Project Report
| May 27, 2014
A New Residency: Learning to Build an Ensemble
By Allison Bucca | Teaching Artist and Administrative Manager
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"That's weird." We had just started the first activity of the first day of a new residency at the Oakcrest Community Center in Capitol Heights and already I had a student who didn't know how to react to what I was throwing at him. We were going through the four actor's tools of Body, Voice, Mind, and Imagination, using our bodies and voices to show each tool. Fortunately, after a few sessions, we have learned to all be "weird" together as we learn about storytelling, theatre and team-building in our after-school residency. Now the students make requests of me for activities they want to do and they even lead some of the warm-ups that may have seemed a little weird to them on our first day.
This partnership between the Washington Performing Arts (formerly WPAS) and the PG County Department of Parks and Recreation is a five-session residency where I am working with students from grades 2-6 to create our own version of the story of Thumbelina that we will perform for their parents during our last session. The students also now know that team-building for us is called ensemble-building (one of our French theatre words) and that our goal is not the performance, but what we learn in our process together.
Thank you so much for being a part of this process so that opportunities such as this residency are made possible!
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Mar 3, 2014
A Teaching Tale of Success
By Allison Bucca | Administrative Manager
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We may be just a few months into the new year, yet Story Tapestries has been moving full steam ahead with our programming. Story Tapestries Master Teaching Artist Debbi Arseneaux shared about such programming in a Story Tapestries blog post about her recent residency experience: “I am thoroughly enjoying these classes and the process of creation with these students. They are smart, funny, insightful, thoughtful and their enthusiasm each time I arrive is infectious.”
Debbi taught a five-session residency in two 6th grade classrooms at Washington Yu Ying, a Chinese immersion public charter school in Washington, D.C. In meeting with the classroom teachers prior to the residency, it was decided to focus some of their goals on creating a script from an existing story and connecting it to Chinese culture and history. The team chose Yeh-Shen: a Cinderella Story from China and Debbi led the students in creating tableaus to physically recreate the story as well as their own lines of dialogue and monologues based on the story.
Debbi then “combined all their ideas into one script, making almost no edits…this is THEIR script, no question.” The students then performed their script for fellow students, accomplishing another goal from the residency’s pre-planning: that students would gain experience in performing for peers.
So a journey that began with the click of a “donate” button ended in great success, as Debbi puts it: "I am so proud of the great work these students have been able to accomplish in such a short time. Their scripts are funny, bilingual, and demonstrate an understanding of key ideas and themes. I am certain that the teachers will be able to apply many of these techniques in future lessons and projects. I feel incredible satisfaction knowing that we will have accomplished all the goals we set for this process, and then some. And the students have clearly had a blast doing so."
Thank you for being a part of this journey.
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Dec 30, 2013
Bringing In Smiles One Child At a Time
By Arianna Ross | Executive Director
We wish you a Beautiful, Holiday Season full of smiles, light and laughter. Happy Holidays 
This year has been an amazing journey. WE simply want to say Thank you for all of your support. The children in our community benefit from your belief in the power of the arts to change community.
Our Impact, Your Impact, the Arts IMPACT
Today was the last day of school before break. A Kindergarten student came up to Arianna Ross, our Executive Director, and said "Thank you. I do like school. But I love coming to class when you are here. Can you come every day?"
Sadly, we can't come every day. Our time at a school is finite. However, our goal is to build sustainable arts integration programming in every location we partner with across the country. We have partners now in MD, DC, VA, FL, NC, LA and CA. AND we are planning to spread the gift of arts to other states even as we write this e-newsletter.
WE know and you know the value of the arts. We just have to convince everyone else through our actions. The more we do, the more we can change our community.
A NOTE From the Executive Director:
We at Story Tapestries wish you and yours a Happy Holidays. Thank you for the gift of supporting the arts and education. We look forward to seeing where 2014 takes us. I believe that we are at the edge of a cliff towards great expansion. We get calls on a weekly basis from donors who wish to support our programs. At the same time, we get calls from schools who need financial support to bring the arts to their communities. Just $35 can make sure a student experiences an in-depth 5 day artist-in-residency program. $55 gives 3 adults professional development training to benefit hundreds of children.
Thank you,
Arianna Ross
Executive Director
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