“[Youth Arts] energized my classroom.  My students and I are having so much fun.  We are laughing, and we are challenging ourselves to be creative, cooperative, and focused.  Couldn't be better.” -Eric Cuneo, Teacher, Ida B Wells Continuation High School, SFUSD

The Youth Arts Education Program touches over 20,000 youth and adult audiences each year with unique educational programming, from touring shows to workshops and residences to student matinees. 

What we hope to achieve

Each Word for Word project focuses deeply on ‘real’ text that is specifically chosen to align with the educational, interpersonal, and personal needs of students.  In exploring a text, students develop vocabulary skills, fluency in reading, connected text, comprehension, and listening, speaking skills, and strategies.  Finally, Word for Word helps motivates students to read, a confidence that flows from a student’s self-concept as a reader, and the value placed on reading.   

Why “word for word” with students?

We have seen that performing literature, exactly as the author chose to put the words together, gives students great insight into an author’s intentions, as well as into language in general.  When a student is given the responsibility of “acting out’ a word or phrase, she is entering the text, discovering it in a deeply visceral way, understanding its meaning(s), and experiencing the thrill of communicating physically, vocally and linguistically.  Through this unique approach, students can spark connections with literature and reading while also learning to think critically, work as a team, and express their own voices.


Classroom Workshop
Students from grades 3-12 and up take a theatrical ride through a short story or poem. Using our unique style of theatrical zing narrative, the students go deeply into a text through language and theatre games. Guided by Word for Word artist/teachers, students participate in deciding “Who says what?” and learning “How can you use your body/voice to act out the feeling of that word?” Students will learn to inhabit the characters of a story just as actors do, mining the story for themes, metaphors, and imagery and discovering the physical power and nuance of language. By the end of the workshop, the students bring the story to life on stage as an ensemble, experiencing it from the inside out (and taking with them a way into books that they will never forget).

Residencies
These custom designed, longer-term workshops for students from grades 7-12 and up follow an extended form of the classroom workshop. Residencies can last anywhere from several weeks to several months. Students learn about the components of a short story and then transform that story into a fully realized piece of theatre.

Want to see how we turn a story to a script?
From Page…

…To Stage
MONITOR
The next morning a monitor brought red paper and green paper from the office.

SHIRLEY/CHILD 1/MONITOR
We made new shapes and hung them on the walls and glued them on the doors.

MR. HILTON
The teachers became happier and happier.  Their heads were ringing like the bells of childhood.

 (Miss Glace’s choirroom)

SHIRLEY
My best friend

EVIE
Evie

SHIRLEY
was prone to evil,

EVIE
but she did not get a single demerit for whispering.

SHIRLEY/EVIE (sung to the tune of “Oh Holy Night”)
We learned “Holy Night” without an error.

MISS GLACE
“How wonderful!” said Miss Glace, the student teacher.  “To think that some of you don’t even speak the language!”

SHIRLEY
We learned

SHIRLEY/EVIE (sung)
“Deck the Halls”

MISS GLACE
and

SHIRLEY/EVIE (sung)
“Hark! The Herald Angels”…

SHIRLEY
They weren’t ashamed

For Adults
Professional Development Workshop
For teachers of all subjects and other interested adults. Using our Classroom Workshop model, participants explore a text through a variety of language and theatre games adapted for classroom use. The workshop culminates in the performance of a short story or poem, Word for Word style. Participants are encouraged to use Word for Word’s techniques in their own teaching.
Writer’s Workshops
For professional and aspiring writers, an expanded version of our Classroom Workshop from the writer’s perspective.

School and Library Tour
Since 1993, Word for Word’s professional actors have been bringing verbatim performances of classic and contemporary tales to Northern California schools, libraries, and community centers.  Unfortunately the School and Library Tour is on hiatus until further notice.

The Youth Arts Education Programs have been funded by the California Arts Council, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the Marin Community Foundation, the Kimball Foundation and many,
many generous individuals.