Theatre and Dance

Outreach Resources

What is Arts in Communities?

Our Arts in the Communities programming represents a wide range of innovative outreach and educational initiatives sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance. Although arts outreach is often narrowly defined as audience development or as an extension of marketing, we view our efforts to connect with our various communities as ways to increase and enhance cultural participation and creation. Our goals include:

  • to provide access to various performative art forms and techniques
  • to connect artists and community members through the act of creating performance
  • to utilize the tools of performance as educational resources

To achieve these goals, our outreach and education activities currently fall into four broad areas including Arts in Performance, Performance Techniques and Training, Community-based Arts, and Drama as a Teaching Technology.

  1. Arts in Performance
    Our Arts in Performance work involves several programs designed for K-12 patrons and students of theatre of any age including our:
    Touring Outreach Program: Implemented during the 1995-96 academic year, this program features tours of three distinctive production experiences to local schools and community centers. Our Youth Theatre Tour introduces young people to world premieres of some of the best children's plays in the modern repertoire. Our Dance Education Tours and Lecture/Demonstrations help to foster better understanding and appreciation of dance as a cultural art form. Our Theatre-in-Education Tour offers an in-depth interactive theatre experience focused on pertinent social or educational issues for 25-50 students at a time. Accompanying workshops and resource materials are designed to help students integrate these performative experiences into their lives and classroom work.

    Young Audiences Program: The Department regularly features children's theatre productions as well as stimulating performance events for K-12 audiences and students of theatre as part of our season offerings. Students and their teachers attend these performances on the UT campus. Teachers are provided with pre- and post-show workshops as well as supplemental resource packets to help link the performance to the curricular needs of their students.

    Educational Resource Program: To help provide access to our season and touring offerings, UT students learn to research and develop written materials, Web sites, workshops, videos, lobby displays, and audience "talk backs" with the artists as ways to help connect the world of the performance to the audiences' experiences.
  2. Performance Techniques and Training
    In addition to creating exciting performance work, the Department's faculty and students also provide quality workshops for a range of students and teachers on various techniques and technological advances in the world of performance.

    Robotic Lighting Outreach-Prof. Amarante Lucero, in cooperation with High End Lighting Systems, has worked with colleges and universities throughout the State of Texas as well as in Central and South America to educate faculty and students from these institutions about the use of this equipment.

    Computer Animation and Choreography Outreach-Prof. Yacov Sharir, an expert in dance and new technology, has worked closely with high school students to explore the latest advancements in applied computer research on animation, choreography, and virtual reality.
  3. Community-based Arts
    As an extension of our newly revamped M.A./Ph.D. emphasis in Performance as Public Practice, the Department now offers course work and internships in the area of community development through theatre. Programming currently includes:

    Community-based theatre-Designed to bring together theatre artists and various communities to create original work that responds to the community's interests and needs, our community-based theatre projects strive to provide significant learning experiences for UT students and faculty and the community members involved.

    Community-based workshops-Focusing on basic skill-building and creating community dialogue, these workshops give community members the skills needed to process burning issues and to create their own performative responses to those issues.
  4. Drama as a Teaching Technology (K-12)
    Our Drama as a Teaching Technology program provides instruction for K-12 teachers in ways to use theatre games, improvisation, and role-playing as teaching tools. Research shows that these techniques actively engage students in the learning process and have the ability to transform children's lives by introducing them to new ways of communicating and approaching problems as well as enhancing their academic studies. These techniques also contribute to the development of lifelong skills such as making informed judgments and evaluations. While our efforts have been restricted to schools in the Austin area, our Drama for Schools initiative specifically targets school districts throughout the state for long-term partnerships. For example, our Drama for Schools pilot project in La Joya, TX is providing a template for connecting with school districts across the state.

    La Joya Independent School Drama For Schools Project-A two-year pilot project in the La Joya Independent School District (in the Rio Grande Valley) was implemented in Fall 2000 with two objectives: 1) to discover the best ways to train and support teachers in the use of drama-in-education techniques in their classrooms and 2) to research the impact of drama work on student achievement. First year results indicate that this pilot project has had a significant and demonstrably positive impact on TAAS scores in the La Joya ISD.

Joanne Sharp Crosby Endowment to support Arts in Communities In the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin

In October 1999, the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin was pleased to announce the creation of the Joanne Sharp Crosby Endowment supporting our education and outreach efforts. When funded, this endowment will enable the Department and the Texas Performing Arts to expand our pioneering efforts to bring live theatre and dance to children across the state of Texas and provide a range of innovative outreach programming into the next millennium.

Throughout her life, Joanne Sharp Crosby has served as a tireless supporter of education and the arts across her native state of Texas. Following their marriage in 1949, Joanne and Jack Crosby moved to Del Rio, Jack's home town. As a young newlywed, Joanne quickly became an active advocate for improving the quality of life in her community. A cofounder of St. James' Episcopal School, Joanne was actively involved in a successful fundraising campaign that paved the way for the founding of the Val Verde County Hospital. She was also instrumental in bringing a Community Concert Series to the city of Del Rio.

In 1966, the Crosby's brought their family to live in Austin. Since then, Joanne Crosby has become a driving force in the local arts community. Her energy and creativity have helped launched a variety of artistic projects, including the restoration of the Paramount Theatre and the creation of Symphony Square. She has served leadership positions on the boards of St. Stephen's Episcopal and the Austin Symphony, and is a devoted supporter of Zachary Scott Theatre, Ballet Austin, and the Sharir Dance Company.

Proud UT alumni, Joanne and Jack Crosby continue to campaign for the advancement of cultural programs at the University. AT UT, Joanne has served with distinction on the Fine Arts Advisory Council and on the Chancellor's Council. Through the establishment of the Joanne Sharp Crosby Endowment supporting our Arts in Communities programming, the University of Texas is proud to pay tribute to a woman whose tireless dedication to the community has enhanced the quality of life for the people of Austin.

How to supplement an artistic event

This page includes general suggestions about creating educational resource materials that supplement various works of art (such as a theatrical performance or a museum exhibition).

The Education/Outreach Process:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the art work in question. For a play: read the script...preferably several times.
  2. Identify the major themes and issues contained within the artistic event/play that interest you. Brainstorm broadly at first, then begin to consolidate and prioritize 3 or 4 major ideas that interest you and have the potential to connect with your target audience.
  3. Talk to the central artist/producer/director about her or his objectives, concepts, intentions for this event.
  4. If appropriate, meet with other artists/designers about their input into this project (for a play: costume, lighting, set designers).
  5. Meet with teacher/advisors or representatives from your target group(s) to assess their needs/interests in this play/event
  6. When possible, observe or participate in the various planning stages for the event. For a play, attend rehearsals and/or early production meetings.
  7. Synthesize the intersections between your interests, the artist/producer's interests, and your target group's interests and the actual event as you proceed to designing appropriate outreach work.

Main Points to Consider Before Designing a Workshop to Supplement an Artistic Event:

  1. Consider your workshop options: pre-show or post-show. Will patrons receive both or just one? If one, which is most important given needs/interests?
  2. Pre-show: What does a [young] viewer need to know before the event? What will help them connect to this piece?
  3. Post-show: What might be interesting to ponder after the event? How can the workshop help connect the issues/themes/style/art form to their lives? How might the workshop help shed light on the performance genre or production choices?
  4. Teaching objectives: Pre-show or post-show workshops might have objectives concerning issues/themes OR the art form (theatre: style, acting, tech, movement, etc.) OR a combination of the two.
  5. As you choose activities to explore your objectives, consider the fact that you will only meet once or twice with each group. Ask yourself:
  • What activities will be easy to do or adapt to a variety of classroom environments and ability levels?
  • What activities will immediately engage a group that may initially be distrustful of you?

Designing the Workshop Plan:

  1. Identify a Central Topic. Focus it, and then turn it into a question

Example:
Topic: Brechtian theatre
Focus: The 'Alienation' Effect
Question: How does 'alienation' work in Brecht's theatre?
(or) What does it mean to 'alienate' the audience?

[Note that both questions suggest a different relationship to the concept of alienation.]

  1. Identify Teaching Objectives: "Why are you doing this workshop?"
  2. Identify Student Objectives:

These are outcomes you expect from the workshop given your teaching objectives and planning. Generally stated in the following manner:

"The students will....(active verb that is observable)..."
[example: The students will discuss what the word 'alienation' means to them. The students will create group images of what 'alienation' looks like. etc.]
These student objectives are important because they can become one way to evaluate the workshop.

  1. Evaluation:

Student objectives can

  • help you observe and evaluate how the students participated in the work and
  • evaluate workshop design.

You can add another layer of evaluation to further confirm your observations by surveying or interviewing participants or by employing other observation techniques (such as video or an outside eye focused on either the students or the workshop leaders). Creating criteria for what it is you are looking at/for takes time and planning.

Example Skeleton of a Lesson

  • Introduction (Who are you? Why are you there? What's up with the art work in question?)
  • Beginning work (Carefully chose techniques that engage & address teaching objectives.)
  • Core of workshop
  • Wrap up / Cool down work
  • Closure/Reflection (Generally handled as a discussion.)

When planning, consider what interactive tools are available to you:

  • Pantomime
  • Improvisation
  • Hotseating
  • Trouble Line
  • Role on the Wall
  • Story Dramatization
  • Voices in the Head
  • Questioning/Discussion
  • Consciousness Tunnel/Alley
  • Teacher/Student-in-Role
  • Image Work
  • Forum Theatre
  • Meeting, trial, talk show, etc.
  • Games

Theatre techniques/topics:

  • History
  • Voice Work
  • Playing an Object
  • Physical Score
  • Scoring a Scene
  • Specifics of a Style
  • Designing an Environment
  • Directing a Show

Center for Arts in Communities

To help us achieve our goals more fully, the Department is planning to establish a Center for Arts in Communities. This Center will provide a rich environment in which the nation's most talented graduate students and emerging professionals can learn the skills needed and the latest technology available to make the arts accessible to a wide variety of communities. Under the guidance of dedicated faculty and staff from across the College of Fine Arts, this Center will offer graduate students a range of practical experiences in how the arts can serve as a catalyst for encouraging community dialogue and self-expression. It will also offer a certificate program for professionals seeking further training.

An additional key component of this Center's mission will be to conduct much needed research in the important (albeit under theorized) subject of arts outreach and community-based arts activity. Studies to examine the effectiveness of various outreach methods, the relationship between the arts and community development, the politics of "doing" community-based arts work, and the tension between learning about and learning through the arts are all productive areas of inquiry that need the attention of serious scholarship.

An excellent example of the kind of work that could be funded and generated under the rubric of this Center is the research and development of outreach programming for the Texas Performing Arts' Americas Arts Initiative. Scheduled for the 2003-04 season, students and faculty in the Department have already begun developing educational materials to help supplement, contextualize, and extend the audiences' experience of the Latin American art forms that will be the centerpiece of this initiative. Comprehenisve outreach materials such as "insider guides" for community patrons, Web sites and interactive CD-ROM programs for college patrons, resource packets for teachers, student enrichment packets for K-12 patrons, as well as hands-on workshops will be developed by UT graduate students who are specializing in the theory and practice of arts outreach. Their methods and practicum coursework will be supplemented by seminars in relevant topics and internship opportunities. The impact of these efforts to connect various communities to these events and artists will be carefully researched.