The Oklahoma Children’s Theatre is offering opportunities for students to get involved in their programs.
Applications are open for students to be a part of the local theater’s Page to Stage, summer camp, after-school classes, and Winter and Spring Break camps.
Mercedes Arndt, acting senior, is in charge of the after-school classes. Arndt said they travel to three schools: Putnam Heights Elementary School on Wednesdays, Wilson Elementary School on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Eugene Field Elementary School on Fridays.
“The after-school program is eight to nine weeks of teaching the students theater basics, improv, musical theater, and more,” Arndt said. “We’ll play improv games, sing, dance, and go over what theater is.”
Arndt said she was excited to take over the after-school program.
“I enjoy having a sense of ownership over something,” Arndt said. “I created a whole new curriculum. It was a challenge I really wanted to take on.”
Mollie Reid, education director at Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, said the programs always have two adults in the room, a lead teacher and an assistant.
“Our biggest program comes in the summer when we offer 12 weeks of camp,” Reid said. “OCU students serve as assistant teachers to begin with. There are opportunities for students to move to co-teachers and even teachers if they continue working with our program.”
Adelaide Ross, acting senior, said she started as a teaching assistant at the 2018 summer camp. Ross said the duties of being a teaching assistant include leading the children to their class, eating lunch with them and helping out during class time.
“I was assigned a group of kids every week, and each week would be a different class. I had a dance class, a Spanish class, a film class, everything,” Ross said. “It’s so cool to see the kids in all the different classes. It basically covered the bases of whatever the kids might be interested in.”
The camp helps children gain self-confidence, make new friends and acquire different skills, Ross said.
Ross was also a part of Page to Stage, a semester-long literacy theater program that teaches kindergarten through second graders theater skills, reading and more in their classrooms.
“For the second graders, we read them a story and do a bunch of activities afterward. We teach them cause and effect, the sequence of events in the story and vocab. There are certain criteria that we have to meet for the academic standards for Oklahoma public schools,” Ross said. “At the end of the week, OCT brings in the play of the book they read, Freckle Juice. They also get to keep the book.”
Arndt said, although she enjoys teaching theater, it is not always easy.
“I have learned that it’s one thing to do theater all the time, but it’s another thing to teach it,” Arndt said. “Theater is more abstract and doesn’t always have concrete answers like teaching math would. I’m always surprised by how smart the kids are.”
Ross said her favorite part about working for Oklahoma Children’s Theatre is seeing the children perform at the end of the week.
“The moment of seeing what they created and how proud they are of it is the best feeling,” Ross said. “It’s so rewarding to know that they’ll continue to do things like that and create their own art. It’s the best.”
Reid said any student with a passion for working with children and who wants to get involved may contact her at mollie@oklahomachildrenstheatre.org, or may visit the “get involved” section of OCT’s website, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org. Applications for summer camp staff are due by Jan. 18.
“Our goal at OCT is to instill a love of the arts in the children of our community,” Reid said. “We believe that the students that work with us leave with a better understanding of the art forms themselves, and a knowledge of how to effectively share the arts with children.”
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