Specialization in Educational Theatre

Theatre Siena’s Educational Theatre Program is a comprehensive program for students who are interested in theatre and drama by, with, and for community and youth. The program stresses the value of theatre and drama both as an art form and as a teaching method. A unique feature of the program is Creative Stages for Youth, which gives our students a hands-on opportunity to work directly with children from the community. The program maintains strong national and international connections with professional and educational drama programs.

Creative Stages

Offering educational theatre to Lenawee County youth for over 50 years, our nationally-recognized program supports an educational philosophy designed to stress the process of art making, rather than the final product or performance. Emphasis is placed on collaborative creative processes that allow for positive social interactions and personal growth and development for every participant. Creative Stages teachers include professional teaching artists as well as SHU students who are simultaneously studying the theory and practice of creative drama.

Classes

Creative Stages is pleased to offer courses that are developmentally appropriate for actors of all ages.

Grades 1-2 Story Drama: Students participate in fun-filled story drama experiences designed to enhance self awareness, physical awareness, verbal expression, creativity and imaginative play.

Grades 3-5 Dramatic Adventures: Students develop adventures through improvisation, creative dramatics, story drama, pantomime and theatre games.

Grades 6-8 Improvisational Theatre: Students create “devised theatre” with an emphasis on improvisation, verbal expression, role playing, character development, and movement.

Grades 7-12 Young Actor’s Workshop: Students explore advanced theatre skills through a variety of activities including improvisation, advanced character development, movement for the stage and scene work.

Please click here to register for our classes.

Production

Students enrolled in our classes are eligible to audition for our full-scale production in the winter. Our Creative Stages productions are designed, built and managed by our college theatre program and are given the same attention and level of detail as our mainstage productions.

Summer Camp

Creative Stages’ Arts Immersion Camp offers a daily adventure for students K-12 in the arts, with opportunities to engage in and learn through an array of creative arts experiences, including music, movement, drama and visual arts. We offer a separate Musical Theatre Camp in the afternoon for students in grades 7-12.