Our approach to Arts in Education | Our workshop and residency options | Mask Making | Academic learning through performance practices | Performance
Leonardo da Vinci said, “Art is the Queen of all sciences, communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.”
We at Shearwater Productions hold this belief as a cornerstone for our Arts in Education programming.
For us, loving art means passing it on to the next generation. We aim to inspire but also to teach, demonstrate, and explain. Shearwater Productions offers a wide range of workshops that go beyond the surface level to enrich students in both the subject matter (academic, social or otherwise!) and performance. We tailor to your needs and can provide master classes and artist residencies available for K-12, college, professional, and lifelong-learning populations.
Contact us for information about program costs.
Our approach to Arts in Education
Because we believe that teaching artists need to excel as Teachers and as Artists, all of ours have a background in education as well as theatre, and a minimum of 10 years of teaching experience. Approaching each class as an opportunity for our own learning ensures that we walk the journey alongside our students.
Each workshop is designed to be 90 minutes long, although they are easily adapted to a 42 minute class time or 3 hour master class. Workshops meet multiple State Standards for Theatre and ELA, as well as targeted Social Emotional Learning outcomes. Although we do have residency templates, we work with clients to make sure each experience meets client needs, or we work with organizations to create a new series of classes and experiences that connect exploration, community, understanding and artistic expression.
We have a number of metrics to measure success, and discuss with our creative partners to select the most relevant (assessment tools include learning webs, rubrics, portfolios, journals, attendance records and more). We also offer Professional Development workshops for Academic Teachers, Arts Teacher and Administrators. Our Teaching Artists have degrees in Education, awards as artists and as educators, and are well respected in their fields.
Artist residencies grow out of these initial workshop concepts and are tailored to meet specific program needs. Residencies can take the form of a weekend intensive or regular visits (3 or more visits is a residency), and our artists design the residency by working with the teachers or community or project leaders prior to the first workshop visit.
Our workshop and residency options
While we adapt our classes to yours, these ready-made workshops cover our three most-requested topics.
Mask Making
Whether your group is exploring animal tales, identity, or commedia dell ‘arte, a facilitated mask-making workshop might be just the ticket! We offer workshops in mask creating and mask performing, an exciting way to appeal to everyone in your group. We have given many mask-making workshops, with adult actors, kids at schools, and as part of a physical theatre performance at a museum.
The process of making masks can be:
- Therapeutic.
- A means to connect more deeply to a cultural idea or animal legend (especially in an Elementary School Social studies or Language Arts curriculum).
- A successful modality of expression for folks with language or writing challenges.
- WAY FUN.
Academic learning through performance practices
Mathematic concepts, punctuation and grammar, geography and history — any of them can be the focus of an arts-based learning residency. We begin by introducing performance techniques, then explore the academic ideas using arts-based alternative learning strategies. We then move into the play-building phase, and end with a performance, using the script-making process as another means to master the academic content.
To develop these curriculums, we first meet with the teachers, who target a specific piece of their academic content that they feel the students need to understand more deeply, and often talk about how they want the students to grow socially. We as Teaching Artists plan the arc of our lessons accordingly, each day with academic, social, and theatrical goals.
In a nutshell, there are three steps:
- Building a common skill base and creating a project outline.
- Filling in the scenes and developing the script.
- Troubleshooting/Keeping the faith (rehearsing).
Performance
Theatre Education programs provide a safe place for students to be themselves, explore relationships, develop compassion, and discover delayed gratification. Shearwater’s Teaching Artists also offer introductory, intermediate, and advanced training in the process of creating (devising) and performing theatre. We specialize in teaching physical theatre, comedy, and clowning (as well as more general “acting classes”).
Our Teaching Artists use techniques from a variety of arts-education Best Practices, including:
- A teaching model informed by Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) that encourages students to question and engage with art while developing critical thinking skills.
- Modules that meet multiple Anchor Standards for Theatre Education and ELA.
- Other inquiry based learning approaches using student-centered supported improv and investigative learning.
