is the hands-on experience the university students gain from working with exceptional sophomore students from McLane High School Turning Points Academy in Fresno, CA. The university students create performances with the high students utilizing original writing and adaptations of young adult literature. This session will provide attendees with a demonstration of performance materials as well as sample student work.

Students in the Neighborhood Bridges Program understand the power of narrative by becoming examiners not only of the text but of the world around them. The Children's Theatre Company's Neighborhood Bridges Program is a critical literacy program that uses storytelling, creative writing and theatre to animate students to become the storytellers of their own lives. As they identify assumptions, values and power in stories, Bridges students ask questions and transform narratives. In this session, experience interactive exercises and learn how Neighborhood Bridges staff, in partnership with the University of Minnesota, is exploring ways in which to assess the relationship between creativity, play and critical pedagogy. Neighborhood Bridges is recognized by the United States Department of Education as a recipient of the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant which has funded the dissemination of the program to thirteen sites nationally, from New York to Hawaii.

Take a look into the fourth season of Step UP Theatre. Jump into the creative process of this teenage youth theatre company. Teens of Step UP Theatre volunteer their time each season to create an original full-length performance, OUTreachIN' to youth in and around San Diego. All are welcome to attend this session that will include elements of performance AND process. "Step UP and join us!"

Arts/cultural managers are powerful actors in our communities. Whereas artists engage in creation, arts managers ultimately decide what productions the public sees and how performances are presented to audiences. Missing from the curriculum of most Master' s in Arts Management are courses on the promotion of cultural inclusion, and cultural encounters between communities and artist. Using a Freirian approach, incorporating a dialogue-based engagement, this session will propose a new vision: arts managers as educators within their theatrical communities. In the same way that teachers educate their pupils, arts managers have the opportunity to educate the public about a variety of subjects through theater. Participants will discuss how to make arts managers become more conscious of their social responsibility through the application of critical pedagogy theories in their activities.

How do we nurture the creative process? How do we define the creative process? What is our role as educators in this task? In this session we will refer to some of Howard Gardner's work in cognitive artistic development as well as other sources to explore the creative process in children. We will also look to other cultures for evidence of nurturing creativity globally. Participants will discuss and engage in activities that spark curiosity and raise questions about nurturing the creative process in our children. I am in the Theatre Department at Michigan State University and teach a course on the Creative Process as offered through the Integrated Arts and Humanities program. My students are primarily education majors and I hope to bring two of them with me to the conference.

This session is a round-table discussion about challenges that theatre educators face creating inclusive learning environments for diverse students. The discussion will focus on how in theatre/drama class, embodiment of character, of voice, of dialogue can create sticky situations, even for the most experienced teacher. One student's performance of identity—even in a character—can can make another feel othered, silenced and just downright uncomfortable. This discussion will consider: 1) how theatre teachers can utilize texts that have characters whose identity positions may not be represented among their students; 2) ways that theatre teachers can strategically build a diverse theatre curriculum and student population; and 3) responsibilities that come with occupying an identity location of privilege, both as theatre students and teachers. The conversation will focus specifically on high school students and secondary theatre education training programs, but can expand depending on

Using an MFA Applied Theatre project as a starting point for discussion, this session will examine how a collaborative, ethnographic playmaking process may offer young people a space to consider complex issues. Over a two-month period, graduate student Ruth Fisher, worked with a group of 11-13 year old middle school girls at The Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in Austin, TX. The participants accessed, embodied and performed each other's stories and those of their community members in an attempt to articulate & personalize the notion of leadership. The performance sought to juxtapose the real life stories and the actors performing them by combing elements of film and live theatre. This session is geared to practitioners who are interested in constructing a dialogue about the ethical implications, benefits and challenges to the participants and participant observers in this type of socially engaged community-based work with young people.

This paper offers a response to the questions and concerns raised at last year's AATE conference and the continuing conversations via emails about the threat of down-sizing and compacting pre-service drama/theatre education programs. In the German novel, The neverending story (1979, 1983), the world faces destruction due to the lack of imagination of its inhabitants. Despite the current brain research on the importance of the arts as media for learning, faculties of education are responding to the critical constraints of our times. Economic efficiency trumps imagination. Without imagination, we lose “our capacity to see the world as if it were otherwise.” As the young boy discovers in The neverending story, without a sense of “otherwise” there is Nothing, It is our intention to pull together the research identified in recent electronic conversations, review current literature, and relate that research to critical advocacy issues for our field.

There is a national need for a common approach to the evaluation of out of school youth arts programs. This workshop is an introduction to the Boston Youth Art Evaluation Project (BYAEP) and specific evaluation methodologies. Our vision is to help the Youth Arts field better determine what they want to measure, in terms of artistic skills and life skills, how best to measure these outcomes (e.g. student self-assessments, artistic reflections, staff observations, open-ended questions, focus groups), and how to efficiently analyze the data without overburdening staff. BYAEP consists of a core group of five Boston out of school youth arts programs that have designed (year 1) and piloted (year 2) an approach to evaluation specific to the field of youth arts. Join us as we share our approach to developing a strong evaluation planning model, as well as the results of the first two years of design and implementation in BYAEP programs.

Through dramatic activities such as Newspaper Theatre, and Devised work, well known Black and Latino characters from literature will be explored and brought to life. This workshop is designed to engage the participants in a conversation about race in America today and present ideas and ways on how to teach it through theatre. We will explore literature through our own personal encounters, dramatic work and games.

This session will explore the results of a pilot study in Arizona. Adults responded to an email survey asking them to describe how their participation in high school theatre/speech and/or related extra-curricular activities (e.g., play productions, speech tournaments) may have positively influenced and affected them after graduation. Some respondents also were interviewed by phone to probe for more information. Preliminary results suggest that teachers of varying qualities have a major influence on participant memories, and that adults remember the community, camaraderie, and friendships they formed with peers. Longitudinal outcomes include such abilities as perspective-taking, empathy, public speaking skills, presentation of self, confidence, spontaneous problem-solving, and the new worlds opened up for them through theatre and speech. Participants also recommended advice to future high school theatre/speech teachers and provided advocacy statements for school administrators.

In the first global recession of the twenty first century, theatre company C&T is re-inventing the classic documentary drama form of The Living Newspaper for the internet age. The Livingnewspaper.net is an online drama that invites young people to take on the roles and responsibilities of a previous generation of docu-dramatists and explore the subject matter that shapes young peoples' lives today. This presentation will demonstrate the online drama of C&T's Living Newspaper form and how the drama unfolds across C&T's national and international network of school and community-based partnerships currently linking young people in England, Japan, Australia and the Gambia. It will also show how some of the more conventional disciplines of theatre-making have been successfully integrated into the project form, for example, how a resident playwright is collaborating with students in a number of virtual as well as physical spaces.