About 7 Stages Theater

Below is a description of many of our different educational programs offered at 7 Stages.

WHERE ELSE CAN YOUR STUDENTS CREATE AN ORIGINAL PRODUCTION, WORK WITH INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS, FIND THEIR VOICE, AND TRAVEL THE WORLD?

SUMMER THEATRE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR TEENAGERS
Youth Creates is 7 Stages’ training program providing experiential learning and performance opportunities for teenagers.

Through playwriting, design, and performance, students collaborate to create an original production.

The process allows a diverse ensemble to collaborate, create, and communicate their dreams.

The theatrical piece created during the program each year is developed through input from the students.

THE BIG READ
The Big Read is a program run by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), designed to revitalize the role of reading in American culture by exposing citizens to great works of literature and encouraging them to read for pleasure and enrichment.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. 7 Stages is pleased to be a recipient of The Big Read Grant. This season 7 Stages will focus on Kelly Link’s Pretty Monsters.

Join us during The Big Read for festivals, local author panels, and discussions all culminating with a finale highlighting your own artistic responses to the book.

WORKSHOPS
Part of our mission is to continually give artists, new and established, free or low-cost options for expanding their talents and learning new techniques from other artists and creatives. We offer workshops throughout the season with guest artists who specialize in many different disciplines.

ART OF ACTIVISM
Join us for an upcoming Art of Activism brunch!
Attendance and brunch is complimentary

Sponsored by Babs Midtown, Art of Activism brings together community experts, artists, and patrons for a complimentary brunch and powerful conversation. Throughout the season the community gathers to break bread together and discuss the season’s themes of social justice, othering, and the prevalence of intolerance.

You don’t have to see the production to attend the Art of Activism brunch but we encourage participants to do so to fully understand how the art connects to the community conversations.

RESIDENCES (all of which can be adjusted to homeschool curriculum and groups)
Residencies are co-teaching experiences in which professional artists and teachers work together to bring artistic value to education. By working alongside the existing curriculum, this collaborative method provides a unique, in-depth exploration of a selected work of literature. Theatre teaching artists support students in responding creatively to the literary selection suggested by The Big Read. The National Endowment for the Arts awards financial support to 7 Stages to provide the books and a teaching artist for residency activities.

7 Stages currently offer the following residency programs:

Literacy Arts Residency
Teachers choose a piece of literature or an author for students to explore. Working alongside professionals, theatre teaching artists guide students to creatively respond to the chosen literature culminating in a final presentation or performance highlighting how the literature impacted the students. These are unique and creative “book reports” offering a different and more intense response to literature.

NEA Big Read
Theatre teaching artists support students in responding creatively to the book that is chosen each year for our Big Read program. In the past, we have worked on novels such as Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Residencies are 3-5 sessions in which teaching artists work alongside the teacher to help facilitate discussion on topics and themes related to the chosen book. Thanks to the generous support of the NEA, 7 Stages will provide the books and a teaching artist for 3-5 sessions. Longer more intensive residencies are available at a cost.

Curriculum-Based Residencies
Professional theatre artists partner with teachers to help students learn core curriculum content using creativity, collaboration, and exploration of learning through theatre-making. Students present what they have learned in a creative way. These are co-teaching experiences in which professional artists and teachers work together to bring artistic value into education through writing, literacy, and expression. By working alongside the existing curriculum, this collaboration method provides a unique and in-depth way into the subject matter.
Available for all grade levels in schools for hourly, daily and weekly schedules that can be spread through the month and semester.

Project-Based Residencies
Theatre artists collaborate with schools to create and produce a theatrical presentation. These residencies are crafted after our 5-week summer Youth Creates program. Through playwriting, design and performance, students collaborate to create an original production. (Semester or quarterly based)

Choose Your Own Tomorrow
School-wide theatre project that ends with a production that represents the voices of the students. Choose Own Tomorrow is based on the Choose Your Own Adventure Game book series in which “making choices determines the main character’s actions and the plot's outcome.” The final production will provide two distinct outcomes with the realization that there is power in decision with proper research – a walking in another’s shoes. The school will choose a social, moral, global, or ethical topic to explore throughout a semester. Using technology to facilitate research and also gather the opinions of the students the unique voice of the school will be captured. Students will be divided into teams: researchers, writers, visual and audio designers, performers, costume and set and marketing and create an end product that explores both sides of the topic chosen. 7 Stages will provide theatre professionals to guide the students through the process of theatre-making and also support the teachers helping the students.