News

Florence Savings Bank awards ECT $4,250 for work in Easthampton

Holyoke and Easthampton, MA – Enchanted Circle Theater was just awarded a $4,250 gift from the Florence Savings Bank, Easthampton Branch, Chartable Foundation, Inc, in support of a Life Skills Arts Integration Workshop Series with the Northeast Center for Youth and families.

Enchanted Circle Theater has recently partnered with the Northeast Center for Youth and Families in Easthampton to enhance communication skills through drama. Founded in 1972, Northeast Center for Youth and Families (NCYF) serves more than 600 children and teens annually with a broad range of programs. With a comprehensive continuum of care, NCYF’s services include foster care and residential programs, in-home therapy, expressive arts therapy, after school programming, and the Tri-County Schools for special-needs youth.

Enchanted Circle Theater (ECT) is an educational theater company in Holyoke, MA that specializes in arts integration. We use theater arts as a dynamic teaching tool to engage, enhance, and inspire learning. We work in public schools, pre-schools, university classrooms, professional theaters, museums, and human service agencies with people of all ages and abilities.

ECT serves an essential need in the community by “bringing the joy back into learning.” We have been called the “antidote” to the dropout rate. Our arts integration programs integrate theater arts with academic and social curricula to improve academic achievement and support social and emotional health.

Together, ECT and NCYF have developed a comprehensive strategy for bringing theater arts integrated programs to youth at NCYF, including workshops and performances in the following areas:

Life Skills Through the Arts: Theater Games to Build Communication Skills, The Way I See It: A Multi-Media exploration of Self Presentation (Workshop Series), Interactive Reading Alive Family Performance (Performance for Families), From Page to Stage: Literacy through the Arts for grades K-3, 3-5 and 6-8 (Arts Integration Residency), After School Theater Club (After-school programming for high school students).