Student Opportunities in the ARts

Posted by Bruce Miller
No, it’s not a typo. The reason the R is capitalized in the word ARts in the headline flying jauntily above this post is because we’re making an acronym. SOAR. I know, I know … it’s a bit forced. But Creative Residency with Arts Professionals wasn’t really working for us.

SOAR is an interactive externship program for high school juniors and seniors with a serious interest in the performing arts. Students who enroll in this after-school initiative have the chance to meet and talk every two weeks with Central Virginia’s top performing arts professionals, from actors/ dancers/ musicians/directors to marketing gurus to scenic designers to fundraisers et al. Each colloquium takes place in a different location—complete with a behind-the-scenes tour. We meet at the Firehouse one week, Richmond Ballet two weeks later, then the Modlin Center, the historic Empire, etc. etc. etc.

The program used to be called an internship, but after receiving some guidance from our friends in education, we now call it an externship. An internship happens when a fully trained student has the opportunity to put her/his training to practical use in a professional environment. An externship happens when an interested student has the opportunity to interact with professionals in the field of interest, providing the student with the insight s/he will need to make an informed decision about her/his future education.

Students who complete the course, which includes attending the sessions and maintaining journals throughout the experience (a grand total of 75 hours of work), receive academic credit from their home high school. It’s pretty cool.

SOAR began under a different name a few years ago as a program of the Carpenter Center. From the beginning a lot of the energy that powered the program came from Barksdale. Most of the funding that has enabled the program in the past came from the Markel Corporation’s donation to the Carpenter Center. On behalf of Greater Richmond’s arts students, we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

About three years ago, the program was featured as a national model in Time magazine, including a photo of a Richmond public school student exploring the light board at our historic Empire Theatre.

Last year the SOAR program became an official partnership between Barksdale Theatre and CenterStage, the new name for the expanding Carpenter Center. Barksdale provided the design and management of the program; CenterStage did the fundraising and served as liaison with the schools.

Last spring, CenterStage completed a strategic planning process with Mitchell Korn, a national arts-in-education consultant. They have now announced that their future arts-in-education programs will focus on in-school activities. Consequently, this year, SOAR will be the responsibility of Barksdale Theatre alone.

Information and applications for SOAR 08-09 will be distributed to all Central Virginia high schools, public and private, in October. If you know a teacher or a student who would like to have more information about SOAR, please encourage them to email Janine Serresseque.
Our other SOAR job this fall is to find funding for the program, which is made available to Central Virginia students free-of-charge. If you or some entity you know would be interested in talking with us about this funding opportunity, please encourage them to email Emily Cole.

SOAR is one component of the BTW (Barksdale Theatre Workshop), our comprehensive program designed to connect Barksdale with Greater Richmond's high school drama students and teachers. SOAR is a valuable and nationally-recognized way in which Barksdale Theatre can work with Central Virginia’s many exemplary performing arts organizations (and freelance arts professionals) to meet the needs of our community’s students and schools.

Please help us spread the word about this little known program with your colleagues and friends.
--Bruce Miller

What is the BTW? (Barksdale Theatre Workshop)

Posted by Bruce Miller
A respondent to the previous post about TenSpot tickets made a good comment. "Hi. I'm confused. I understand the high school ticket rate; that's great. But what is the Barksdale Theatre Workshop? Is it really some type of free workshop for high school students?? Thank you."

Great question. I'm posting the answer here rather than in the comment section so that it can be seen by more people.

The BTW (Barksdale Theatre Workshop) is our outreach program designed to improve our service to high school students who love theatre. Through the BTW, we create opportunities for young actors, directors and designers to become more interested in and more connected with Barksdale Theatre.

The word “workshop” has two definitions. Quoting Merriam-Webster, a workshop is:
· “a small establishment where manufacturing or handicrafts are carried on, and
· a usually brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field.”
To help us create the BTW, we turned to our best resource, the talented and committed high school teachers who direct the drama programs in schools throughout our community. In the fall of 2005, we invited these drama teachers to Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn to discuss what Barksdale should be doing to serve their programs and their students. They identified five areas where we could have a positive and much needed impact. These five areas are the five components of the BTW.

In priority order, the recommendations of the teachers were:

1. Stage a summer production in which our community’s best high school theatre students could perform with Richmond’s major professional theatre. The program should be open to high school actors from all programs and backgrounds. Students should be able to audition for and participate in the program without charge. Rehearsals should be at night so that those students who needed to hold down summer jobs could participate. No other program, at that time, was filling that need. In partnership with The Steward School, we filled it, with Grease in 2006 and Disney’s High School Musical in 2007 (pictured throughout this article).

2. Create a discount program that allows high school students to come to plays at Barksdale Theatre for $10 each. The BTW TenSpot program now fills this need.

3. Create an externship that allows students interested in the performing arts to meet in a small group with our community’s top theatre, music and dance professionals in an after-school program for academic credit, learning firsthand about careers in the performing arts. In partnership with the CenterStage Foundation we have created and now operate the SOAR program (Student Opportunities in the ARts) to fill this need.

4. Expand our website to create a place where high school students can post information about the productions they’re working on and share their theatre interest with other high school drama enthusiasts—a community-wide high school theatre bulletin board. If you go to the Students section on the Barksdale website, you’ll find the pages where we’re filling that need. We’ve also created an interactive FaceBook page that hundreds of high school drama students access and contribute to each week.

5. Create Master Classes led by Greater Richmond’s best actors, directors, designers etc. and make those classes available on tour to individual drama classrooms in Greater Richmond's high schools. Also, conduct Master Classes in our theatre facilities so that students can access them on their own. We’re planning for our Master Class program to be in place by the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. The Master Classes will be unique, not duplicative of other programs currently existing in the community, such as (in alpha order) Christian Youth Theatre, HATTheatre and/or SPARC—all of which we support.

If you or someone you know is a high school theatre lover, we hope you’ll make sure they know about the BTW (Barksdale Theatre Workshop). For more information, they can email or call Chase Kniffen, 783-1688 ext. 14.

--Bruce Miller

Hangin' in the TenSpot

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Here's the deal! High school students can join the Barksdale Theatre Workshop (for FREE) by emailing Chase Kniffen, Special Projects Manager, or by calling him at 783-1688 x 14.

THEN...those students can purchase one or two high school TenSpot tickets for our critically-acclaimed production of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Doubt: a Parable, by John Patrick Shanley for only $10 each! (Note: Regularly priced tickets are $38.)

TenSpot tickets are available for the following performances:

Wed Mar 5 – 8 pm,
Thurs Mar 6 – 8 pm,
Wed Mar 12 – 2 pm and 8 pm,
Thurs Mar 13 – 8 pm,
Sun Mar 16 – 2 pm,
Wed Mar 19 – 8 pm,
Thurs Mar 20 – 8 pm,
Sat Mar 22 - 2 pm.

Tickets will be on an "as available" basis. When these discounted tickets are sold out, they are sold out, so call the box office ASAP!

Students must pick up these tickets themselves with ID. Students without an ID can fill out a form listing their name, age, contact information, and high school or home school affiliation.

So, if you're a high school student, email or call Chase today to sign up for the BTW! Then call the box office to reserve your seats for Doubt: a Parable!

--Billy Christopher Maupin