Educational Outreach ’09
MARQUEZ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – Pacific Palisades
Original history musicals. The 5th grade history classes (120 kids perform) at Marquez in the Palisades will present two of the musicals that help illuminate courses of study. And the shows are really wonderful; written by Jeff Lantos, 5th grade history teacher and his very talented composing partner Bill Augustine. One is PLYMOUTH 2.0 (in 2009 at the school and at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica) about the pilgrims and their problems and another, WATER AND POWER, about the mill towns of New England. There are also musicals about the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark's expeditions with 2nd graders playing the animals along the way in adorable costumes.
In 2010, the Marquez kids will present their civil rights musical, CARRY ON, in the Festival.
This may be the only program of its type in America. UCLA recently did a research study that shows that these kids retain twice as much knowledge of what they've studied as the average 5th grade history class. And wait till you see sixty fifth graders on stage at one time singing and dancing. It's a great story! The Festival’s goal is to help roll this program out to as many elementary schools as possible so that thousands more kids can share the joy of performing and a remarkable new way of learning.
CHECK IT OUT!
Outreach ’10
When we first conceived the Festival, we believed that there was a major revival of musical theater beginning to happen in this country. We were right. We also believed that Southern California was a hotbed of creative and performing talents, just waiting to be discovered. We were right there as well. We have the talent and we have the interest on the part of the theaters, the schools and from the community to become a major source for new composers, lyricists, book writers, directors, producers, choreographers, dancers and actors. Already, we involved almost 3,000 of them in the ’08 and ‘09 festivals. Six universities, nine high schools, colleges and cultural centers performed new musicals in the festival.
Our priority is to expand that, to inspire and engage the creative and performing talents of the youth of Southern California to develop the new American musical theater of the future as well as the new audience for that theater.
