Children’s Theatre Tour Spring 2023
The Stowaway
By Drew Petersen
Inspired by William Shakespeare
Directed by Renata Townsend
Times are changing on the Island of Hockey Puck. A new Duke is ruling with an iron fist, the old Duke disappeared in a puddle of mystery, and a stowaway named Dull is on the run from it all back to her homeland of Illyria. Using puppetry, live music, and a sea of imagination students will be transported to the new worlds without ever leaving their school!
This show is best suited for grades 2-5th. It runs for 60 minutes, with up to 100 students/approximately 5 classes in the audience (dependent on space size).
We are open to performing at schools within a 30 minute drive of Montclair State University.
Show dates are*:
Wed April 5th, 2023, 10am
Wed April 12th, 2023, 10am
Wed April 19th, 2023, 10am
Wed April 26th, 2023, 10am
Wed May 3, 2023, 10 am
*If you are interested in other show dates, please indicate so on the interest form and we will contact you.
For more information, and to register, go to our interest form: here
Feel free to contact Bailey Udin, Tour Administration Producer, at udinb1@montclair.edu with any questions.
Playback Theatre Tour Fall 2023
Acts of Kindness (Bullying Prevention) is an audience participation storytelling performance in which audience members tell personal stories and the Montclair State actors perform, or “play back” aspects of the stories. Acts of Kindness performances promote a more cohesive and collaborative community within the classroom, encourage listening skills, build empathy, and provide the opportunity for children’s stories to be heard and validated by their classmates and college performers. The performances are based in Playback Theater, an improvisational and therapeutic form of theater, founded by Jo Salas and Jonathon Fox in 1975 and currently practiced in over sixty countries across the world. While these performances can be centered around various topics, the current theme asks students to think about ways they have acted kindly to help others in need over the last years of the pandemic, ways they have received help from others, and in turn bring their attention to times they didn’t receive the help they needed or witnessed others acting unkindly towards one another. The Acts of Kindness interactive performances are aimed at upper elementary (4th and 5th graders) and work best when performed for a class or in a small group setting (30 students maximum). Performances run 40-90 minutes depending on each school’s schedule. Performances can be held anywhere with a 20’ by 10’ playing area for the actors, such as in a large classroom, library, lunchroom, or gymnasium.
The Acts of Kindness Ambassador Workshops are workshops, targeted at high school theater students, which help them to actively build a world of empathy and respect and have the aim of preventing prejudice, bullying, and other forms of exclusion. MSU actors from the Acts of Kindness performance will come to a class of high school theater students (30 students maximum) and lead the high schoolers in improvisational exercises based in the interactive storytelling technique. The MSU performers and the high school students will work together to create an Acts of Kindness show inspired by stories from both groups. The high school students have the opportunity to build their deep listening skills, voice their feelings, and work collaboratively with peers to express personal stories that connect us all. Workshops run approximately 90 minutes.
We plan to offer this tour in the Fall 2023 semester. Please check back soon for more information!