Studio 180 is piloting an innovative workshop specifically targeted at youth.

Why do we produce the plays we do? It comes down to a fundamental belief that the experience of live theatre can inspire audiences to engage more fully in the world. This belief helped shape Studio 180’s mandate and is the reason we’re developing new and better ways to engage youth audiences.

In 2009/10, we launched an ambitious education initiative, made possible by the generous support of the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation. Over three years, with the help of an advisory committee of teachers, administrators and arts educators and the active participation of two schools, we are piloting a four-session interdisciplinary workshop model to bring our work and our artists into high school classrooms.

Each workshop is tied to a Studio 180 production, using the performance as a springboard to class work, where we explore how theatre humanizes social and political issues, and how current issues impact students’ lives. One session takes place before students see the production, with the remaining sessions happening after they’ve seen the play. Studio 180’s artists work with our partnering teachers in class to generate discussion, explore values, encourage critical thinking, promote empathy and inspire creativity using engaging techniques like sociometrics (value proposition) exercises, hot seating and improvisation.

Workshop goals

• To lead students in an exploration that humanizes social and political issues, using a Studio 180 production as a springboard to class work
• To engage students in live theatre in general and our work in particular in an effort to inspire the next generation of theatre-goers
• To encourage students to ask Big Questions about their world and find new ways to look for answers

Learn more about the pilot

PILOT YEAR 1
Our March/April 2010 production of The Overwhelming inspired Year 1 of the three-year initiative as we partnered with Marsha Legault and her Grade 12 Drama students at Streetsville Secondary School (in the Peel District School Board). Read more…

PILOT YEAR 2
Year 2 of the initiative centred around our April 2011 production of Our Class. We returned to Streetsville Secondary School, expanding the model to work with Marsha Legault’s Grade 11 Drama class as well as Greg Turner’s Grade 12 World Issues students. Read more…

PILOT YEAR 3
For Year 3, our workshops were tied to our October/November 2011 production of The Normal Heart. We partnered with teachers Emma Munro and Sally Spofforth at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in the Toronto District School Board, this time working with Grade 9 English and Grade 11 Leadership classes. Read more…