The target population for HartBeat Ensemble in-school or after school programming is 3rd through 12th grade. Our workshops are highly customizable an all include strong focus on ensemble building and personal reflection.

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Moved to Act asks students to connect their own experiences with Burning Issues — issues in their immediate communities or the world that generate a visceral response. Students will learn how to use Tableaus and other physical theater techniques in building a theatrical performance. Through this collaboration students begin to find solutions to tough problems through the use of improv and group discussions to see how they, regardless of their age, can participate in solving problems that are important to them.

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Moved to Act has 3 components, Ensemble Building, Burning Issues, and Building Performance. Ensemble exercises and story circles help students build and maintain respect for each other while creating content for their play. Building the performance combines these conversations with the physical language/images developed earlier and then engages the students in creating and adding dialogue or poetry.

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The Social Studies Theater Workshop collaborates with social studies teachers to devise a three-day residency designed to give students a deeper connection to historical characters and/or current events. Projects may include developing theatrical scenes or alternative creative formats. Topics are selected by the classroom teacher and are generally chosen from the current study unit.

 

Instead of a rote recitation of facts or an oral presentation, students may develop a detailed historical or current day character.  Creating a personal biography as well as physical and vocal characterization, students are prepared to present a specific viewpoint that takes into consideration their character’s motivations and historically-available resources. HartBeat's teaching artist works closely with the classroom teacher to identify primary sources for students to research their respective characters as well as other resource material such as History Alive or Junior Scholastic. Students are taught theater skills such as improvisation, script writing and character development. Topics that have been studied in the past are: events leading up to the US Revolutionary War; the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and debate over “taxing the rich.”

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*These programs are included in the Hartford Performs database for Grades 4-8 in Hartford Public Schools.