In the Schools

Pawtucket Literacy and Arts for Youth (PLAY)

PLAY is The Gamm’s response to a growing demand for supplementary arts education in its home city’s middle and high schools. The program includes in-school residencies, artist-teacher partnerships and after-school drama programs under the direction of Gamm Education Director Steve Kidd. Supported by federal and local government agencies, foundations and businesses, PLAY is free of charge to participating schools.

Classroom Visits

Each hour-long workshop is designed to build community in the classroom, establish a safe space where students can share, take risks and engage kinesthetically with text. Students explore meaning and their connection to stories, novels and plays by acting out scenes and writing personal responses to characters, themes and situations. These exercises and strategies, which promote connection to and understanding of text, culminate in final performances that are shared with students' peers, family and friends. The entire in-class rehearsal and performance process fosters a variety of oral language and fluency skills that form the foundation of literacy, language acquisition and comprehension. PLAY also promotes community in the classroom, leadership skills, teamwork and self confidence.

Artist-Teacher Partnerships

PLAY works with Pawtucket’s public middle- and high-school teachers at the administration’s request to help transfer strategies and techniques of PLAY learning and lesson planning for teachers to implement on their own.

Word!

Word! is an after-school component of PLAY. Students from Tolman High School and Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts (situated on either side of The Gamm Theatre) participate in every aspect of producing a play, including acting, technical direction, marketing and box office sales. The project culminates in a series of public performances at Tolman. Word! will be expanding to Pawtucket middle schools in January 2009.