Announcing Harlequin’s New Youth Education Program

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Submitted by Harlequin Productions 

“The arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic…music, dance, and theater are all keys that unlock profound human understanding and accomplishment.” ~William Bennett, Former US Secretary of Education

Harlquin Youth Program (2)Numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between drama involvement and academic achievement. According to the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, students that have theater as part of their education consistently outperform their peers in test scores, attendance, reading comprehension, and general involvement at school. In 2005, students involved in drama scored an average of 65.5 points higher on the verbal component and 35.5 points higher in the math component of the SAT, compared to peers without drama as part of their education. However, these statistics only scratch the surface of the true value of a theater education. Working in the arts also improves things that can’t be expressed in numbers, such as self-esteem, empathy, and creativity.

Harlequin Productions believes in the value of theater as part of a student’s education. For more than 15 years, Harlequin has offered a variety of programs focused on making quality theater education available to young people in our community.

It began in 1999, Harlequin introduced its first summer theater education program to provide alternative theatrical training activities for youth. In 2007, the program became The Shakespeare Experience and offered an exclusive Shakespeare intensive that took students through Shakespeare’s language and styles of performance. In 2013, Harlequin’s objective evolved to include a cross-discipline look at a variety of live performance practices. This resulted in a new program, The Conservatory for Young Actors, which Harlequin committed to offer at no charge to participants. Over the years, Harlequin has also offered special student matinee performances and one-day workshops for youth.

Harlequin Conservatory for Young ActorsToday, Harlequin is excited to announce the next generation of its education program. Harlequin is gathering all of its existing education programs under one name: Spotlight Youth. The company will continue its celebrated Conservatory for Young Actors summer program as well as expanded year-round workshops, student matinee performances, study guides for teachers, and youth internships – all under the umbrella of Spotlight Youth.

To spearhead these changes, the company hired youth educator and local actress Vanessa Postil as Education Program Manager. Her training and experience in youth education in theater makes her an excellent choice. “This is an exciting and reenergizing time for the program,” says artistic director Linda Whitney. “Vanessa’s fresh vision for Harlequin’s Spotlight Youth program is inspiring.”

Registration has begun for Harlequin’s Spotlight Youth summer 2015 workshops. These low-cost workshops are offered in July and include improv, stage combat, Shakespeare playground, auditioning, and new this year, musical theater dance. For more information and to register click here.

Harlequin is passionate about providing quality theater education to young people in our community. As Linda Whitney put it, “Theater is story-telling and language; it’s literature, history, geography, and even math. At its best, it is community building. It’s about engaging the imagination and exploring the possibilities of what it means to be human. And these things are at the foundation of education.”

 

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