Education at A Noise Within
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About the Program
A Noise Within is proud to offer one of the most expansive theatre arts education programs in all of Southern California. In a typical season, we reach 18,000 students and teachers through our Education Program, which includes…
- Matinees of full-length performances that feature the same professional cast and production as evening performances
- Pre-show workshops with teaching artists and/or post-show discussions with artists
- Free downloadable California standards-compliant Study Guides, designed to bring theatre arts into the classroom with lessons exploring each play’s historical content, language, themes, and character development
- Workshops and residencies provided by teaching artists that are tailored in terms of length, scale, and location to the individual needs of the school or class
- Scholarships that provide tickets, busing, and/or program subsidies to schools in need
- Two professional development workshops each year for teachers that focus on text, movement, and acting activities in the classroom
- Additionally, more than 400 teachers take advantage of complimentary tickets to our productions!
When the pandemic necessitated closures last spring, ANW’s Education Program was the first of our departments to pivot to digital. We recognized the critical need for distance-learning arts programs and responded by coordinating remote workshops to our school partners, leading free classes on Facebook Live, holding our professional development day for teachers via Zoom, building a library of theatre-tutorial videos and other resources, and running an entirely virtual five-week Shakespeare summer camp for kids. As always, our standards-based study guides remained available for free download, helping teachers to explore the historical content, language, and themes of our season’s plays with their students (even as classrooms switched over from analog to digital).
Who We Serve
Our program serves students from public, private, charter, and home schools, ranging from kindergarten all the way through college/university. Primarily, we serve students and teachers from socio-economically disadvantaged areas of LA County whose schools struggle to provide robust arts education, and for many, participation in this program is their first experience with live theatre.
Information from participating schools indicates that:
- More than 65% of our students come from Title I schools, and nearly 20% are English Language Learners.
- 48% of students come from households earning less than $50,000 per year with 36% earning less than $25,000 per year.
- Students are demographically represented as 64% Latinx/Hispanic, 14% White, 8% Asian, 8% Black, and 2% two or more races.
Does it Work?
Last year, 96% of the students who attended reported wanting more opportunities to attend live theatre performances, and 94% wish they had more opportunities to do a workshop in their class. The impact is palpable; one student wrote to us, “Being from East LA, we don’t really have these opportunities…even just being able to interact with the director, the actors, those opportunities don’t come to us.” A teacher told us “95% of my students were first time viewers of live theater. As always, your excellent production absolutely transformed them.”
Help us change young people’s lives through the magic of live theatre. Click the button below to donate now!
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Please contact our Development staff if you need assistance making your contribution or navigating the Virtual Gala. Due to the coronavirus closure, our staff is working remotely and can be reached on their mobile devices:
Development Director, Patti Anne Miller: (817) 991-5594
Institutional Giving Manager, Zach Davidson: (303) 517-1529
Development Assistant, Cynthia Naideau: (631) 662-5080