Vision Statement:
Education Outreach
The arts have been shown to improve test scores in all subjects for
schoolchildren. American students today receive strong daily influences
in technology, numbers, video [games], … through, often, predominantly
visual means. It is Midlantic's aim to offer students rewarding
activities in words. Celebration of multi-cultural diversity, building
critical thinking, social interaction, personal confidence, language
appreciation: these are important lifeskills which drama work –
whether through Shakespeare or class-generated new writing –
heightens. (3‒ month residences, involving 1 to 3 visiting
Midlantic actors, with activities centered around “What a
Character – Character and Competition”and “A Midsummer
Night's Dream” are already mapped out.) Drama also offers
physical release, often a plus in schools today. Midlantic Theatre
Company intends, through education grants and corporate and individual
donations, to make educational outreach as important as their mainstage
productions.
The arts are not just icing on the cake. Art is just as much the cake as core subjects: without the arts (and sports), the juice is gone, and the cake crumbles away from stress, lack of reflection and plain old lack of fun.
MIDLANTIC EDUCATION UPDATE AS OF 9/21/09:
Meetings with NJPAC (Newark) Education Head Sandra Bowie were cancelled this summer due to Newark budget constraints. Possible alternatives presently include Fairfield, NJ and Hoboken, NJ. Things can change at any time. Watch this space!
Midlantic’s commitment to education outreach is rock-solid. Several
company members have strong backgrounds: Ms. Hammer (Masters,
Elem. Ed.), a Philadelphia inner-city schoolteacher for 8 years,
has also taught Acting and Music to children and teens in private
Philadelphia institutions, as well as for Philadelphia’s Conflict
Resolution Theatre. Dan Burkarth has worked with teens and schoolchildren
throughout the West and South, initializing community projects
and working with Native Americans, among others. (Mr. Burkarth
also has extensive background in prison theatre arts therapy.)
It is our belief that not only is it a healthy theatre’s responsibility
to provide dynamic, dedicated educational outreach, but it also
often provides satisfaction to theater professionals at a deeper
level than any other. American students today often are deprived
of visual arts, music, theater, and, of course, dance, in school.
The result is often bottled-up feelings and anti-social behavior,
not to mention a growing lack of awareness in our precious cultural
heritage. Midlantic plans to work with school districts creatively
to help change this in Newark (optimically.) We believe that
American kids deserve the arts just as much as they deserve a
strong core corriculum.
The MTC alternative motto: Let’s help get Newark kids off the
streets!
 
Some of Ms. Hammer's ESL /Theatre students in Philadelphia.
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