New Education Director and Public Art Acts Success!
This fall brings a change to URT's education program. We are pleased to welcome Maggie Moore Abdow, our new Education Director (Carin Rosenberg has departed as Education Director but remains a friend and advisor to URT). Maggie recently graduated from Emerson College's Theatre Education graduate program. Prior to her studies, she wore many hats in the world of theatre. Among the many roles she played included Box Office Manager of the Cutler Majestic Theater and theatrical director in Massachusetts and Georgia productions. She began her teaching work in Georgia with a group of rural students and developed an innovative theater program for the local school system. She is a Massachusetts Certified teacher in Theater for grades pre-K through 12. Maggie is no stranger to URT, having served as Teaching Artist in the past two years of our Agenda for Children Theatre Education Residency and this past summer's Mayor's Youth Summer Employment Program (MYSEP) collaboration with Cambridge Arts Council. Carin and Maggie spent two weeks together in the summer so Carin could get Maggie up to speed on all planning for the 2004-05 year and help make Maggie's entrance to the position a smooth transition.
We had a very busy summer with a number of programs including Public Art Acts, a project developed through a URT and Cambridge Arts Council collaboration and launched with the participation of MYSEP. For six weeks 10 students ranging in ages 14-16 worked as artists, dramaturges, puppeteers and performers under the guidance of Debra and Maggie. The group's responsibility included researching, exploring, and creating performances that highlighted public art in the Central Square and Area 4 neighborhoods. The work generated by the group will serve as the groundwork for our 2005 Public Art Acts professional performances and the pilot year of our Youth Ensemble. Most of the participants had little or no performance experience. In a brief time, they successfully learned basic performance and puppetry skills and held a street performance in the Central Square area promoting three neighborhood public art sites: Daniel Galvez's Crossroads (the mural on Pearl Street), Ritsuko Taho's Multicultural Manifestoes (Installation at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Prospect Street), and John Tagiuri's Chair and Endless Lamps (Area 4 Youth Center). The program was a great success which was reflected in the youth's feedback. When asked what were the most enjoyable aspects of the project for the youth, one participant replied, " Meeting nine other youths that I know I will have good [long-lasting] friendships with [and having] the opportunity to do all that we did." Over the coming year, professional theater artists will be creating performances inspired by these and other public art works in several Cambridge neighborhoods. Stay tuned for the finished performances that will premiere in 2005.
Our Fall programming includes a new residency with ASAP4KIDS at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. URT will be conducting weekly after-school classes for students in grades 2-6 exploring basic theater skills including character development and the creation of small skits. We are also looking forward to continuing our residency with the after-school program at Cambridgeport Schools. This will be our second year with Cambridgeport and we are looking forward to taking our experience from last year and expanding this fall's program.
This should be a great fall and perfect preparation for URT to move into our already very busy winter/spring schedule.