As a theater for young people, we know drama, and we know kids.  In our after-school programs, participants gain a greater understanding and appreciation of drama through the actors’ tools of body, voice, and imagination.

The location of these programs varies because we design and conduct them in partnership with schools and community organizations.  We are delighted to bring our expertise to any partnering agency that wants to develop a drama program.  Here are a few examples of what happens when we do:

• Lower-elementary students at Captain and Glenridge Schools in Clayton played with the concepts of space, tempo, and energy by putting their bodies into different shapes, moving them at different speeds, and using them to push and pull in different directions.

• Working in pairs, young people in the YWCA after-school program in University City elementary schools created their own characters and settings for an original scene in which they could only use 10 words or less.

• Inspired by the book If… by Sarah Perry, upper-elementary students at Meramec School in Clayton came up with their own “if” statements, and then used them to create original artwork and stories.