VAPA Academy

Visual & Performing Arts education as a foundation for Multicurricular Expanded Learning Opportunities

Thanks to the State of California, funds were made available to school districts in CA, to provide expanded learning opportunity educational programs operated by the schools in concert with community entities. VAPA Academy is an afterschool education program conceived by CESD Superintendent of Schools and is held in a classroom (classroom #20), not a children’s theater company space.  There are no performances offered to the public, nor ticket sales.

Instead, VAPA students receive an education in arts related curriculum that integrates science, technology, engineering, mathematics and social sciences (STEM-S) from Education Facilitators with visual & performing arts curriculum to provide students with knowledge and techniques that will carry them into the future.

VAPA Academy Offerings 2024-2025

  • Currently: August 2024 thru May 2025 – Afterschool Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) Program
  • Spring Intersession 2025 (April 14-18 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
  • Summer Program 2025 (June 2 – July 3, 2025, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)

Hours of operation

  • Afterschool ELO
    • Regular days (Tues-Fri): 2:30 to 6 p.m. (attendance required 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.)
    • Regular Mondays: 1:30 to 6 p.m. (attendance required 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.)
    • Minimum days: 11:45 to 6 p.m. (attendance not required)
    • Closed during school holidays

    Spring/Summer:

    • 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday thru Friday
    • Holidays: Closed

FMI download 2024-2025 Flyer & Registration Form:

     

Education Facilitator Candidates:

Interested in working at the VAPA Academy? Visit the VAPA Candidates page.

  • (https://placerrep.org/vapa-academy-artists-and-educators-search/)

VAPA Academy education features

  • 21st Century Skills acquisition
    • creativity, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, cultural competency, ethical decision making, effective written and oral communications, leadership and more
  • All four areas of student development – social, emotional, physical & mental
    • Social-Emotional learning, Imagination, Critical thinking, Problem Finding, Problem Solving, Decision Making & Strategic Planning, Communication, Organization (and time management), Peer Leadership, Creative Thinking, Collaboration & Teamwork, Functional Group Leadership, Self-Advocacy, Perspective taking (including Roleplay) & Mindfulness, Focus & Self-control
    • Includes SEL & ELA integration (Social & Emotional learning, Language Arts & Social Studies integration)
  • Exploratory & Discovery learning methods
    • curriculum includes lesson plans that use experiential and interactive facilitated learning opportunities
      • Exploratory: Students form hypothesis, engage/observe/collect data, then review/adapt/change hypothesis to develop a data-based, informed conclusions
      • Discovery: Students actively participate in their learning process by investigating topics via inquiry and exploration. It is a student-centered approach that stresses problem-solving, critical thinking, and inquiry-based learning. Teacher is a facilitator, a resource in the room, but the students lead their own discovery (as able by grade).

 

Summary

Since 2023, the VAPA Academy of Colfax has been in operation, developed in partnership with Colfax Elementary School District for grades pre-K through grade 8. Huge thanks belong to Superintendent Andrew Giannini and the Colfax Elementary School District for their scholastic creativity and vision.

The VAPA Academy program uses the visual & performing arts as a foundation from which applied arts, language arts, social sciences and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) may be integrated and explored through non-traditional thematic and experiential curriculum & activities outside the regular academic school day to address all four areas of student development: social, emotional, physical, and mental.

Through expert facilitation using primarily exploratory & discovery learning/teaching methods, students learn to creatively & imaginatively conceive, plan, author, collaborate, lead functional groups, direct, design/craft, produce and perform age-appropriate new works relevant to the students, reflective of their individual voices and collaborative group voice.  Participating artists/educators are featured below.

      VAPA Academy - guided play and technique learned through engagement with visual arts media and performing arts items, like costumes and props.

 

The VAPA Academy program has three formats:

  1. SPRING INTERSESSION: All-day programming for one week during school break.
    • Completed! April 3 through 7, 2023 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 PM – Theater Fundamentals, Visual & Applied Arts
  2. SUMMER PROGRAM: All-Day, morning session or afternoon session programming for four to six weeks outside the regular academic school year.
    • Completed!  May 30 through June 30, 2023.
  3. EXTENDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES After School Program: Daily afternoon programming throughout the academic school year.
    • August 2023 through May 2024 from 2:30 to 6 PM

 

           

We are very grateful to be operating this program in partnership with the Colfax Elementary School District

FMI: Contact the Colfax Elementary School District – https://www.colfax.k12.ca.us/

(Superintendent Dr. Andrew Giannini)

For more background information on the VAPA Academy program, scroll down.

 

Artists/Educators:

Below are some of the artist/educators who participate in the VAPA Academy administration and student education facilitation. From early career to seasoned professionals, they each have areas of expertise and prior teaching experience upon which they draw to bring to life the curriculum and lesson plans.

 

VAPA Academy page - TS Forsyth headshotTERESA STIRLING FORSYTH – Executive Administrator of Programs, Full Education Facilitator (sub). With an MFA in Dramatic Arts and an MS in Business Management & Leadership, this former Silicon Valley high-tech VP and critically acclaimed professional director/playwright also plays the role of Producing Artistic Director for Placer Repertory Theater, which includes all program oversight, including the Placer Repertory Theater VAPA Academy.  FMI: See President biography.

As an educator, she has instructed and directed at UC Davis, University of San Francisco, Shawnee State University, University of Minnesota at Morris and other educational institutions.  Tess also has a variety of curricula development and instruction experiences with preschool, elementary and secondary education. A few examples include curricula design, administration, train-the-trainer and/or instructor for CenterStage Youth Summer Theater Camp, Contra Costa Youth Shakespeare program under Elaine Walenta, masterclasses for the touring company The King’s Court Play’rs (at that time, the second largest touring family theater company in CA), and U C Berkeley summer theater program for middle and high school students. Currently, she is the primary Guest Artist/Educator and artist-in-residence from Placer Repertory Theater’s Education Outreach program for Placer County middle and high schools and colleges.

Tess’ goals as an educator are to help students develop themselves and their unique voices, help students develop their ability to self-advocate and develop the skills of deep listening and collaboration, while she endeavors to instill passion for life-long learning.

 

Gina Hill – Supervising Education Facilitator.

Gina Hill has multiple degrees and specializes in Technical Direction, Sound & Light Design, Stage Management. She also teaches fabrication (sewing, prop building). More information coming soon.

 

 

 

 

VAPA Academy page - headshot of Judy MerrickJUDY MERRICK – Education Facilitation.  Judy worked for 13 years in New York as a performer and director. Her favorite credits include Portia in Merchant of Venice (Santa Monica Playhouse) and Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream (RADA). She co-founded the NYC theatre Company, The Amoralist, and some of her credits include The Cheaters Club, Adam Rapp’s Ghost in the Cottonwoods and Bring Us the Head of Your Daughter. Judy also worked at Playwrights Horizons, and the Manhattan Theatre Club, and toured with Knuckleball, which won best show, and she, best actress, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. With an MFA from USC, she trained at RADA and AADA in NY. More recently, Judy performed in Persephone’s Tale with her new Nevada City theater company House of Fates, and in Placer Rep’s award-winning production Persuasion: a holiday romantic comedy.

Teaching and performing have gone hand-in-hand throughout Judy’s career in New York and California. She currently teaches and performs improv with the House of Yes in Nevada City and teaches elementary and middle school students through The Lyric Rose theater company. Judy’s educational philosophy is learner oriented as she strives to make the curriculum relevant for each student, and she firmly believes in experiential education techniques to move beyond curricular engagement to embodiment, which promotes deep learning and often instills a lifelong love of learning.

 

JESSICA FOLEY-SANCHEZ – Education Facilitator.  Artist and Credentialed Teacher, Jessica is the VAPA teacher for Colfax Elementary School District who works two days per week at the VAPA Academy ELO afterschool program. More info in the future.

 

 

 

SKY SEALS – Visiting Artist (Music)

Sky Seals is a contractor for the VAPA Academy of Colfax, who teaches music, including vocal production. Info coming soon.

 

 

 

 

HUNTER FORSYTH – Substitute Associate Education Facilitator. House Manager, Box Office Manager and crew for Placer Repertory Theater, Hunter Davidson Forsyth has been wrangling and teaching students since his peer teaching days in elementary, middle and high school, particularly with IEP students, and through his reign as the senior troop leader for his boy scout troop, during which he was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout and honored with the Order of the Arrow. For Hunter’s Eagle Scout project, he was the project manager, as he led adults and scouting students in the engineering, permitting and construction of a 12×12 shade structure for Compassion Planet in Rocklin, CA, behind their Deer Creek Farms retail store.  He has worked for several years at Quarry Park Adventures where he provides training to children and adults, and also supervises the Kids Cove area, engaging with and guiding the play of children who visit Quarry Park Adventures, and has been a substitute facilitator at VAPA Academy since Spring 2023.

Hunter is a crewmember for VAPA Academy during technical rehearsals and show days. Additionally, he has a background in performing arts, through scholastic classes and productions, as well as performances with Placer Rep, such as the monthly show: Rifts in Time: Interactive Adventure Theater in 2022, and as the audience prompter and character improv-ist with the melodrama show, Frankenstein, in 2023. He particularly enjoys improvisation.

Currently, he is completing his undergraduate degrees in History and Creative Writing, in preparation for a master’s and doctorate in History, with the intentions of becoming a history professor, as well as a fiction and nonfiction author.

 

VAPA PROGRAM BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The VAPA Academy is an after-care program with exciting visual & performing arts curriculum. Students find their own voices and learn visual & performing art techniques.

The VAPA Academy program employs a deep-learning approach through the application of a rich visual and performing arts curriculum that applies interdisciplinary thematic and experiential education (such as studying and applying Stanislavski technique to script analysis) to provide expanded learning opportunities. Experienced artists/creatives facilitate hands-on education and self-directed learning opportunities for the students. Under expert guidance and supervision, students learn to conceive, plan, collaborate and lead, design/craft, author and produce age-appropriate new works relevant to the students, from a new painting or clay scupture to authoring a playscript, reflective of their individual voices and collaborative group voice.  Students learn through reflection on the curriculum and activities, and with facilitation, to deduce and draw connections between academic and artistic disciplines.

Grounded in a visual and performing arts curriculum, students shall experience an interdisciplinary approach, in which they are exposed to the interrelationship of other topicals areas of study to the arts, including Language Arts (LA), Social Sciences, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The VAPA Academy curriculum and activities provided address all four areas of student development: social, emotional, physical, and mental.  The features and benefits of The VAPA Academy afterschool program includes

  • Experiential learning opportunities (engaging with visual art supplies from a variety of media, and learning storytelling, scriptwriting and acting techniques)
  • Exposure to and engagement in curriculum and activities not offered during the school day
  • Skill introduction and development opportunities
  • Development of each student’s unique voice and capacity to lead and collaborate with peers and functional groups
  • Student engagement in healthy choices and behaviors
  • Exposure to and engagement with the concepts and operational edicts related to diversity, inclusion, access and equity
  • Daily exposure to and opportunity to learn from professional practitioners with expertise and skillsets not represented during the regular school day
  • Enjoyment of arts programming benefits as summarized by the 1998 study depicted below.

All learning styles will be taken into consideration for VAPA Academy curriculum and activity development: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic styles.

As NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in 2008, “Expanding access to afterschool and other extended learning programs, which engage and enrich students, will provide many more of our students with firm foundations for success.”

Placer Repertory Theater VAPA Academy page - arts & the educational benefit slide 1999 study

(“Living the Arts through Language + Learning: A Report on Community-based Youth Organizations,” Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation For the Advancement of Teaching, Americans for the Arts Monograph, November 1998.)

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VAPA ACADEMY is a division of Placer Repertory Theater and operates separately from its own funds account from PRT.

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