School Tours Program

NOW BOOKING

• BOOK Storytellers Theater (literature to life) Aug 2023 thru June 2024
  • Email School Tours Program
  • Custom program. You choose the story/book or have us recommend one, we’ll read & perform it, deliver an interactive lesson plan, then help the students to perform/engage with the work, applying what they’ve learned.
    • Storybooks, Fairytales, Folktales, Legends & Myths
      • Examples:  The Gingerbread Boy, Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks & the Three Bears, Hansel & Gretel, Multicultural Stories like “How we came to the fifth world”
    • Recommend a minimum of 20 minutes to a maximum of 60 minutes.
• BOOK Readers Theater Shows
  • Email School Tours Program
  • Local Fireside Stories from Ghosts of Placer County – (stories of local history & lore) end of January thru June 2024, and 2024-2025 school year.
  • Frankenstein or the Man and the Monster (script in hand performances March through December 2024)
  • Beauty is a Beast (by T.S. Forsyth) – (script in hand performances of a NEW modern adaptation with themes of bullying, self-esteem, resilience, perspective-taking and redefining “beauty.” Postponed to the 2024-2025 school year.

DID YOU KNOW? Any School Tours offering may be booked on weekends in a venue near you as Family Theater. 

    

     

Program Summary

School Tours Program 2023-2024 is designed for Grades K-12 and adults / general audiences.

• Two School Tours Format Options: (scroll down for more details)
  • Theatrical Performances (designed for grades 4 through adult, audience sizes: 30 to 1000+)
    • Includes post-show Q&A, free study guides, optional Workshops & Master Classes
  • Storytellers Theater (designed for K-3 classrooms/combined classrooms, classroom audience size: 10-99 students)
    • Custom in-classroom performances and interactive experiential curriculum (includes free study guide)
    • Sensory-Friendly adaptations available (see below)

• Performances, curricula and services are primarily based upon:
  • the California recommended reading list
  • 21st Century Education skills acquisition
  • the four areas of student development: social, emotional, physical and mental
  • Complementing CA schools’ language arts, social science and STEM curricula
  • Administration/Educator communications and curricular requests
  • MFA Dramatic Arts curriculum, distilled and adapted to be age appropriate
  • Placer County administration/educator survey responses
    • themes, disciplines, writers and notable figures (civic leaders and scientists to artists/creatives and innovators).
    • ARE YOU a PLACER COUNTY EDUCATOR or ADMINISTRATOR? Take the survey. 
      • Seeking your input on shows to offer, performance length and market value.
• Team:
  • Board. Teresa Stirling Forsyth, Board President, and Rodger McDonald, Board Treasurer, both previously operated large professional theater programs that toured to K-12 schools during the weekdays and to performing arts facilities presented to multigenerational audiences on weekends throughout California.
  • Performers:  BFAs, MFAs, Studium-Practicum professional growth training, professional experience as artists & educators. Many of our performers are also Education Facilitators for Placer Rep’s VAPA Academy in partnership with Colfax Elementary School District, providing extended learning opportunities, experiential education and fostering 21st Century skills development.

 

School Tours Program 2023-2024 – FORMATS & HISTORY

2023-2024:  TWO FORMAT OPTIONS

There are two options within the School Tours Program 2023-2024:

• School Tours Theatrical Performances
  • designed for 50-1000+ students
  • recommended for grades 4-12, college, adults/seniors,
  • in auditoriums, halls, multipurpose rooms/gyms, and similar venues
• Storytellers Theater
  • designed for 10-99 students
  • recommended for grades K-3
  • for single or combined classrooms.

PRODUCTIONS

School Tours Theatrical Performances (designed for Grades 4-12, college, adult)

These productions are frequently theatrical adaptations of literature from the California Recommended Reading list that share works from authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Shakespeare and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Plays may also be based upon curricular themes, or topics like local California History, the Civil War or the Suffrage Movement, or may be based upon notable figures in history, from Langston Hughes (writer) or Thomas Edison (inventor) to Madame Curie (chemistry) or Sally Ride (astronomy). These productions are designed to appeal to multigenerational audiences for weekend performance, while touring to Placer County schools during the week.

INTERACTIVE ELO PROGRAM

Storytellers Theater (designed for Grades K-4, Families)

This program develops a custom storytelling performance & lesson plan based upon the storybook selected in advance by the educator.

1. The performers (artists/educators) read and act out the story
2. Story discussion is facilitated, and the lesson plan introduces key curriculum (as approved in advance by the classroom teacher);
   1. Games and exercises provide experiential opportunities to engage students with the curriculum.
3. The students are then guided to adapt and perform their own version of the story to champion their unique voices, engage in creative thinking, problem solving and peer leadership, just to name a few of the skill development opportunities.

Each booking of a School Tours Production or Storytellers Theater classroom visit includes a post-show Q&A and study guides for educators.

Optional masterclasses/workshops for a subset of students are also available for booking.

BENEFITS

SCHOOL TOURS

The School Tours Program is designed to benefit students through extended learning, interactive & experiential opportunities, and to support educators and administrators through the complement of school curriculum along with provision of 21st Century Education skills development.

An additional benefit of this program is its contribution to the area economy. The program provides daytime employment for professional artists and technicians, grows the talent pool and stirs the local economy. Every $1 spent on professional performing arts generates over $31.47* in additional spending in the community! *

* Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study, Americans for the Arts

 

STORYTELLERS THEATER

Storytellers Theater program is designed to benefit students as an extension to the education received in the classroom. The program supports educators and administrators by offering curricula that fulfills not only CA curricular requirements and recommendations, but also provides the skills development specified in the 21st Century Education program, including skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, as well as peer leadership and other competencies.

As with Placer Rep’s successful implementation for the VAPA Academy, sophisticated curriculum is distilled and adapted to be age and physical-/intellectual-capacity appropriate. Students experience lesson plans such as dramatic structure, archetypes, and principles of design, all delivered with vocabulary and activities that allow the students to readily embrace and apply these new concepts while championing students’ unique voices.

Storytellers Theater also contributes to the area economy. The program provides daytime employment for professional creatives, grows the talent pool and stirs the local economy.

 

   

SENSORY-FRIENDLY PERFORMANCES

Individuals with sensory needs, including people on the autism spectrum, as well as first-time theatergoers and young children benefit from sensory-friendly performances, which include the below environmental and performance adjustments.  Actor/Educators, Stage Management and PRT Staff are trained to accommodate special patron needs.

Adjustments:

• Dimmed houselights (not turned completely off)
• Light and Sound cue intensity is reduced
• Working with School Staff, a location is identified as the “Regulation Station” should students need to take a break from the event/activities/performance
• An inclusive, non-judgmental atmosphere that allows for individual needs to move, exit and return
• Trained Actor/Educators, SM and staff who will identify and assist student patrons
• Technology is permitted, as an assist to students with special communication needs
• Performance and script adaptations are made, as needed to maximize student engagement and comprehension

SCHOOL TOURS PROGRAM HISTORY (2019-2020)

In 2019, Placer Rep began its plans and preparation for School Tours programming. Placer Rep’s early version of My Jekyll & Hyde (2020) was a livestream preview originally conceived and written to tour to grades 4 through 12 and colleges in the 2020-2021 school year. My Jekyll & Hyde was also designed to function as a stage production for the 2020 season. Of course, we all know what happened in 2020; Covid changed the plans of 7.88 billion people.

 

HISTORY (2021-2022, 2022-2023)

In 2020-2021, due to COVID-19, students from schools throughout the greater Sacramento area primarily came to our performance locations or watched via Zoom (instead of us touring to their schools) to watch a dress rehearsal or performance with a post-performance Q&A with the actors, director and playwright.

Placer Rep’s School Tours program, with onsite performances at high schools in Placer County during 2021-2022 (like Foresthill High School) and 2022-2023 (including Oakmont High School, Roseville), is now poised for tremendous growth for the 2023-2024 academic year. Surveys went out in April/May 2023 and again in August 2023 to Placer County educators and administrators to help Placer Rep plan its touring season. Take the survey to voice your ideas.

The School Tours program is designed to support K-12 public school curricula while it offers experiential learning opportunities and 21st Century Schools skills development. The School Tours performers are familiar with California curricula requirements as many of them are also artist/educators who facilitate the VAPA Academy of Colfax, designed in collaboration with Colfax Elementary School District.

     

     

 

OTHER EDUCATION OUTREACH PROGRAMS

IN ADDITION TO SCHOOL TOURS PROGRAM 2023-2024

Placer Rep’s other Education Outreach programs that continue in 2023-2024 include:

• Free tickets for students to Placer Rep public productions
• Artists in the classroom for K-12 and colleges (visiting artists or artists-in-residence).
• May 30 thru June 30 Placer Rep VAPA Academy Summer program
• Aug 2023 – May 2024 VAPA Academy Extended Education Program

School Tours Program 2023-2024