10/9/19

Our Education Department’s initiatives are thriving!

Natalie Dreyer

We’re excited to announce our latest partnership with DelSesto Middle School in Providence. Natalie Dreyer, our school partnerships and professional development manager, will serve as the school’s artist-in-residence where she’ll lead student workshops throughout the school year in theater arts integration. Natalie will also facilitate professional development for the DelSesto teachers and serve as a consultant for arts programming.

This program is facilitated by Turnaround Arts, a national program by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, in coordination with the White House, The U.S. Department of Education, and additional foundations that bring arts education to struggling elementary and middle schools across the country.

This new partnership adds to our already-established education residencies, including our Creative Classrooms initiative. Through Creative Classrooms, Natalie works with four different schools in the Providence Public School Department to assist in teaching the arts to English language learners and implement an arts integrated curriculum. It’s our belief that students who learn drama and arts skills can develop the resources needed to comprehend literature and pivotal life-skills in order to understand the world better.

Students getting ready to perform

Additionally, Trinity Rep’s education department oversees other residencies throughout the state. We’ve partnered with Classical High School in Providence for over 15 years, working with British Literature classes to better interact with and understand Shakespeare. At Rocky Hill Country Day School in East Greenwich,  we run the school’s drama program which includes two full productions every year and workshops with teaching artists. We’re also hard at work with the Providence After School Alliance where we bring drama to students at Esek Hopkins Middle School. New residencies through our TRAIN program for students with disabilities include all of the Bradley Schools (Cumberland, Portsmouth, Providence, Wakefield, and Uncasville CT) and Sargent Rehabilitation Center in West Warwick. Next month, we will start at Newport Rogers High School, too.

There are many non-school facilities that we also bring our educational expertise to, including:

  • Seven Hills of Rhode Island
  • The Autism Project
  • Bradley Hospital
  • The Providence Athenaeum

While we are unbelievably excited to work with our newest partner, DelSesto Middle School, we are proud of all of the work we do in our community with our mission of bringing the arts and arts education to the state and community in Rhode Island.