ARTICLE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Theatrical Friendship: IMAGINATION Stage HostS International Collaboration with the Piano Theatre The Physical Theatre Performance Group for Students of the Deaf Community from Russia Teams Up with the IStage Dancers to Create a Cross-Continent Performance BETHESDA, MD (DATE) This week, Imagination Stage hosts the Piano Theatre – a company based in Russia that focuses on the creative and social rehabilitation of hearing impaired children – in a week-long collaborative workshop. Imagination Stage and the Piano Theatre will bring together teenaged artists to explore the use of movement-based theatre to create work that transcends barriers of language and nationality. Two Piano Theatre master teachers and four students from the deaf and hard of hearing community will spend spring break with instructors and students of IStage Dance Theatre – Imagination Stage’s intensive, performance-based ensemble for dancers. Throughout the week the students will collaborate on the creation of a new devised work with the goal of co-presenting at Italy’s 2020 Sapperlot festival. The week culminates in a short performance of the new work on Saturday April 20 at 11:30 a.m. In addition, the Piano Theatre performers and IStage Dance Theatre students will collaborate with participants of other Imagination Stage programs, including recent refugees from Central America participating in the ¡Óyeme! program and members of the Pegasus Ensemble – Imagination Stage’s theatre ensemble especially created for actors with disabilities. This cross-cultural collaboration is made possible through Imagination Stage’s participation in the Global Connections-ON the ROAD program, funded by The Andrew W, Mellon Foundation and administered by the Theatre Communications Group. In July of 2018, the IStage Dance Theatre troupe performed at the Sapperlot International Meeting of Youth Theatre in Brixten, Italy - the first American performers invited to take part in the festival. While there, the students of Imagination Stage met the students from Piano Theatre and a collaboration was born. “Even though our groups were so linguistically and geographically separated, we had so many similarities, and that’s what I’ll continue to remember,” said Imagination Stage student Gracie Luna. “They were incredibly supportive and patient with us… learning signs as we went and gesturing to get our meaning across, we learned so much about each other and became good friends.” The students’ ability to connect regardless of language barriers is what sparked the idea of a future collaboration for group leaders Joanne Seelig Lamparter, Director of Education and Community Programs at Imagination Stage, and Vladimir Chikishev, Director of the Piano Theatre. “Through our experience in Italy, we saw that students learned to open their hearts to the differences of others’ experiences by seeing theatre from around the world, and I am so eager to build on that foundation through this collaboration,” said Joanne Seelig Lamparter, Director of Education and Community Programs at Imagination Stage. “We hope that this experience provides all of the students involved a platform to grow as artisans and citizens of the world through this unique cultural exchange.” Press are invited to attend the work-in-progress performance on Saturday, April 20 at 11:30 a.m. Please RSVP to Kanea MacDonald at [email protected] by April 18. ABOUT PIANO THEATRE The main purpose of the Piano Theatre is creative and social rehabilitation of hearing impaired children by theatrical means. The Theatre uses and improves forms of educational process based on games. Scientific and experimental laboratories working at the Piano Theatre create innovative educational programs to help teachers of the Nizhny Novgorod boarding school for deaf children. Methodologies of the Piano Theatre can be used for rehabilitation of other categories of disabled people both children and adults. Piano Theatre holds workshops on development of creative thinking including events where deaf and hearing children work together. The Piano Theatre gives charitable performances in children’s homes, schools, children’s hospitals, practically developing the idea of tolerance in society. Young actors present their spectators with joy and discover boundless abilities of human communication. ABOUT IMAGINATION STAGE Founded in 1979, Imagination Stage is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to inspire creativity through theatre and arts education programs that nurture, challenge, and empower young people of all abilities. It offers year-round professional theatre for young audiences and classes in creative drama/acting, musical theatre, dance, and filmmaking for ages 1-18. Visit imaginationstage.org. ###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Theatrical Friendship: IMAGINATION Stage HostS International Collaboration with the Piano Theatre
The Physical Theatre Performance Group for Students of the Deaf Community from Russia Teams Up with the IStage Dancers to Create a Cross-Continent Performance
BETHESDA, MD (DATE) This week, Imagination Stage hosts the Piano Theatre – a company based in Russia that focuses on the creative and social rehabilitation of hearing impaired children – in a week-long collaborative workshop. Imagination Stage and the Piano Theatre will bring together teenaged artists to explore the use of movement-based theatre to create work that transcends barriers of language and nationality. Two Piano Theatre master teachers and four students from the deaf and hard of hearing community will spend spring break with instructors and students of IStage Dance Theatre – Imagination Stage’s intensive, performance-based ensemble for dancers. Throughout the week the students will collaborate on the creation of a new devised work with the goal of co-presenting at Italy’s 2020 Sapperlot festival. The week culminates in a short performance of the new work on Saturday April 20 at 11:30 a.m.
In addition, the Piano Theatre performers and IStage Dance Theatre students will collaborate with participants of other Imagination Stage programs, including recent refugees from Central America participating in the ¡Óyeme! program and members of the Pegasus Ensemble – Imagination Stage’s theatre ensemble especially created for actors with disabilities.
This cross-cultural collaboration is made possible through Imagination Stage’s participation in the Global Connections-ON the ROAD program, funded by The Andrew W, Mellon Foundation and administered by the Theatre Communications Group.
In July of 2018, the IStage Dance Theatre troupe performed at the Sapperlot International Meeting of Youth Theatre in Brixten, Italy - the first American performers invited to take part in the festival. While there, the students of Imagination Stage met the students from Piano Theatre and a collaboration was born.
“Even though our groups were so linguistically and geographically separated, we had so many similarities, and that’s what I’ll continue to remember,” said Imagination Stage student Gracie Luna. “They were incredibly supportive and patient with us… learning signs as we went and gesturing to get our meaning across, we learned so much about each other and became good friends.” The students’ ability to connect regardless of language barriers is what sparked the idea of a future collaboration for group leaders Joanne Seelig Lamparter, Director of Education and Community Programs at Imagination Stage, and Vladimir Chikishev, Director of the Piano Theatre.
“Through our experience in Italy, we saw that students learned to open their hearts to the differences of others’ experiences by seeing theatre from around the world, and I am so eager to build on that foundation through this collaboration,” said Joanne Seelig Lamparter, Director of Education and Community Programs at Imagination Stage. “We hope that this experience provides all of the students involved a platform to grow as artisans and citizens of the world through this unique cultural exchange.”
Press are invited to attend the work-in-progress performance on Saturday, April 20 at 11:30 a.m. Please RSVP to Kanea MacDonald at [email protected] by April 18.
ABOUT PIANO THEATRE The main purpose of the Piano Theatre is creative and social rehabilitation of hearing impaired children by theatrical means. The Theatre uses and improves forms of educational process based on games. Scientific and experimental laboratories working at the Piano Theatre create innovative educational programs to help teachers of the Nizhny Novgorod boarding school for deaf children. Methodologies of the Piano Theatre can be used for rehabilitation of other categories of disabled people both children and adults. Piano Theatre holds workshops on development of creative thinking including events where deaf and hearing children work together. The Piano Theatre gives charitable performances in children’s homes, schools, children’s hospitals, practically developing the idea of tolerance in society. Young actors present their spectators with joy and discover boundless abilities of human communication.
ABOUT IMAGINATION STAGE
Founded in 1979, Imagination Stage is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to inspire creativity through theatre and arts education programs that nurture, challenge, and empower young people of all abilities. It offers year-round professional theatre for young audiences and classes in creative drama/acting, musical theatre, dance, and filmmaking for ages 1-18. Visit imaginationstage.org.
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