petra &the wolf

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Since 2010, Gricelda Silva has steadily developed her craft as a performer in the Austin theatre scene, starting with productions at Austin Community College and rising to starring roles at Glass Half Full Theatre and Zach Theatre. Her versatility and small stature have led to her routinely being cast as a child or the occasional magical sprite. Her Mexican heritage has also given her the opportunity to speak to two distinct local communities: Latino and Anglo.

about the performanceA new work for young audiences inspired from the Prokofiev classic Peter and the Wolf, the production of Petra & the Wolf unites Lionheart Youth Theatre with the music of Universal Recording Artist Mother Falcon and the critically acclaimed puppetry of Glass Half Full Theatre. Award-winning actress Gricelda Silva plays Petra, with large-scale puppets, operated by six puppeteers, commanding the other roles.

Prokofiev penned his original tale in 1936 as a very Russian-centric musical symphony for children, with a narrator relating the story of a young boy who captures a wolf that terrorized his village. Petra & the Wolf introduces the mischievous but fearless Petra, the original Peter’s granddaughter, moving the production to Texas. The animals in this tale are now indigenous to Texas as well: the wolf is the nearly extinct red wolf, while the birds are the black-bellied whistling duck and the chachalaca, a noisy, social bird. When the wolf threatens her home and animal friends, Petra shows both bravery and compassion. With captivating puppetry by Glass Half Full Theatre and a new instrumental score written and performed live by Mother Falcon, school audiences will gain a new sense of empathy for the animals that share our earth from this stunning piece of visual and musical storytelling.

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meet the artist

meet the collaboratorsLionheart Youth Theatre, a theatrical company based in Austin, TX, is dedicated to producing and presenting work for young audiences that celebrate the fearlessness and imagination of the next generation. They strive to create collaborative experiences in all artistic mediums that spark joy, ignite community, and inspire young people to find their voice.

The company was founded by Emily Marks, who says on her website that she is “deeply passionate about producing creative projects in all artistic mediums that celebrate the humor, intelligence, and imagination of young people. Children are complicated, loud and sticky! Teenagers are roller coasters of ideas and creativity…we must create work that embodies all of their unique quirks and attributes and explores the complexities of youth.”

Glass Half Full Theatre creates new works of theatre using the precise physical language of both humans and puppets to address the momentous issues that humankind confronts across the globe. Their stories are designed to travel across linguistic and cultural boundaries to the heart of the imagination, where together with the audience they strive to question, to elevate, and to dream.

Collaborating with performers from around the world, Glass Half Full Theatre creates original, multilingual works of theater for adults and for children, employing a range of physical theater and puppetry techniques. Since relocating to Austin, Texas in 2011, Glass Half Full Theatre has received multiple grants from the Jim Henson Foundation and the City of Austin, and received dozens of Austin theater award nominations, earning Outstanding Original Script, Direction, Acting and Puppetry from the B. Iden Payne awards, and The David Mark Cohen New Play Award, Visionary Vivifier Award, and Sound Design and Acting Awards from The Austin Critic’s Table.

Known for its wide-ranging instrumentation and collaborative songwriting, Mother Falcon is one of Austin’s most acclaimed symphonic rock bands, recently described by NPR Music as “sweepingly majestic” and “the little orchestra that can seemingly do the impossible.” Formed by bandleader Nick Gregg in 2008, the group has grown to include a collective of up to 20 musicians playing strings, horns, guitars, and percussion. Its classical-crossover pop songs and huge ensemble are becoming well known outside of Austin, yet this incredible group of artists remains dedicated to the young people in their community through their summer rock camp programming.

in the spotlight

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NJ ARTS STANDARDSNATIONAL ARTS STANDARDS

An interview with peformers and collaborators from Glass Half Full Theatre and Mother Falcon1. What were the reasons behind the switch from a boy hero to a girl heroine—from Peter to Petra?

I didn’t want to simply replace the boy’s name with a girl’s name. It is important for both boys and girls to see girl characters who are brave. In the original, Peter responds to the wolf by conquering and humiliating him. I didn’t want our heroine to repeat this stereotypically macho—and I hope increasingly outdated—behavior. Instead, I wanted to represent the unique qualities of female bravery. Petra’s empathy for the wolf and her cub leads her to make the bravest decision of the show: freeing a wild animal, accepting the potential danger in that decision, and standing up to her grandfather’s prejudice by convincing him of the wolf’s right to live wild and free. –Carolyn Reck, writer, director and puppet designer

2. In the original Prokofiev symphony, all of the characters were represented by specific instruments. In Petra & the Wolf, you worked with the sounds of the animals to compose their music. Which instruments are used for which characters? Why were these particular instruments chosen?

Each character is represented by a cluster of instruments, with one instrument taking the lead. Petra is represented by the fiddling violins, Grandpa by a mixture of low cello and banjo, the cat by cello and guitar, the duck by muted trumpet and accordion, the bird by a duet of clarinet and mandolin, Mother Wolf by an explosion of drums and synthesizers, and Baby Wolf by heavily affected electric guitar and trumpet.

The instrumentation and performance needed to recall the rural Texan setting with the exception of the Mother Wolf and her cub, whose synthesized and affected tones highlight their more mystical roles. The instruments needed to have some tonal and rhythmic similarities with their animal counterparts; the nasally bleeps of the frightened duck being a perfect match for the muted trumpet, the metallic chirps of the Chachalaca working well on mandolin. The instrument pairings also needed to heighten the puppets’ movements; for instance, the lumbering quality of the low cello melody paired with the brittle nature of the banjo adds years to Grandpa’s gait –Nick Gregg, Mother Falcon

3. Why did you decide to use puppets and one live actor, rather than all live actors? What do you feel the use of puppets brings to the performance?

When I build a story, I start by thinking about the audience. I need the audience to care deeply about these animal characters, to find them funny, sweet, original, and loveable. I need the audience to love the duck within the first 15 minutes of the show, because we only have another 30 minutes to redeem the events that unfold. A human in a duck costume will always just be a human in a duck costume. But a puppet is its own creature. It takes a skilled puppeteer to bring out that

character, but the puppet has only one purpose, and that is to BE the character we built it to be.

Each puppet is a different animal and we had to figure out how to operate them based on their individual movements. For example, the bird must fly, walk, and pick things up in his beak, whereas the wolf needs to run on four legs and be both scary and powerful.

The completely different sizes and movement styles of the various animals make puppetry a great medium for this story. Petra is a human actor, rather than a puppet, because I want the audience to immediately identify with her, to see the experience through her eyes. We follow her through a pivotal moment of her life.

We could have cast an actor to play the grandfather, but we decided on a puppet for a few reasons. One, it’s a lot more fun to see the puppet move around. I like that his hat is pulled down so low that you never see his eyes. Two, this way, we keep Petra as the only protagonist. –Carolyn Reck

4. Peter’s heroism is shown in capturing the wolf—Petra’s in setting it free. What made you decide to make this the pivotal moment of the performance? What do you hope your audiences will learn from this?

Many traditional stories champion a version of bravery in which the heroes conquer and belittle their enemies. These stories leave no room for compassion, for seeing the other point of view. I’d rather champion the bravery that comes from making hard decisions that allow for a little more potential danger, but greater empathy. I want audiences to see that revenge doesn’t change the past, but compassionate choices can improve the future. –Carolyn Reck

5. Was there a special message behind the fact that the traditional “villain”—in this case, the red wolf—is nearly extinct? How do you think your young audiences will respond to this fact?

Wolves have gotten a bad rep in stories, media and movies. But wolves are just predators who happen to live where we want to live, who hunt to survive and feed their young. They aren’t out to get us, they’re just hungry. Red wolves have been hunted to near extinction because humans have invaded their territories. People don’t like it when wolves kill their livestock or threaten their families. So humans systematically assigned them the role of killer and then killed them off. I hope more young people will realize, like Petra, that the wolf hunts to feed her young and should be allowed to do so, even if it makes the humans who live nearby feel a little less safe. –Carolyn Reck

6. How difficult was it to move this piece from Russia to Texas? What were some of the changes that needed to be made to transplant the performance?

As most of the creators and performers of the show are Texans, it felt quite natural for us to transplant the story into this setting. All of the animals in the story are native to Texas, which presented a unique challenge in transforming the music and the characters to fit the environment. We loved Prokofiev’s use of Russian folk melodies in his compositions for the original Peter and the Wolf, so we based our human characters (Petra and Grandpa) on the oldest Texas “folk song” we knew: “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” –Diana Burgess, cellist, Mother Falcon

7. What would you like to tell aspiring writers, performers and musicians?

When I was a kid, you had to wait for someone (usually an adult) to tell you that you could be in a play or submit a script or write a song. It took me a long time (well into adulthood) to realize that I could write my own stories and create my own work. If you don’t like the stories you see onstage or in movies, write your own. Put it on YouTube. Perform in a park. There are as many stories in the world as there are people, and yours are just as important as anyone else’s. Collaborate as much as possible with as many mediums as possible! –Carolyn Reck & Nick Gregg

inspired ideas in the classroomTeacher Focus Student Activity NJ Student Learning Standards

Prepare for the performance

Prepare for the performanceListen to one of several versions of Peter and the Wolf with your students and ask them some of these questions: • What did you think of the story?• Did you like the way each instrument was used to represent the various characters?

Think about updating the performance to be relevant today:Once you’ve listened to Peter and the Wolf, ask the students to consider:• What do you think Peter learned at the end? • Do you agree with what he did? • Would you have ended the story differently? If so, how?

RL.3-6.2 English Language ArtsRecount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message/theme, lesson, or moral.

Experience the performance

How to experience the performanceAs you are waiting for the performance to begin, ask your students to experience the performance with all of their senses.• How does the performance make them feel?• What parts of the performance speak to them most strongly?

ObservationPay special attention to the actress, the puppets, and the music: • How do the puppets add to the performance? • Which type of music do you prefer—the original Prokofiev score, or the pop rock Mother Falcon version?

RL.3-6.7 English Language ArtsAnalyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text.

1.4 NJ Arts StandardsAsthetic Response & Critique

Reflect respond and read

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Reflect on and respond to the performanceConsider how the changes in the story made it come to life for your students. Ask these questions: • What are some of the changes that were made to the original story? • Do you think these changes made the story more real to you?• How do you feel about the new end, especially considering that the red wolf is nearly extinct? • How much courage did it take for Petra to decide to let the wolf go free, rather than taking it to a zoo?

Compare and ContrastListen to some of the music from the performance once again (www.holdenarts.org/petra-and-the-wolf) Think about the collaborative effort it took to create this performance, and the artistic courage it must take to change a well-known story. • Do you agree with all the decisions made by the collaborators? • How would you have approached the work? • What are some of the aspects of the original story you feel were carried over into this performance? • Think about what was changed. Do you agree with these changes? Would you have done something different? If so, what?

RL 3-6.9 English Language ArtsCompare and Contrast

1.4 NJ Arts Standards Aesthetic Response & Critique

Focus on updating other animal-based fairy tales

Revising Well-Known StoriesConsider some fairy tales where certain animals are treated without compassion. These could include Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and others.

Change the Point of ViewAsk the students to consider if they feel it is right to treat animals in these well-known stories in this manner. Put yourself in the place of one of these animals. How would you retell the story? Would you change the ending?

RL.3-5.6 English Language Arts

Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.

Originate

Create an original work of artLet the students rewrite the endings of one of these fairy tales from the point of view of the maligned animal, and create finger or popsicle puppets to perform them.

Create a New Fairy Tale EndingUsing puppets, tell the familiar fairy tale from the point of view of the so-called villain—for instance, from the point of view of the wolf in either The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood. Change the ending of the story to find a way to make all of the characters happy at the end—a true “happily ever after” story.

1.1 NJ Arts Standards The Creative Process

Rehearse

RehearsalTalk to the students about their scripts, making sure they have sufficiently considered how writing from a new point of view makes them more compassionate toward the characters. Give them the opportunity to revise their puppet’s expression to more fully show what it is feeling.

Practice your performanceHave students work together to stage their newly revised fairy tale, with their classmates taking the different roles.

1.1 NJ Arts Standards The Creative Process

Make magic

PresentationInvite your students to watch the various performances and encourage them to admire the work of their classmates.

Share your artIt’s time to share your creation. Talk about the process you experienced as you considered a different point of view. Listen to the reactions of your classmates. Were they inspired by your creation? Were you inspired by theirs?

1.3 NJ Arts Standards Performance

1.4 NJ Arts Standards Aesthetic Response & Critique

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curriculum

NJ Arts Standards

1.1 The Creative Process

All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theatre and visual art.

1.2 History of Arts & Culture

All students will understand the role, development and influence of the arts throughout history and across cultures.

1.3 Performance

All students will synthesize skills, media, methods and technologies that are appropriate to creating, performing and/or presenting works of art in dance, music, theatre and visual art.

1.4 Aesthetic Response & Critique

All students will demonstrate and apply an understanding of arts philosophies, judgment and analysis to works of art in dance, music, theatre and visual art.

National Arts Standards

1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.

6: Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.

7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.

8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

new jerseystudent learning

English Language Arts

RL.3-6.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message/ theme, lesson or moral.

RL.3-5.6 Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.

RL.3-6.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone or beauty of a text.

RL 3-6.9 Compare and contrast

Find the Standards

For more detailed information on the standards, visit these websites:

NJ English Language Arts www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2016/ela/

NJ Social Studies Standards www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2014/ss/

NJ Arts Standards www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2009/1.pdf

National Arts Standards www.nationalartsstandards.org

standards

standards

cultural connectionsNJ Arts Standard: 1.2 History of Arts & Culture

Literary Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, a ‘symphonic fairy tale for children,’ is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children’s story, while the orchestra illustrates it. It is Prokofiev’s most frequently performed work, and one of the most frequently performed works in the entire classical repertoire. It has been recorded many times.

Petra & the Wolf is a form of literary adaptation, the altering of a literary source such as a novel, short story, or poem, to another genre or medium, such as a film, stage play, or, in this case, a rock musical. The idea of adapting something that already has an audience appeals because it obviously works as a story, with its already well-developed characters and plotline. Many musicals for children are adaptations from stories and books, including: Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Matilda, Wicked, Oliver! and Mary Poppins.

Musical Theatre For centuries, music has been an important part of storytelling and plays. In ancient Greece, music and dance were included in stage comedies and tragedies during the 5th century BCE. In England, Elizabethan and Jacobean plays frequently included music. Tudor court masques involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design. These developed into sung plays recognizable as English operas, while in France in the late 17th century, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs and dance.

In the 18th century in Britain, the popular form of ballad operas, like John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, included lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs, and later pantomime and comic opera with romantic plot lines. In Europe, singspiel, comédie en vaudeville, opéra comique, zarzuela and other forms of light musical entertainment were emerging. Other forms of theatre developed in England by the 19th century, such as music hall, melodrama and burletta.

In the late 1800s, Gilbert and Sullivan were the first British authors to write musical stage works, combining humor, acting and music. In America, Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart collaborated on vaudeville sketches. Popular variety shows consisted of chorus girls, dancers and comics. Minstrel shows, which now carry racial stigma for their use of black face, were also introduced around this time.

The first original theatre piece that conforms to the modern definitions of a musical, including dance and original music that helped to further the story, is generally considered The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. In the 1900s George M. Cohan, an American entertainer and Victor Herbert, an Irish born cellist and composer, gave musicals the distinctive style that we know today. Musicals evolved steadily throughout this period and the twentieth century. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s famous musical

Showboat premiered in 1927. The 1950s saw the advent of such iconic Broadway musicals as The King and I (1951), Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story (1957) and My Fair Lady (1956). Concept musicals, such as Cabaret (1966), emerged in the 1960s–musicals which put significance on the statement rather than the narrative.

The rock musical became an important part of the musical theatre scene in the late 1960s with the hit show Hair. The genre continued to develop through the 1970s with shows such as Grease and Pippin. Rock musicals such as The Wiz and Dreamgirls were heavily influenced by R&B and soul music. The rock musical declined in popularity through the 1980s, but achieved a renaissance in the 1990s, due in no small part to the popularity of Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent (1996). Recently, Broadway is experiencing an emergence of a new genre: the Hip Hop Musical, thanks in large part to composer, lyricist, playwright and actor Lin Manuel Miranda and his Tony Award-winning musicals In the Heights (2008) and Hamilton: An American Musical (2016).

Puppetry Puppetry is an ancient form of artistic expression that is a variation on storytelling or human theatrical productions. The origins of puppetry are ascribed to either ancient China or India, up to 3,000 years ago. The first puppet shows had sacred roots, or, in the case of European puppet shows of the middle ages, were morality plays. The famous Italian comedic puppet tradition of commedia dell’arte evolved in the face of censorship by the church. Later, Britain’s tradition of Punch and Judy shows, as well as the German version featuring Kasperle and Grete, grew out of the commedia dell’arte.

In puppetry, a drama unfolds that is entirely or primarily acted out by fabricated characters manipulated by a puppeteer. The human animator may or may not be visible to the audience. Different parts of the world have developed their own cultural variations of puppetry, with distinctive types still carried on today in Japan, China, Germany, Indonesia, and the United States, among other places. Puppets have become international icons in the age of television, including Howdy Doody, Lamb Chop, and Jim Henson’s Muppets.

Alternative Music Symphonic rock is a broad subgenre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the mid to late 1960s. The style grew out of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favor of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk or classical music. Lyrics became more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening, not dancing.

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vocabularyBlack-bellied Whistling Duck A boisterous duck with a brilliant pink bill and an unusual, long-legged silhouette. In places like Texas and Louisiana, noisy flocks drop into fields to forage on seeds, or loaf on golf course ponds. These ducks call by whistling.

Chachalaca A bird common in a limited area of southern Texas, where their flocks live in thickets or riverside woods. Frequently, especially at dawn and dusk, a flock will perch in a tall tree and give voice to a disorganized clattering chorus of cha-cha-lac calls.

Extinct No longer in existence, that has ended or died out. Species become extinct for many reasons, including climate change, disease, destruction of habitat, local or worldwide natural disasters, or development into new species.

Fairy Tale A type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy characters, such as dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments.

Literary Adaptation The adapting of a literary source, such as a novel, short story, poem to another genre or medium, such as a film, stage play or musical.

Marionette A puppet that is moved by pulling strings or wires that are attached to its body.

Musical Theatre A form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance.

Pop Rock Rock music with a lighter, smoother approach that is more reminiscent of commercial pop music.

Puppet A small-scale figure (as of a person or animal) usually with a cloth body and hollow head that fits over and is moved by the hand.

Puppet Animator A performer who animates puppets.

Red Wolf A wolf found throughout the eastern United States from the Atlantic Ocean to central Texas, and in the north from the Ohio River Valley, northern Pennsylvania and southern New York south to the Gulf of Mexico. The Red Wolf, with its reddish, tawny color, is a federally listed endangered species of the United States, and is protected by law. It is considered the rarest species of wolf and is one of the five most endangered species of wolf in the world.

Rock Musical A musical theatre work with rock music. Rock musicals may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals.

Rod Puppet Made out of wood wire and string and manipulated with wooden or wire rods. Rod puppets can sometimes have a complete working hinged mouth but many do not. Arms are usually a requirement as rods are attached to them.

Symphonic Rock A broad subgenre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the mid to late 1960s.

Symphony An extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often written by composers for orchestra.

Table Top Puppet Usually operated by rod or direct contact from behind, on a surface similar to a table top (hence the name).

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Collaborator Websites Lionheart Theatre: www.lionheartyouth.com Glass Half Full Theatre: www.glasshalffulltheatre.com Mother Falcon: www.motherfalcon.com 

Reviews of Petra & the Wolf “Lionheart Youth Theatre’s new adaptation unites the music of Mother Falcon with the puppets of Glass Half Full Theatre,” The Austin Chronicle: www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-12-11/ peter-and-the-wolf-go-to-texas/

“Caroline Reck updates ‘Peter and the Wolf’ with music by Mother Falcon,” Austin American-Statesman: https://atxne.ws/2guYnNe

About the Actress Playing Petra “Gricelda Silva, Equal Parts Pragmatism and Whimsy,” The Austin Chronicle: www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-09-25/ gricelda-silva-equal-parts-pragmatism-and-whimsy/

Music from Petra & the Wolf www.holdenarts.org/petra-and-the-wolf (scroll down to Listen to the Music)

resourcesVideo and Audio by Mother Falcon from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts www.npr.org/event/music/212633651/ mother-falcon-tiny-desk-concert

About Black-bellied Whistling Ducks Audubon Guide, includes information, photos, songs and calls: www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/ black-bellied-whistling-duck The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-bellied_Whistling-Duck/id

About Chachalacas Audubon Guide: www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/plain-chachalaca The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Plain_Chachalaca/id

About Red Wolves Basic Facts: www.defenders.org/red-wolf/basic-facts Youtube video: “American Pride – The Red Wolf” www.youtube.com/watch?v=97CUxe66nWc

History of Puppetry www.puppetsnow.com/history-of-puppets.html

History of Musicals www.musicals101.com/stagecap.htm

(partial lsiting)

John R. Strangfeld, Chair, NJPAC Board of DirectorsJohn Schreiber, President & CEOAlison Scott-Williams, Vice President, Arts EducationJennifer Tsukayama, Assistant Vice President, Arts Education OperationsBetsy True, Senior Director, Artistic Faculty & Curriculum DevelopmentCathleen Plazas, Senior Director, Curriculum and Program EvaluationMark Gross, Director, Jazz InstructionJamie M. Mayer, Director, Curriculum & Professional DevelopmentRosa Hyde, Senior Manager, SchoolTime & AssembliesRoneasha Bell, Manager, On-site and Community ProgramsKyle Conner, Manager, Sales & PartnershipsVictoria Revesz, Senior Manager, School and Community ProgramsAlexis Almeida, Manager, School and Summer ProgramsAshley Miskoff, Coordinator, Faculty Evaluation and TrainingRaven Oppong-Boateng, Coordinator, Program Registration and OperationsDaniel Silverstein, Coordinator, On-site and Community ProgramsPatricia Sweeting, Coordinator, Performances & EngagementDanielle Vauters, Coordinator, School and Summer ProgramsTara Baker, Administrative Assistant/Office Manager, Arts EducationDenise Jackson, Administrative Assistant to the VP and AVP, Arts Education

teacher resource guidesThe Writer’s Circle, LLC: Judith Lindbergh, Michelle Cameron, Scott Caffrey, Chris Knapp

Lia DiStefano, Graphic Design liadidadesign.comthe arts in your schoolIn-School Residencies: Drama + Social Studies. Dance + Math. It all adds up in NJPAC’s In-School Residencies in which professional teaching artists partner with educators to bring the arts into the classroom. Each 7- to 10-week program culminates in a student performance or an interactive family workshop. All programs address state and national standards. NJPAC is the regional provider in New Jersey for international arts programs like the Wolf Trap Institute’s Early Learning Through the Arts Program and Dancing Classrooms Global.

Assemblies: NJPAC presents engaging school assembly programs that are presented by professional artists that invite students into the enchanting world of live performance. NJPAC’s assembly series promotes cultural awareness and invigorates learning by presenting works that are connected to your’s school’s curriculum.

study the arts at njpacSaturday Programs: NJPAC’s Saturday programs are geared towards students at every level—from those who dream of starring on Broadway to those who are still learning their scales. Students work with professional artists to build technique and develop their own creative style in film, contemporary modern dance, hip hop, jazz, musical theater and symphonic band.

Summer Programs: Want to begin to explore the arts? Or immerse yourself in the study of one genre? Then join us at NJPAC next summer in one of seven programs that spark the creativity in every child through the study of music, dance and theater.

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