MCC and Pearl City Players to present Theater in Education workshop
The workshop, Theater in Education – Working with and for Children and Youth, will be held on Saturday, March 29 from 10 a.m. until noon in the Bob Roach Theatre in Strahan Hall on the campus of MCC. Sponsored by the Muscatine Community College Fine Arts Department and Pearl City Players Theatrical Society, the workshop is open to everyone with an interest in using theater while working with children.
The workshop will blend several topics all of which relate to using theater as an educational tool: musical theater, children's theater, educational theater, with sidebars on topics such as communicating effectively with children (K-12) and motivating them. Ample time will be allowed for questions and discussion.
Presenters will be Betty Collins, Duffy DeFrance, Mary Haaf, and Anita Zahniser. All three have great depth of experiences and will share their successful methods of using theater with children.
Betty Collins has 35 years of experience working with children. She finds stories to be a wonderful method of creating bridges between people. Her topic will be “Performing Participation Stories with Children”.
Duffy DeFrance has produced and directed children’s theater at Musser Public Library for nearly 1000 years (or so it seems). Many of the children that got their start in her Grease Paint Theatre Company are still pursuing careers in drama as adults. DeFrance continues to use creative dramatics with her storytelling sessions as Granny Rutabaga when she teaches “Acting It Out” at College for Kids during the summer. Her topic is “Act it Out! - motivating youth to enjoy participating in creative dramatics, storytelling, and theater.”
Mary Haaf has been a professional educator for 34 years. She directed a variety of shows in the elementary setting as well as being drama coach and director at West Middle School in Muscatine for seven years.
Anita Zahniser has worked with youth for more than 30 years as well working for many years in community theatre. She taught elementary music in Davenport for 10 years where she directed four concerts/shows each year. Her work earned her Quad-City Arts grants for an unprecedented three straight years. For 15 years, she has owned and operated Zahniser Music Studio, teaching piano and voice to ages 8 - 80. Her topic: Program Planning – the Pitch, the Plan, the Preparation, the Performance.
The workshop is free to MCC students, faculty, staff, and Fine Arts Patrons. The cost is $5 to members of Pearl City Players and $10 to general public.
This is the second of four theater workshops hosted by MCC and PCP in the spring of 2008. The remaining workshops: April 19 - "Talking to Techies" - learn the jargon used to discuss lighting, set, and costumes; May 10 - "Building a Company & the Importance of Working with Community." What it takes to build a successful theatre company.