Drama Sampler

Tailored to each age group, this workshop of theatre games, improvisation, pantomime, and movement serves as a drama overview to stimulate imagination and encourage vocal and physical creativity. From tongue twisters to team-building games, participants learn skills and techniques used in the world of acting. (Grades ECE-5) 

Hippos to Hedgehogs: Imaginative Play

Children explore connections between body, mind, and imagination as they are invited to physically create a variety of animals and objects. The instructor uses recorded music, percussion instruments, and handclapping to guide imaginative movement and creative play. Students learn focus, listening skills, and gross motor skills. (ECE-2) 

Knocking Into Air

With no set, no costumes and no props, students learn pantomime skills in order to convey meaning through gesture and expression alone. (Grades 6-12)

This workshop supports Essential Skill-building in: informed risk taking, innovation, and critical thinking.

Interactive Storytelling

Characters, settings, problems, and solutions make up the basic elements of stories. Using familiar folk and fairy tales, students identify and discuss these elements and then work in small groups to create and present their own stories.  (Grades K-2) 

Poetry in Action

In this fun workshop that incorporates drama and literacy, students create and perform short scenes based on well known poems. Youth explore pace, characterization, gesture, emotion, space, and energy to engage with and reimagine text. As students work together in groups, they learn about teamwork, the creative dramatic process, and how to engage more completely with literature.  (Grades 2-12)

Swashbuckling

Learn how actors create those stage and scene battles without pain! Students learn the simple terms and techniques for hand-to-hand stage combat, as well as introductory fencing techniques.  (Grades 4-12)

Shakespeare’s Stage

“All the world’s a stage!” Participants explore Shakespeare’s world in this acting workshop that combines literature with the performing arts. Fun tongue twisters from Hamlet, fairy scenes from A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, and acting games give participants a brief look at this famous playwright. Discover creative Shakespearean phrases and ease the understanding of Shakespeare’s dialogue through a trivia game and original comedic radio play based on six of Shakespeare’s works.  (Grades 4-12)

The Parts that Make the Whole

Incorporating visual, sound-based, and theatrical storytelling, this workshop encourages students to examine different points of view, exercise empathy, and practice adopting the perspective of others. Students take a highly interactive approach to exploring fictional tales and personal narrative. (Grades 3-8)

This workshop supports Essential Skill-building in: information literacy, self-advocacy, and cultural awareness.

Yes, and…Comedy Improv

Participants take part in a variety of theatre and improvisation games. From partner improvs to group improvs, everyone gets a chance to play.  Students develop self-confidence, learn about comic timing, and strengthen cooperation and listening skills. (Grades 4-12)

Playmaking

Participants are introduced to acting concepts through a series of creative activities. Students then become actors in an adapted version of one of the plays listed below. Given costumes, props, and a few key lines, participants magically bring each story to life! Plays available for Playmaking include:

• Journey to Treasure Island (Grades 3-5)

Red, the Pirate Queen, is the villain in this play in which pirates maneuver to take over the ship and find the buried treasure in this humorous take on a classic tale.

• Hansel and Gretel’s Magical Fairytale Adventure (Grades 1-5)

This workshop combines a variety of fairy tales with Hansel and Gretel as they set out on an adventure encountering characters from classic children’s stories.

• The Rainbow Fish (Grades ECE-2)

Based on the book, the journey of the Rainbow Fish comes to life in this whole group play about friendship.

• Wild Things (Grades K-3) 

Follow Max on his journey to meet the Wild Things in this interactive play of a favorite childhood story. 

• Horton Hears a Who (Grades 1-4)

Explore the Jungle of Nool! Where the silly gets serious as students recreate Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.

• The Seven Dwarfs (Grades K-4)

A comedic adaptation of the classic tale where the setting remains the same, but the dwarfs have been changed to set the scene for a silly adventure!

Bucket Drumming

In this workshop, participants learn how to create rhythms and different sounds using paint buckets and their imaginations. The class, led by an expert drummer, explores all of the sonic possibilities of a simple and common object. (Grades 1-5)

Creative Movement

Participants explore rhythm, music, and body movement as they utilize their bodies in familiar and novel ways throughout this active movement workshop. (Grades ECE-4)

Danza Azteca

*Specialty Workshop: $175 flat fee

Award winning performance Artist Lorenzo J. Ramirez, Artistic Director of Grupo Folklórico Sabor Latino, takes students on a journey back to ancient Mexico to experience the traditions, history and splendor of the Azteca people. Presented in full elaborate ceremonial uniform with natural instruments, Lorenzo provides participants with an engaging, interactive and educational experience of this unique indigenous culture. (Grades 3-12)

Rhythm Stories

Rhythm is explored across continents in music from Africa, to Europe to Asia. Each region’s rhythmic sounds are tied to what we hear today in American culture, including: jazz, classical, military, folk, country, and rock. This workshop includes lots of hands-on play with percussion instruments. (Grades 1-8)

Language of African Drumming

*Specialty Workshop: $175 flat fee

Participants learn the “alphabet” of African hand drums forming basic sounds to create the language of drums. Participants practice playing traditional African rhythm patterns and learn about the use of these sounds and instruments in different African cultures.(Grades 2-12)

Architecture in Action

In this workshop students form a structure of their own imagination by utilizing a modified printing technique to “build” their own piece of architecture in two-dimensions. (Grades ECE-2)

This workshop supports Essential Skill-building in: initiative, perseverance, and innovation skill-building.

A Beautiful Oops!

Hooray for mistakes! In this workshop, students learn to let go of perfection and celebrate their creativity with every “oops”. Students get the chance to listen to the story Beautiful Oops! and use a variety of art materials to make their own masterpiece, utilizing ‘accidents’ like torn paper and spilled paint as creative inspiration. (Grades ECE-1st)

GIANT Drawings

Using jumbo sheets of paper, students learn point perspective and use their newfound skills to create larger than life character illustrations. (Grades 3-12) 

The Hungry Caterpillar

Based on the techniques of author and illustrator Eric Carle, students create their very own “hungry caterpillar.” Students practice painting with color and texture, then collage a caterpillar of their own.(Grades K-2)

Fairy Tale Self-Portraits

In this reimagined take on self-portraiture, students use fairy tale elements like magic wands, wings, pointy ears, and masks to paint themselves as fantasy characters. (Grades 1-6) 

Faith Ringgold: Story Quilts

Quilts have a history of telling stories. In this workshop, students learn a bit of that history through the work of Harlem-born artist, Faith Ringgold, followed by piecing together paper story quilts of their own. (Grades 2-8)

This workshop supports Essential Skill-building in: civic engagement, self-advocacy, and creativity.

Gravity Painting

Exploring the intersection of physics and painting, students work together to construct pendulum frames and experiment with variable forces and angles while making large-scale gravity paintings. (Grades 4-8)

Paper Molas

Traditional Panamanian fabric Molas, patterned rectangular panels of sewn brightly colored fabrics and applique, inspire this collage project. Using cut and paste layering techniques, students design their own bold, colorful paper Molas. (Grades 3-12)

Saltwater Jellyfish

Did you know that jellyfish are NOT made of jelly and are NOT even fish? Using watercolor, sea salt, and oil pastel students learn about these unique creatures while making their own version of the wild marine animal. (Grades K-5)

This workshop supports Essential Skill-building in: creativity, informed risk taking, and inquiry/analysis.

Senufo Inspired Mud Paintings

Taking inspiration from textile based paintings created by the Senufo people of the northern Ivory Coast, students explore the symbolization of natural elements and repetitive pattern design as they create their own stylized mud paintings on cloth. (Grades 1-12)

Torn Paper Landscapes

Colorado’s amazing landscapes and land formations are the foundation of this unique take on collage. In this workshop students tear and paste in layers to create colorful layered images inspired by our natural landscape. (Grades 2-12)

Participation plays are lively and humorous adaptations of well-known stories lead by our professional actors with active assistance from members of your group! All participation plays include simple silly props and costumes to help the story come alive. 

Choose from the following stories:

Jack and the Beanstalk (K-3)

Alice in Wonderland (1-5)

James & the Giant Peach (3-5)

*$300-$375 flat fee, $150-$200 per additional play

This vibrant and energetic performance, based on the drumming traditions of West Africa, takes its audience on a rhythmic journey from Africa to the New World and back. The dynamics of the music gives the ensemble its name. “Kusogea” is a word in Ki-Swahili that means “to move.” “Nobi'' is a word indigenous to the world that means “people.”

Kusogea Nobi moves people—it is virtually impossible to remain still during this performance!

* $550 flat fee - Grades K-8

The sound of an authentic Taiko drum leads this exploration through Japanese culture. Costumes, Japanese folktales, percussion instruments, and the booming Taiko drum come together to immerse students in ancient Japanese art forms.

* $350 flat fee - Grades K-12

Yesterado is a one-hour-long performance featuring a light-hearted glimpse at Colorado history. Real-life traveling entertainers Jack Langrishe and Marietta Ravel are reimagined as a sort of goofy, time-travel welcome wagon committee, taking you back in time and giving you a glimpse of Colorado in the 1890s. To deepen your students’ learning, please ask about accompanying workshops that complement Yesterado.

* $400 flat fee - Grades 2-6

This dynamic and interactive performance introduces a number of instruments and sounds with emphasis on the physics, mathematics, and science of their construction, origin, and implementation. 

This workshop supports Essential Skill-building in: inquiry and analysis.

* $350 flat fee - Grades K-4