Connecting the Classroom to the Stage: Primary Source and the A.R.T.

The A.R.T. is fortunate to count Primary Source as one of its inaugural Community Connections partners.  Primary Source is a non-profit organization that expands humanities and history education by connecting teachers to resources, experts and learning opportunities in a variety of fields (particularly global studies).  We have worked with them throughout the season, and PS recently wrote an excellent blog post detailing our activities to date:

“I was very excited to see that Primary Source and A.R.T. were partnering this season,” says Frances Nebus, a Primary Source program participant. “Primary Source does an excellent job of exposing teachers to creative ways that the arts can be used in the classroom to extend the curriculum. Giving teachers the opportunity to see theater at reduced ticket prices is a great way to further this mission. We are fortunate to have such high-quality arts in the Boston area, and I am pleased to see that Primary Source is both supporting the arts and teacher education.”

We originally got in touch with Primary Source due to a natural convergence of their work in Chinese history and literature with Wild Swans, but we quickly found more ways to interact:

…Educators participating in Primary Source’s East Asian Literature seminar attended the world premiere of Wild Swans at the A.R.T., based on the international bestseller by Chinese author Jung Chang. A talk-back was held after the performance, giving the group a chance to meet with and ask questions of cast members and dramaturges. Primary Source has also authored a background essay on China’s Cultural Revolution in connection to Wild Swansfor the A.R.T.’s season guide.

Through Primary Source, Winchester High School (WHS) teacher Chris Kurhajetz organized a visit by Jung Chang to his school. “I just wanted to extend a thank you for getting me in contact with the A.R.T,” says Chris. “Jung Chang came to WHS today and had a group of 60-70 teachers and students riveted with her story and her experiences.” As a result of the contact, the British Council is also sponsoring 25 tickets to the March 7th matinee performance of Wild Swans for WHS students. “The experience of being able to have Jung visit has been great for me and will be very memorable to our students,” says Chris….

Two A.R.T outreach members presented a workshop on the second day of Primary Source’s The Great Depression: A National and Global Phenomenon program for Burlington educators on February 16th. As part of looking at the social and cultural aspects of the Great Depression through art, the A.R.T. presenters led a workshop on “living newspapers”…

The A.R.T. presenters then showed educators how to create “living newspapers” and demonstrated concrete, simple ways of integrating this into the classroom as an educational student activity. Educators also learned strategies for using this exercise and improv to help students build literacy skills by incorporating quotes from original primary sources and newspapers into their performance…

“I thought it was great,” says Jolene White, a Woburn Public Schools teacher, about the activity she learned during the workshop. “I actually used it in my 4th grade classroom on Friday and the students really enjoyed it. I would definitely do it again, and would love to have them create a play using the format we did at the seminar. It definitely ties into language arts and it is great because it is interactive.”

Read the whole blog post here!  Thanks so much to Primary Source for the shout-out, and here’s to a long and fruitful relationship.