Our elementary school students are taking the stage with productions of “Peter Pan” and “The American Revolution” this week! William O. Schaefer Elementary School second-graders and Cottage Lane Elementary School fourth-graders have been working with Stage Left Children’s Theater since the beginning of the school year as part of the District’s theatre enrichment program.
Each second- and fourth-grade class is hosting a live performance for families to come see what they have been working on. Before students from Christopher Speno’s class at WOS began their performance of “Peter Pan,” Stage Left Teaching Artist Andrea Seigel said, “We have been working on how to find focus and collaborate with each other. Students are making creative choices with their performances. We have two to three kids play each part. So not only do we have a backup plan if someone is absent, but it allows each student to feel supported by the group of students they’re working with and it gives them the chance to try something that they may not have before.”
At CLE, students from Denise Murphy and Jess Calungcagin’s class worked together to create a play inspired by the events that happened during the American Revolution. “A few years ago, I got a grant to come into the schools and create this theatre enrichment program in conjunction with the Common Core curriculum. Since the beginning of the school year, students have worked to write and memorize the script for the play and have been writing vignettes and diary entries from the perspective of someone who lived during the American Revolution,” said Stage Left Artistic Director Anne Warren.
The 20-week theater enrichment program is funded through a New York State Council on the Arts’ Arts in Education Grant.
