Enchanted Circle Theater Enchanted Circle Theater

In the Classroom

three girls

ECT’s Artist-in-Residence (AiR) programs offer teachers and students the opportunity to experience our dynamic arts integrated learning methods personally. Over the course of 10 to 60 days, ECT teaching artists work with students and their teachers to research, write, rehearse and perform a dramatic presentation of a chosen topic from a school’s standards-based curriculum. ECT’s AiR programs integrate theater arts (drama, dance, visual arts, music, media and literary arts) with English language arts, social studies, math and science into one cohesive unit. Our arts integration techniques provide multi-modal pathways to meaningful learning for students of all ages and abilities through physical embodiment and creative interpretation.

Each AiR program is specifically tailored to the particular classroom in which we are working. Pre-planning meetings with the classroom teachers and curriculum directors fine-tune learning objectives and program priorities. ECT teaching artists work in partnership with classroom teachers, guiding students’ creative and critical thinking skills, enhancing their communication skills and collaborative learning skills, and providing embedded professional development for teachers in engagement strategies and creative curriculum development.

ECT’s Theater Arts Residency creates an exciting learning experience for teachers and students; helps foster a sense of pride and accomplishment; teaches an entrepreneurial sense of learning; encourages self expression and reading aloud with feeling, understanding and presence; encourages teachers to integrate theater and visual arts in their classroom; and inspires a memorable learning experience!

Students have written plays on multiple themes including:

  • STEAM, SLAVERY & SECESSION: A Dramatic Look at the Civil War Era
  • DIGGING UP THE TRUTH: The Mound Builders and the Ancient Maya
  • JOURNEY TO FREEDOM: The Middle Passage and the Life of Harriet Tubman
  • INSIDE INDIA: The Hindu Pantheon and the Ramayana
  • MEET THE GREEKS: Historical Monologues
  • THE WAR TO END ALL WARS: Jobs and Inventions of World War I
  • STEPPING INTO HISTORY: Recreating Famous Paintings from Colonial America
  • REVOLUTIONARY IMAGES: Recreating Famous Paintings from the American Revolution
  • TIME FOR REVOLUTION: The Events of the American Revolution
  • THE JOURNEY TO INDEPENDENCE: The Events Leading up the American Revolution
  • BIOGRAPHIES OF FAMOUS PEOPLE: a Rod Puppet Presentation
  • IMANI’S MOON: Adapted for the Shadow Puppet Stage
  • A MUSHROOM IN THE RAIN: A Page-to-Stage Adaptation
  • THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE: A Page-to-Stage Adaptation
  • CHRYSANTHEMUM: A Page-to-Stage Adaptation
  • WEMBERLY WORRIED: A Page-to-Stage Adaptation

“The beauty of this work is that it crosses the curriculum, it is not (only) the arts, it is science, math, social studies and English Language Arts, as well as addressing many of students social/emotional needs. For students to feel such joy, engagement and success in their day is our goal and one that is often difficult to reach with our typical approaches in schools.
”

~Gwen Agna, Principal, Jackson Street School, Northampton, MA

For booking availability and pricing information on any of our residencies,
please email info@enchantedcircletheater.com or call (413) 534-3789.

“You made me WANT to come to school!”

” ECT awakens our minds, our imaginations, our bodies in breathing life into our curriculum. It is such a rich and fertile experience to participate in an ECT workshop.”

~ Teacher, Jackson Street School, Northampton, MA