Experiences range from performances with discussion before and after to workshops and residencies created with sound educational planning and tied directly to educational standards and frameworks. These single-performer experiences are small enough to be suitable for the classroom or large enough for a whole assembly. With a fixed slate of titles from Dr. Seuss and Edgar Allen Poe, as well as other types of events that are flexible enough to include almost any title, you can bring life and performance to elementary, middle and high school students. Working with the classroom teacher, we can create content that is tailored specifically to your curriculum.

Services Offered:

Performance only with pre- and post-show discussion: Approximately thirty minutes. Fully staged, memorized performance with lighting and sound.

Performance with active workshop: One hour or one class period. Performance with a classroom lesson tailored to the performance (see lesson plan).

Performance with residency: Two hours + or two class periods + to be determined at time of booking. Residency created from a planning session with classroom teachers ($100) and tailored to the performance with a focus determined by the teacher(s) and performer.

Story time: by half hour. Stories read to the students with performative details (movement and sound) and audience participation. Suitable for elementary-aged students. Titles can be selected by the teachers and are not limited to the list below.

Staged reading: by hour or class period. Selected readings done with some staging and involving classroom students. Suitable for middle and high school titles. Titles can be selected by the teachers and are not limited to the list below.

What are Vital Seenz?

Full Performances
Choose a performance from our list of titles. Michael will come to your class and perform the piece with a brief discussion before and after. The performance is fully memorized and staged with lighting and sound. Pre- and post-show discussions are carefully curated with discussion questions designed to foster deep and educationally sound conversation. These performances can be for a single classroom or larger groups in bigger performance spaces. Standard running time: 30 minutes.

Workshops
Each performance can also be performed with a whole workshop (one hour or a full class period) specifically designed to accompany the performance. Each workshop is available with the written lesson plan, complete with Massachusetts ELA frameworks and standards. This can be done for a single class or a whole cluster or group of classes individually.

Residencies
An entire residency of two or more class periods can be created based on any of the performances. Michael will sit down with a classroom teacher or teachers and brainstorm a series of workshops that will suit their individual class(es). The team will meet to create the foundation for the residency and then Michael will plan the individual lessons. Michael is certified in theater education in both New York State and Massachusetts and has over twenty years of experience in public schools.

Story Time
Using just about any title your teachers may use in their elementary classes, Michael will come to the class and read a book or an excerpt of a book. But he won’t just read. The reading will become a performance that involves not just the performer but the whole class as well. Students will provide soundscapes and sound effects, they will become individual characters or groups of characters, all based on the specific story chosen.

Staged Reading
This is just like story time, but for the bigger kids (middle and high school). The teacher chooses a title and Michael will come and lead a reading, with older students who can contribute more fully than the little ones. Designed to get students up and out of their seats, this experience helps the students to connect more fully with the material they are reading.

Professional Development
Professional development workshops created for your specific needs implementing theater-based activities and projects to activate your classroom. Single session workshops or 2-5 session residencies for teachers to teach them how to activate their classes and get their students out of their seats. PDs can be activity-based or focus on lesson planning.

Titles:

The titles listed below are for fully staged and memorized performances. Other titles can be requested by the classroom teachers for the “Story Time” and “Staged Reading” formats.

Elementary
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (seasonal)
The Lorax

Middle and High School
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Raven & Annabelle Lee
Monologues from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo & Juliet, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V