Gamm Theatre: Reaching students through PLAY (Pawtucket Literacy and Arts for Youth)
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| Goff Junior High students do a "hands-in-huddle" to get ready to perform their anti-bullying play for students at Curtis Elementary School. | Nine-year-old Diana was small for her age and extremely quiet. She attended an after-school program in Pawtucket, but “she really didn’t have a voice in the room.” A program mentor found her staring at him at the end of one day’s session. When he said, “hi,” she didn’t respond. He asked if he could help her; she shook her head. When he walked away, she quickly grabbed a book from the desk he had been using and ran from the room. When roles were cast for the after-school program’s production of Charlotte’s Web, Diana was cast as Wilbur. She hesitantly offered her first line. “We went from there and eventually there was a tipping point,” the program mentor recalls. He marvels at Diana’s performance at the play eight weeks later. “She had the most beautiful crystal clear voice.”
Carlos’ story is much different. A student at Shea High School with learning disabilities, he was involved with a group outside of school where “violence was just part of the language they used.” At Shea, he was introduced to “A Raisin in the Sun” through an artist-teacher partnership that helps students not only read text and memorize lines, but to reflect on how the text is relevant to them. “Carlos identified with a character who had been held down, wanted to succeed, but was not able to. After just three weeks, he was able to come in and not just memorize the lines, but speak passionately. He told me, ‘Putting myself in someone else’s shoes gave me the perspective to see myself.’”
"I have a hero and his name is Steve." - Carlos, PLAY participant (referring to Steve Kidd) |
The program that gave voice to Diana and perspective to Carlos is Pawtucket Literacy and Arts for Youth (PLAY), a program of the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre. The mentor/artist in the stories above is Steve Kidd, director of education at Gamm.
Kidd explains that PLAY is based on Brown University’s ArtsLiteracy Project on which he earlier worked. PLAY began in 2006 with two teachers at Shea and Tolman high schools. It has since expanded to Pawtucket’s middle schools, after-school programs and, as of last year, the elementary schools.
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| Shea High School students create a tableaux (a group sculpture) to represent the themes of freedom and oppression in a PLAY unit exploring the book Night by Elie Wiesel. | Utilizing the Performance Cycle curriculum which links arts-learning and academic performance, PLAY provides teachers with in-class partnerships with professional artists and weekend professional development opportunities, as well as after-school programming for students with additional needs. “PLAY supports student learning and teacher development. Our collaborations with teachers are invaluable…the teachers respond better because they’re involved, students see their teachers in a different light, and because of what the teachers learn through the partnership, many feel as though they’re better teachers,” Kidd says.
"The PLAY project has changed the way students and teachers look at the curriculum and made learning fun, engaging, and necessary." - Chris Lord, principal, Shea High School |
National studies support the value of arts education:
- “Arts education helps close the achievement gap, improves academic skills essential for reading and language development, and advances students’ motivation to learn.” - Arts Education Partnership
- “(There is) increased pro-social behavior among youth involved with arts program” - Department of Justice
- “Students who take four years of arts and music classes while in high school score 103 points better on their SATs than students who took only one-half year or less.” - The College Board
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| A sixth grade student at Agnes Little School shares a poem she wrote that helps connect her life experience to a book that is the focus of the PLAY residency. Classmates and Education Director Steve Kidd look on and listen. | Founded in 1984, Gamm re-located from Providence to Pawtucket in 2003. “We sensed that coming into this community and being an organization that relies on public funds, we needed to add to the public value of the organization,” explains Yvonne Seggerman, Gamm’s executive director. Part of that added value is offered through PLAY. Seed funding for the program came from a Community Development Block Grant from the City of Pawtucket, a continuing source of funding for this program which is offered free to the schools. Support also comes from corporations, family funds, and foundations, including The Rhode Island Foundation, a long-time supporter of the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre. For each of the past two years, the Foundation has helped fund PLAY by providing salary support, ticket subsidies for students to attend performances at Gamm, and funds for professional development opportunities for teachers.
"Our sixth grade students are taking risks, overcoming fears of failure, engaging and interacting with peers, and are regarded as accepted members of a community, all because of PLAY.” – Estrella Rego, reading specialist, Agnes E. Little School |
“PLAY is aligned with the Foundation’s arts sector priority of arts learning for youth in school and community settings, and is noteworthy for its integration of the arts into the curriculum at the elementary, middle school, and high school level. The program has received strong endorsements from school administrators, teachers, and students alike,” shares Daniel Kertzner, grant programs officer for the arts at the Foundation.
Learn more about PLAY. |