Adopt-A-School and Residency Are Over so No More School!

Today was the final day of Adopt-A-School! This year I was at three school - Lamberton Elementary, Hackett Elementary, and Meredith Elementary working with students K-8. This program was the one that had most of my attention during the apprenticeship this year and it was very unique in how it operates. AAS had us at a school for four cycles with each cycle consisting of six classes: Improv, Dance, Public Speaking, Writing, Singing, and a review day. I was partnered with Lindsay Marcus, Dave Allison, and Lindsey McCue at my three schools and it was a blast getting to work with all of them. It was Lamberton and Meredith's first year in the program and Hackett's third year so I was fortunate to have an array of students both new and old to theatre.

In addition to AAS, I also was working with the Residency program at Baldi Middle School, working in partnership with Philadelphia Youth Network. This was a 16 week program that focused on improvisation. By the end of the Residency, students were able to create characters, stories, and put those together to create a kind of devised story.

Both programs were incredibly fun and I enjoyed being able to cycle between working with other teaching artists and working by myself. Getting a taste of working during school and after school was a neat experience and while I don't see myself working at a school full-time at this point in my life, I'm glad I had the chance to do so with the younger ages.