School programs

Berkeley Playhouse Live Theatre School Tours

Bring the works alive and the lessons into the classrooms with Berkeley Playhouse School curriculum guides or classroom visits!

Participating schools will receive live, professional theatre performances direct from the Berkeley Playhouse, a professional theatre for all ages.  In addition to the theatre performance, participating schools will receive one to three hours of creative, fun and interactive workshops conducted by trained teaching artists.

The workshops are based on the Berkeley Playhouse production and the purpose of the workshops is to engage students in a deep understanding of the play so that they can make meaningful connections with the work, the themes and the lessons.

The School Tours Program is dynamic and thoroughly engaging. The interactive workshops stimulate the imagination and intensify the learning environment, enabling content teachers to help students make meaningful connections to curricula.

Steeping children in theatre can improve literacy levels.When children act out the text of a play, they are functioning on all literacy levels: reading, writing, listening and speaking. But more than that, when children create art, they become impassioned, excited and alive.

 

The Structure of the Workshops

Pre: There is one workshop before the theatre piece is presented and one to two workshops post-presentation.  The pre-workshops introduce students to the text and the craft of theatre so that when they see the theatre piece, they relate to what is happening on stage with the characters, plots and themes more intimately.

Post: The post presentations provide opportunities for students to create their own theatre pieces to show their understanding of the play, the story and the experience. Each series of workshops are age appropriate and developed with input from participating teachers.  The play may be the same for various age groups, but the workshops are designed to reach the interest levels and maturity of the students.