School Residencies from Illusion

Illusion Theater currently offers two types of school residencies, lasting from as little as 4 weeks to an entire semester. Current school residencies available 3-5 week Program This residency is geared toward one teacher's or a team of teachers' class. Typically, we work with English classes, Social Studies classes, Drama classes, or other humanities-related classes. We meet with the teacher(s) an average of three times prior to beginning work in the classroom. The purpose of these meetings is to learn the teacher's goals and outcomes for the class, to determine how Illusion fits in with the curriculum, to identify the issue we should be addressing, and to plan the residency. In between those meetings, Illusion chooses the artists (usually three/class) who will be involved, develops ideas for the residency to discuss with the teacher(s), determines the theater's goals and outcomes for the residency, and develops the final structure. Michael Robins and/or Bonnie Morris always works in the classroom in tandem with another theater artist(s). We bring scripts into the classroom that have been developed at Illusion over its 24-year history that touch on the issue at hand. Each residency is carefully planned with the teacher(s) to fit his/her classroom goals and structure, so our working methods may vary from school to school. The number of students we work with also varies, ranging from fifteen to an entire grade of 150 students. We usually begin by conducting a series of games and exercises to introduce the students to theater techniques, enhance skills to be emphasized in the curriculum, and build trust and cooperation. Exercises may include creative writing, drawing, and verbal skills in addition to theater skills. For example, we might ask students to imagine where they'll be ten years from now. In doing so, they may write about it, draw it, or improvise a phone call that takes place ten years hence. We introduce them to Illusion scripts and help them prepare scenes from the various plays. We then ask them to write scenes, stories, or monologues from their life experiences in response to the scripts, to articles in the news, or to our classroom discussions. This activity gets the students accustomed to working with the form of a script, teaches them theater terminology they need to know in order to practice the craft, gives students various insights into the issue at hand, and helps them learn first-hand that a play can take many different forms and still rightly be termed "a play." We then work with the students to develop their own material for performance. This work incorporates aspects of one or more of the scripts they have worked with as well as their own ideas, making the final play as relevant to their lives as possible. We rehearse the play with the students and prepare for a performance. Students learn about playwriting, directing, acting, set and costume design, lighting, promotion and publicity. The play is then performed for the school, with parents and other community members invited. Students also have the opportunity to perform the work for invited community at Illusion Theater. With metro-area schools, we hold as many reheawrsals and classes as possible at Illusion Theater to give the students an opportunity to see what a professional theater looks like and to feel the ambianceAND WORK WITH THE PROFESSIONAL THEATER STAFF We conduct the rehearsal on the Illusion stage. We did this in January with Washburn and Highland Park students. Several years ago we brought two residency schools together to show work to each other and we have continued to do this every year. After the performance, we hold a discussion, giving students an opportunity to learn from each other and make valuable inter-school connections. The classroom teacher(s) is present for the entire residency, learning theater techniques along with the students and monitoring the students and artists. We meet with the teacher(s) regularly to discuss the residency, the progress being made, individual students, and to identify areas that may need adjustment or special focus. At the end, we allot time with the class to celebrate their good work and get feedback from them on the residency. Semester-long Residency Under the semester-long residency, students gain the skills to perform Illusion Education plays, and learn how to develop their own work for presentation for their school and in schools throughout their community. The preparation for this residency is very similar to the shorter residency, but the amount of time we spend with the students is greatly extended. We are in the classroom at least two hours a day for 10-11 weeks, team-teaching with the English teacher. This gives us an opportunity to expand the focus on each segment of the general residency format, with more time available for different writing exercises and for rehearsal. We also do at least 2-3 weeks of performing for other classes and schools. In our residency evaluations, students have expressed a keen desire for more rehearsal time. The semester-long residency allows for that, helping students achieve a high level of comfort with the material and their performance skills. This ultimately leads to a more in-depth arts learning experience. Populations Served Because of the involving nature of our residencies, we have, until now, limited our residency work to schools located in our home base. (Touring and Peer Education are conducted at sites throughout the state of Minnesota.) We have also made a choice to work with inner city high schools, where there is a need for outside arts programs and where the population mix is highly diverse. Highland Park claims to have ninety-nine different cultures represented at the high school. Each school picks the class with which we work. At South West High, we work with many high achieving students. At South ,Highland Park, and The Downtown School we work with a broader mix that includes students who may be in trouble, students who may fall through the cracks, students who have highly developed social skills, students who are high achievers, and those who may not be working up to their potential. Minneapolis and St. Paul Public Schools have minority populations that, together, are in excess of fifty percent of the school population. The classes we work with have similar demographics. We believe it is important to build our residency program gradually and not over-extend ourselves. We began at Highland Park seven years ago, added Washburn the following year, and South High the next. We then began work with Southwest High School as part of their IBC program, and last year began work with the Downtown School The next year, we initiated the semester-long residency at Highland Park. We have built strong relationships there and believe it makes sense to initiate a new program where we have the fewest unknowns, where we can build on the relationships we have. We are now exploring the possibility of initiating a residency program at one of our long-standing Peer Education sites in Minnesota. Cities under consideration are Buffalo, Albert Lea, Redwood Falls,Spring Lake Park and Marshall. Each is within driving distance of the Twin Cities; as rural sites, each has indicated it would welcome a stronger arts presence in the schools. In addition, we are planning to create a new work on eating disorders and body image related issues for youth. Our intent is to partner with a metropolitan area middle school and work with 7th and 8th graders to develop the piece and, then, building on this collaboration, establish a long-term partnership with that school.