Enchanted Circle Theater

Infusing Arts and Education

Program Highlights

The Hastings Bridge to College Project

The late Joan Hastings, a prominent Pioneer Valley philanthropist and social justice advocate who passed away last year, continues to connect individuals and institutions in innovative ways through the Hastings Bridge to College Project at Hampshire College. The project is designed build bridges to college for underserved youth and create connection between Hampshire College and community organizations that Hastings supported through the years. The partner organizations include Enchanted Circle Theater, The Care Center, the Treehouse Community, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Farm Education Collaborative, and the Lemelson center.

We began with young mothers from the Care Center at the Farm Education Collaborative and asked them to learn about the milk they drink and the bread they eat, and to explore the process of transformation - cow to milk, wheatberry to bread, girl to woman.  Their mornings were spent on the farm - planting, sorting, and cooking; and their afternoons were spent in the studio - interpreting, processing, and writing.   

The following poem was the centerpiece of the culminating presentation at the end of the first week:

TRANSFORM: The Story of Our Food
(inspired by Mary Oliver's To Begin With, The Sweet Grass)

Eat rice & beans, and understand culture (Dal)
Eat banana and understand sweetness (Mich)
Eat strawberries and understand softness (Joan)
Eat Shepherd’s Pie, and understand Satisfaction (Bren)

The GERM part of seed is the embryo that supplies protein, minerals, and vitamins.

Eat apple and understand your love (Maria)
Eat a burrito and understand an afternoon out with friends (Vic)
There will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment somehow or another)

The baby plant reached up and out toward the sun
The seed has everything it needs to grow inside itself
All it needed was water.

WATER

Drink Piña Colada, and understand Refreshment (Dal)
Drink Water and feel it taking your thirst away (Joan)

Drink Franzia and understand delicious (sam)
Drink pink lemonade and understand sweetness (Bren)

Drink milk and understand what a child needs
The cows give milk because they had a baby
Milk gets pasteurized to kill the mold and bacteria

Drink parcha and understand the summer (Mich)

We do one thing, or another.  We stay the same, or we change.