ECLARO’s Post

Performing Arts Majors: Tips for Navigating Admissions Highlights: -BA majors are liberal arts majors that work similarly to any other BA, like history or English, and are great for students who want a traditional college experience. -When students are still deciding which path to take, they should consider their desired college experience. -Many campuses have a student-run theater that your student can get involved with even if they aren’t a theater major. It will require some sleuthing to know what is available at each college or university. -Visiting campus is vitally important for theater majors and performance arts majors. Your student will want to meet the faculty and start building those connections even before they’re on campus as a student. -Musical theater is more competitive and rare as a major than other theater majors. Its admissions rate is about 2%. https://buff.ly/3YMdwMG

Without audiences, Shakespeare would have been “just” a poet, and conversational iambic pentameter would not have yielded thousands of new English words and phrases still used today. Or, as we used to say at The Late Seating at Actors, art is use it or lose it, so let’s use it and support local artists. Performing arts do not exist without audiences. Audiences have been in decline for decades. That means performing arts leaders and boards are making hard choices. When those choices are purpose-driven business decisions that are mindful of what audiences want, we can create sustainable arts business models.

LOCAL FRIENDS: Skip the kitchen tonight and head on over to Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers Cane's #069 (6513 W Park Blvd, Plano, TX) tonight for a delicious & easy dinner - while you support our Hebron High School Theatre program. We're sooooo close to making budget and could use your help. TIA! MENTION THE FUNDRAISER AT THE REGISTER! 🎭Supporting high school theater is essential: Academic Achievement: 📚 Research shows that students involved in theater demonstrate improved critical thinking, reading comprehension, and overall academic success. The skills honed on stage spill over into classrooms, making learning more engaging. Life Skills: 💼 Theater isn’t just about acting; it’s about teamwork, problem-solving, and adaptability. Students learn to collaborate, communicate effectively, and handle unexpected situations—a toolkit for life beyond the curtain call. Attendance and Engagement: 🎟️ Students engaged in theater are more likely to attend school regularly. The anticipation of rehearsals, performances, and the camaraderie of fellow actors keeps them invested in their education. Career Readiness: 👔 Whether students pursue a career in the arts or not, theater equips them with soft skills—public speaking, time management, and resilience—that employers value. The stage prepares them for life’s grand performance. Confidence and Self-Expression: 🌟 High school theater provides a safe space for students to step into different roles, express themselves, and discover their unique voices. Whether they’re center stage or behind the scenes, theater fosters confidence that extends far beyond the spotlight. Empathy and Social Tolerance: 🌎 Through portraying diverse characters and exploring various narratives, students learn empathy. They walk in others’ shoes, understanding different perspectives, and promoting tolerance. Theater teaches us that every story matters. Creativity Unleashed: 🎨 Theater encourages out-of-the-box thinking. From designing sets to creating costumes, students unleash their creativity. They learn that there’s no limit to imagination, and innovation thrives in the theater’s magical realm. Community Impact: 🌟 Thriving theater programs enrich communities. They spark conversations, address social issues, and provide an emotional outlet. Theater is a catalyst for change, a mirror reflecting our shared humanity. Sources: NFHS: Students Gain Many Benefits from Involvement in Theatre TCE: Why Theatre is Crucial to Teach in Schools On The Stage: Drama in Education - The Impact of Theatre on Student Success AATE: Benefits of Theatre Education

Celebrating National Arts in Education Week. Highlighting the importance of Theater and Theater Education. Theater is a powerful catalyst for developing creativity and imagination. Through the process of creating and performing, youth are encouraged to think outside the box, explore different perspectives, and bring their ideas to life. Theater involves stepping into various characters' shoes and understanding their experiences. This not only enhances empathy but also broadens youth's ability to view situations from multiple angles. From improvisation exercises to tackling complex scripts, theater challenges youth to find creative solutions and adapt to unexpected situations, honing their problem-solving abilities. By practicing dialogue, body language, and vocal expression, youth learn to convey ideas effectively and engage audiences, strengthening their overall communication skills. Theater provides a platform for youth to express themselves in unique and innovative ways, whether through acting, set design, or script writing. Working as part of a theater troupe fosters teamwork and collaboration, as youth contribute their individual ideas to a collective project, learning to blend creativity with others’ contributions. Theater encourages imaginative thinking by inviting youth to invent stories, create characters, and envision new worlds, which nurtures their ability to think creatively and imaginatively. Theater not only sparks creativity and imagination but also cultivates a range of skills that are valuable both in the arts and in everyday life. #Theater #TheaterEducation #Education #ArtEducation #TheaterLife #Actors #Directors #Play #Playwright #FocusOnEducation #Anacostia #Arts #Culture #DMVArts @TheDCArts #DCArts #DCArtists

In our latest article, Vicki Infinito, head of arts and entertainment programming, shares suggestions from a decade-and-a-half at the Association of Performing Arts Professionals' annual conference. First-timers and frequent attendees alike, check out her recs, then let us know how you'll make the most of #APAPNYC!

Theatre Encourages Critical Thinking Celebrating National Arts in Education Week. Highlighting the importance of Theater and Theater Education. Theatre fosters critical thinking skills in ways that can often complement and even enhance the traditional English curriculum. Youth dissect scripts and characters, exploring motivations, themes, and subtext. This deep analysis parallels literary critique, but with the added dimension of interpreting and embodying characters. Theater often involves solving complex problems, from staging scenes to adapting scripts. This encourages youth to think creatively and develop innovative solutions, skills that are transferable to many areas of life. Engaging in discussions about characters’ decisions, moral dilemmas, and thematic elements requires youth to form and defend their viewpoints, fostering a more nuanced understanding of complex issues. Acting requires youth to adopt different perspectives, which enhances their ability to evaluate situations from multiple angles and consider diverse viewpoints. Reflecting on their own performances and those of others helps youth assess their own work critically, recognize areas for improvement, and understand the impact of their choices. Theater combines various elements—text, movement, emotion, and design—into a cohesive performance. This process teaches youth to integrate multiple pieces of information and viewpoints into a unified whole. Live performance provides instant feedback from the audience and peers, allowing youth to quickly assess the effectiveness of their choices and adapt accordingly. Theater not only nurtures critical thinking but also creates a dynamic and engaging environment where youth can apply these skills in practical, real-world contexts. By integrating theater into education, we empower youth to think more deeply and approach problems with greater creativity and insight. For more information about our Focus on Education Program, visit us on the web at https://lnkd.in/e_Jsva-R. #Theater #TheaterEducation #Education #ArtEducation #TheaterLife #Actors #Directors #Play #Playwright #FocusOnEducation #Anacostia #Arts #Culture #DMVArts @TheDCArts #DCArts #DCArtists

Embedding Accessibility in all we do! Video 8, of 12, is all about the urgency to create systemic change in the way Accessibility is seen, understood, and actioned in an organisation. Working with Michele Taylor, MBE and a team of awesome people and associates at Ramps on the Moon, me and my peers are on a journey to discover and then challenge ableist structures and attitudes in order to break down barriers. I will say it again, Accessibility should be Always On! It is not an ‘if and when’ agenda. If we learn to move from a place of inclusion with diverse intersecting of ground up ideas, thinking, planning and action, then Access is then a core component of any creation of place, project, or programme. As part of building the right approach to Access, it must crosscut all functions. It must be engaged with from all directions. How do you embed Access in all you do? Read more about the Change Partner Programme by clicking this URL https://lnkd.in/ePDbQfRp #AlwaysOnAccess #Accessibility #Theatre #Arts #ArtKind Video ID: Paul facing camera, wearing a blue jumper. The words ‘#8 Time to Embed Change, are visible at the top left of the screen. Captions are displayed throughout

The Texas A&M School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts will add a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre starting in the fall semester. The major was recently approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Rayna Dexter, instructional associate professor and acting program director for Theatre, said the major will prepare students to create and produce theatrical works. This covers three key areas: performance, which includes acting, voice and directing courses; design and production; and arts administration and community engagement. The major differs from traditional programs with its focus on making new and original works, Dexter said. It doesn’t exclude scripted work and dramatic literature, but encourages students to think differently about building a theatrical performance. “If you’re going to create a new degree in Texas, it needs to be different from the other degrees available,” she said. “And no one else in the state is doing this. In fact, this is the only program of its kind at a public university in the United States at the undergraduate level.” Read more: tx.ag/theatreDegree

Viola Spolin’s Theater Games for Educators starts Jan 16! Sign up soon to join this absolutely fantastic cohort of players and teachers. It might be awhile before I’m able offer this one again, so don’t miss the chance to play with this group. Find the linktree in our bio or visit https://lnkd.in/gm6Eg8yg much more certain would knowledge be if it came from and out of the excitement of learning itself? How many human values will be lost and how much will our art forms be deprived if we seek only success. -Viola Spolin The ten-week online workshop with Aretha Sills is open to teachers in any field who’d like to explore Viola Spolin’s theater games with a group of fellow educators. We’ll play games like we would in an introductory course, but also make time to discuss questions that arise about presenting the exercises in our various classrooms.Participants will be immersed in Spolin’s non-authoritarian teaching methods through experiential play and discussion. We will cover: the origins of improvisational theater in Progressive-era experiential educational philosophies including the innovative work of her teacher, sociologist Neva Boyd; Spolin’s non-authoritarian teaching methods; side-coaching technique; workshop practices and procedures; assessing your students’ needs; and planning workshops for a variety of groups, experience levels, and teaching environments.This is not a practicum, but a slowed-down introductory course to allow teachers time to discuss integrating Spolin’s methods into their classrooms. There will be some recommended readings you can do at your own pace.Class size is limited.Live online classes will meet: Ten Tuesdays, January 16 - March 19, 2024, 7pm to 9:30pm Central Standard Time. Our last two workshops will be Central Daylight Time.#violaspolin #theater #theatre #theatergames #improvisation #sillsspolintheaterworks #dramateacher #theatertraining#improv #dramateacherlife #education #educators #therapist #socialworker #appliedimprov #theaterteacher #theaterteacherlife #educator

It’s official - welcome, Alexander Santiago-Jirau! ✨ Over the summer, I joined a group of dedicated individuals to lead the search for a new Executive Director and begin a new chapter at Opening Act. Read about the journey, our new leader, and our ambitions below. Two asks: 1) Follow our page to track our progress and 2) Contribute a WELCOME GIFT if you’d like to further our mission and local impact (https://lnkd.in/ed8MD65d). YES, and! 👏🏽 #nonprofitleadership