Lincoln Elementary 4th Grade Students Working with George Street Playhouse Teaching Artists

Lincoln Elementary 4th Grade Students

Working with George Street Playhouse Teaching Artist

Create and Perform Original Musicals about the American Revolution

The culmination of this year-long residency to take place on The Arthur Laurents Stage

of George Street Playhouse on June 12th

New Brunswick, NJ -- Lincoln Elementary School in New Brunswick, NJ has been working in partnership with George Street Playhouse’s Education Department since October on The Ensemble Project—an in-depth, long term theatre arts residency designed to increase literacy as students develop original musicals about the American Revolution.  This is the fourth year that George Street Playhouse has been working with Lincoln Elementary School and New Brunswick Public Schools – which is reflective of a coordinated, district-wide approach by George Street Playhouse and New Brunswick Public Schools to increase student literacy and academic development through the arts.

This theatre arts and literacy residency brings two George Street Playhouse teaching artists into five fourth-grade social studies classrooms  for 30 sessions to develop original musicals about the American Revolution.  Each class has focused on specific events that helped to provoke the revolution, such as The Boston Massacre—and feature key battles that took place in New Jersey, including the Battle of Monmouth.  To develop these musicals, the students work with teaching artists Dustin Ballard and Greg Scalera, along with their classroom teachers to research the history of the revolution, incorporate primary documents, sources, and music, and learn performance skills.  All of the music and dialogue, except for short pieces of period colonial music, was created by the students.

According to Jim Jack, Education Director at George Street Playhouse, “This is an excellent example of arts integration and demonstrates how powerful theatre arts can be to develop literacy—namely background knowledge, sequencing skills, and expressive language development in students, many who are English Language Learners and are reading well below grade level.”

The performance takes place on June 12th on The Arthur Laurents Stage of George Street Playhouse at 11am and 1:15 pm.  Each classroom will present a fifteen minute musical—and the entire production runs 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The performance is free and open to the public, but reservations must be made in advance.  Please contact Christa Cillaroto at ccillaroto@georgestplayhouse.org for tickets.

There are three major components of George Street Playhouse’s educational programming.   Its Touring Theatre, which commissions and produces first-class productions with relevant themes for young audiences, such as conflict resolution, racial tolerance, anti-bullying, cyber-bullying, and health and  wellness.  Provided in part by support from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, each play is followed by an in-depth discussion led by the actors, for which they receive specialized training.  These productions tour from September – May throughout the tri-state area, and are seen by more than 40,000 students.  The Department’s School-based Theatre Arts residencies are rapidly expanding throughout local school districts.  Tailored to meet the specific curricular goals of the classroom, residencies enhance literacy, expand creative expression, and cultivate collaboration.  George Street Playhouse teaching artists are trained to integrate theatre practice into Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Science classrooms, reaching 2000 students annually. In addition, GSP’s Theatre Academy celebrates each student as an artist; providing transformative learning experiences in an engaging environment. The classes are ideal for students of all ages, with or without previous theatre experience, and focus on the foundations of acting, movement, voice, musical theatre and design. For further information on any of the George Street Playhouse educational opportunities, visit www.GSPonline.org, or call (732) 846-2895, extension 117.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint and Managing Director Kelly Ryman, George Street Playhouse has become a nationally recognized theatre, presenting an acclaimed mainstage season while providing an artistic home for established and emerging theatre artists.  Founded in 1974, the Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway – recent productions include the Outer Critics’ Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger, the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated production of The Spitfire Grill and the recent Broadway hit and Tony® and Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof by David Auburn, which was developed at GSP during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. In addition to its mainstage season, GSP’s Touring Theatre features four issue-oriented productions that are seen by more than 40,000 students annually. George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by its lead season sponsor, Johnson & Johnson.  

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