Theaters for Learning: The NEW VICTORY THEATER SPARK Program

Abstract

In this chapter a team of artists from The New Victory Theater and their research colleagues share early insights from NEW VICTORY SPARK (Schools with Performing Arts Reach Kids), a theater program that operates in schools where the arts have not been a regular part of learning. Together we discuss what we are discovering in three different ‘theaters of learning’: classrooms, research, and professional development. With respect to classrooms, the authors discuss how this kind of work calls for the intentional use of resource—repertoire, curriculum, artist training and teacher collaboration—to achieve a kind of theatrical learning that is challenging, exuberant and active, as well as mutual, respectful and community-building in the deepest sense (Seidel et al,. The qualities of quality. Harvard School of Education, Cambridge, MA, 2013). Second, we discuss how SPARK has pushed us to think differently about how we capture and report the impact of the program by combining theatrical tools (improvisation, perspective taking, talk-backs, etc.) with measures drawn from basic research to capture the intrinsic impact of the arts on human lives. Finally, we turn to the theater of professional development, sharing what we are learning about the vital role of challenge and inquiry for the adult participants in the project: artists, teachers, and researchers alike.