2003 STAFF DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS
" Using Theater to Teach Curriculum"

Karen De Mauro
Director, Broadway Coach, Teaching Artist

The goal of this workshop is to provide teachers with hands-on interactive drama exercises that bring the Social Studies, Language Arts and Science curriculums alive. Teachers will learn dozens of games, simulations, and techniques that encourage large group participation and embodied learning of content areas.

Creative Drama, as distinct from performance-based theater, encourages the "actor in everyone" to explore ideas experientially. Teachers will learn the guidelines for creating successful classroom activities as well as the basic educational theories that underlie them. They will practice existing drama games as well as invent their own.

The skills needed to create good theater are also the skills needed for effective test-taking, live presentation, and academic learning. Among these are: Focus, Motivation, Sense of Place and Space, Character Building, and Problem-Solving. Teachers will learn how drama helps students to be task-conscious instead of self-conscious in an environment where facts are fuelled by imagination and fun.

FORMATS AVAILABLE FOR GRADES 2 -12
  • Four Hour Workshop
  • Full Day Workshop (8 hours)
  • One Week Summer Program (25 hours)

ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Karen De Mauro is Artistic Director of The Acting Center and has been an Artist-In-Residence for over 25 years. Her highly interactive style is drawn from her work with Brian Way, the British child drama expert, from training in Theater Education at Boston University, and from her career as a Broadway acting coach. Prior to her professional career as a director and actress, Karen taught K-12 Drama for 7 years in public schools and also did Faculty Tutorials for Brandeis University and Johns Hopkins. She currently coaches corporate executives, preachers, and ad agencies in "Presentation Skills" throughout the Northeast and South. Karen is also a professional storyteller, and the author of "Acting As A Way". She has written over 50 original musicals with children and her Creative Drama Workshops reach 3000 students a year. She has directed for the Smithsonian Institution and The United Nations and is the recipient of numerous awards in the United States and abroad. For more information please visit or call:
     The Acting Center
     421 West 24th Street, #5D_New York, NY 10011
     Tel/Fax: 212-675-6944
     kdemauro@infohouse.com

Recent State Mandates for staff development have sparked a need for quality programs that stimulate and involve experienced professionals. BOCES Funding may be available to assist with program costs.