PCS Blog
Lights, Camera, Teach!
Posted by RebeccaA | 19 January 2012 | Comments (0)
At PCS, we strive to provide education and community outreach that exposes individuals to theater. We use theater as a tool to inspire young people and adults to create, inquire and discover the world around them. How do we do this, you may ask? There are a number of programs and resources at PCS that we encourage members of our community to take advantage of!
Here are a few:
The Stage Door program is our way to introduce young people to theater. We offer discounted tickets to students during Thursday matinees and weekday evening performances. FREE tickets are available to all Title 1 schools and social service agencies. There are also pre-show workshops for students, providing additional information on plays. We also have online resource guides for teachers to download and use in their classrooms to continue the educating process. Since these guides are online, they are available for everyone and anyone to use! It’s a great way to get the inside scoop on a production before you see it live.
Students participating in the Musical Theater Intensive, 2008.
“Theater teaches in ways that we cannot in classrooms. It teaches students who struggle with behaviors to connect with their emotions. It allows a population that has seen and experienced failure to watch characters experience failure themselves, and rise above it to succeed. So thanks to you and to everyone at PCS for giving my students this experience” – Naomi Ulsted, Springdale Job Corps Center.
As we all know, education doesn’t stop after high school. PCS recognizes this and offers classes and workshops for adults. Not only do we have Playwriting, Acting and Directing classes available, but there are additional workshops that target business professionals. Unsure how to keep your audience captivated? How about the important, but sometimes monotonous, art of listening? We offer two courses – The Art of Presentations and The Art of Communication – aimed to accentuate skills individuals already posses simply by bringing their natural creativity to the business realm. PCS also encourages theater goers to arrive to shows early so they can attend our prologues. Get to the theater around 6:45 before weekday productions, and a PCS staff member will present you with supplemental information about the play you are about to watch!
Visions and Voices brings professional PCS actors/writers into public schools for intensive residencies in which they spend as much as 5 to 6 hours bringing theater into the classroom, teaching students the fundamentals of theater and assisting each student in writing their very own play! At the end of each school year, Vision and Voices hosts an open-to-the-public performance by professional actors at the Gerding Theater at the Armory of selected student plays from these residencies. Please call 503-445-3793 to learn more about bringing Visions and Voices to your school!
Oregon War Veterans -- Miah Washburn, Jeremy Coombs, Josh Coombs, Shirely Cortez -- share their stories on the set of the Iliad in November of 2010. This event was free to the public and a perfect example of how PCS connects the community, theater and education.
Here’s a taste of what we accomplished during the 2010-2011 season:
5,600 students saw a play
681 students received a workshop
236 individuals, groups and businesses partnered with PCS to offer education and community programs
110 students wrote a play
1,038 people attended a prologue
If you would to donate to Portland Center Stage and help support these programs along with many others, please click here to donate today!
We can’t mention all these great programs without giving a huge thanks to our Education and Community Outreach sponsors:
.)
.gif)
.jpg)
EVELYN CROWELL .gif)
Herbert A. Templeton Foundation
Rick Caskey & Sue Horn Caskey
H.W. & D.C.H. Irwin Foundation
Vikki Mee & Steve Cox
Oregon Cultural Trust
Juan Young Trust
John and Mary Calvin
Robert and Kathleen Felder
Comments (0)
There are no comments for this entry yet.
Add a comment
Portland Center Stage welcomes your comments and criticism.