In-School Residency
Posted by Karin Freed on 9/30/2009
Hello out there. This is Karin Freed, reporting to you from the Steppenwolf for Young Adults department. We’re steeped in work over here as we prepare for the opening of The House on Mango Street. Last week, we spent several days devising exercises and games with our teaching artists to use during our in-school residencies.
What’s an in-school residency, you ask? Well, it’s a 3-part event whereby teaching artists go into school classes before they see The House on Mango Street, and prepare the students for what they are about to experience at the theatre. Teaching artists get the students up on their feet exploring the themes and issues of the play through performance-based activities. These activities may entail forming tableaus, improvising scenes, engaging in debates, writing and performing monologues, or making music.
All the activities that teaching artists lead in their classes help students to engage with the major themes of the play, which, in the case of The House on Mango Street, include identity, responsibility, and personal struggle. After the pre-show workshop, students go see the play at Steppenwolf, and are invited afterwards to participate in a talk-back with some of the actors. This is part 2 of the residency program. Because of the pre-show workshop, students are equipped to talk with the actors not just about the story of the play, but also about its larger themes, and what it was like seeing those themes presented on the stage.
Part 3 of the residency has the teaching artists returning to classrooms to engage students in post-show exercises and games. These relate not just to the themes of the play, but also to specific characters and important moments. In the post-show workshops for The House on Mango Street, teaching artists will ask students to recall some of Esperanza’s (the lead character) personal struggles with her family, neighbors, and self. They’ll lead activities with students that get them to think about how well Esperanza did or did not handle obstacles in her life, and how the challenges she faced growing up might relate to their own. That’s really what the residency program is all about: helping students to connect what they see on the stage to their own life experiences.
The House on Mango Street is going to be a very exciting production, and our teaching artists are now ready to lead equally exciting residencies in classrooms, which will prepare students to think and talk about the play in an authentic and personal way.