Venice Little
Theatre www.venicestage.com
CONTACT PERSON
140 West Tampa Avenue •
Venice FL 34285 • 941.488.1115 FAX: 484-9437
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 24, 2008
Venice Middle School performs:
Kids are ‘Bringing History to Life’ on Venice Little Theatre’s MainStage
Seventh and eighth grade students from Venice Middle School (VMS) will be performing on the MainStage of Venice Little Theatre (VLT) at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday April 12, 2008. The performance is free and open to the public.
Students will perform an original production called A Chess Game in Time, written by local director and playwright Ronald Myroup. The play brings to life significant historical events from the Greek through the middle ages
in the form of a chess game with the student actors as the chess pieces. "Bringing History to Life" is the product of a partnership formed last school year between the school and the theatre. Students attend special rehearsals during their social studies classes throughout the school year. This unique program is directed by VLT’s principal teacher Brad Wages, a notable actor, director and choreographer.Wages said that these students – from Barbara Woody’s social studies classes – "have been simply terrific already in rehearsals; we expect they’re going to wow audiences once they’re on stage."
The young actors will lead the audience through a series of historical events, which will be narrated by ‘Greek gods’. The show combines dialogue, music and dance as tools to enlighten the audience, and more importantly, serve as a teaching aid to the students. Many first time performers find themselves bitten by the ‘theatre bug’ in the process.
Woody says this has been a wonderful collaboration and that "the students have been great about working outside their comfort zones and taking risks in performance and dance to make their presentation a good show."
"Bringing History to Life" is an outreach program that partners VMS and VLT, with the generous, financial support of the College of Education at Argosy University, Sarasota campus; The Education Foundation of Sarasota County; the VMS Booster Club; and Purpose Employer Solutions, Brent Pinkerton.
The primary purpose of the program is to take social studies "off the written page" and bring it to life through creative dramatics, says Sandy Davisson, VLT’s Director of Education and Outreach. She goes on to say that VLT is "honored to be partnered with VMS for the second year in a row".
Davisson added that VMS Principal Dr. Karin Schmidt and Woody have, in their determination to enhance the school’s curriculum, made a wonderful and dynamic choice by involving their students in performing arts. "Theatre awakens the senses and allows learning in non-traditional ways" said Davisson. "This partnership perfectly fits our goal of bringing more stunents actually into the theatre to participate as opposed to simply being audience. It becomes a part of their school experience."
Venice Little Theatre is located at 140 West Tampa Avenue on the island in Venice.
The seventh grade actors are:
Chris Brannon
Courtney Buckney
Ryan Contos
Geraldine Guido
Zack Harmon
Destani Irland
Zack Linton
Arin Miller
Adam Pakledinaz
Robert Rainer
Tess Stephenson
Justin Taylor
Brianna Tetzlaff
Brianna Wilson
The eighth grade actors are:
Vilma Alvarenga-Zelaya
Haley Barber
Brian Basnight
Calyn Beese
Alexander Bracken
Ryan Brewer
Ihrian Brown
Hunter Cross
Maggie Daut
Morgan Henderson
Christina Hladky
Jacob Ittel
Austin McCumber
McKenzie Miller
Heather Parrish
Cody Patrick
Cathleen Pinkerton
Jasmine Rybicki
Lorin Van Der Linden