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Spring 2006 Projects Our Stories" By Rozz Grigsby and Rebecce Podsednick "Mask Making and Fables" By Meghann Henry "Dig It" By Maria Mathis "Dramatizing the Revolutionary War" By Leah Page “Our Stories ”  
ArtsBridge Campus: University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) Rozz Grigsby and Rebecca Podsednik are both working on their MFAs in Theatre for Young Audiences at the University of Central Florida. This team was paired up with Great Oaks Village, a foster care center in Orlando, as a continuation of a classroom project through their Methods of Teaching Drama course pairing with ArtWorks, a community art program already established at Great Oaks Village. With this group, they worked on community building and identity through creative dramatics. The culminating project was a digital storytelling presentation using art work created through the project playing in a slide show format over the students reading original poems written for the presentation. The storytelling presentation was presented to the Great Oaks residents, staff, and invited guests from the community. Pieces of the artwork created during this project are currently hanging outside of the Edyth Bush Theater at the Orlando Repertory Theatre, which houses the MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences program at the University of Central Florida. 
“Mask Making and Fables” 
ArtsBridge Campus: University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) Meghann Henry is working on her MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences at the University of Central Florida. As a scholar, Meghann was paired with Barbara Blankenship, the Art Teacher at Conway Elementary School. Meghan from the outset designed a lesson sequence focusing on the use of creative dramatics paired with an art project to work on reading skills. In Meghann’s own words, “Students had the opportunity to learn about both design and performance in theatre through the interpretation of using masks and creating frozen sculptures that represent the fable, The Lion and the Mouse. The third graders were asked to explain why they chose certain colors, decorations, or names for their masks. This projecting [sic] culminated in a completed mask, and a viewing of the sculptures by classmates in a living museum format.” Meghann will be the only scholar from our Pilot program continuing on to the second semester of ArtsBridge projects in the fall of 2007.
"Dig It!" 
ArtsBridge Campus: University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) Maria Mathis is working on her BA in Music Performance (vocal) at the University of Central Florida. As our only undergraduate Scholar, she was assigned to our pilot school to work in her artistic discipline, pairing music with music. After discussions with her Host, Maria began teaching music theory to her students, which consisted of the entire third grade. After introducing the concept of theory to her classes, she began working with her host to produce a production of “Dig It!” with all of her third graders. Each individual class represented a different time period in the journey of the show, with the classroom teachers taking part in teaching the history of the time period by extending this aspect into their classroom activities beyond the weekly music class. Maria’s project culminated with a sharing of the piece for parents as a part of the school’s Arts Day celebration. Also of note, ArtsBridge was informed through Maria’s host that Maria changed her major from Music Performance to Music Education as a direct result of her experiences with the ArtsBridge program.
“Dramatizing the Revolutionary War” 
ArtsBridge Campus: University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) Leah Page is working on her MFA in Musical Theatre at the University of Central Florida. For ArtsBridge, she was paired with a 5th grade inclusive classroom at our pilot school. Her original goal with her host was to assist with teaching the Revolutionary War through dramatic structures. However, after the first few weeks, ArtsBridge administration received an email from Leah, asking if she could change the auspices of her project and instead of focusing on the core-curriculum work on team-building through creative drama with the class. While known from the start, the students in her assigned classroom were unable to cooperate in small groups and had no sense of classroom community. Re-tailoring her project to meet the needs of social interaction, Leah created a new project for the remainder of her time in the classroom, leaving with her students able to form small groups and teams to complete classroom assignments. |
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