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Berkeley Rep Play Creation Class

Bring Berkeley Rep to your school

The School of Theatre offers a wide range of FREE* and low-cost theatre-based workshops to Bay Area schools that align with Common Core through interactive learning and goal-setting curriculum. Whether bringing dramatic text to life, developing students’ original work, or using critical thinking to reimagine our future, our professional teaching artists help students apply their creative potential to fundamental skills and concepts, challenging them to explore complex ideas and universal themes.

*Limited to one free teaching hour per public elementary, middle, and high school in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties. 

Workshops

Bring a story to life! Using sound, movement, dialogue, and improvisation, students turn the classroom into a living theatre, becoming characters in a story chosen from our reading list. This workshop introduces students to theatre and helps develop literacy and communication skills in an artistic environment.

 

Depending on availability, Story Builders has the option of a bilingual program for Spanish-speaking ELL students.

 

Note to teachers: You have the option of recommending a story from your class (as approved by Berkeley Rep staff) or you may choose from our literature selections list. 10-hour workshops may conclude with an in class sharing of work for other students or families.

How can young people activate their voices for positive change? Through collaborative creative writing prompts and critical thinking exercises, students will use playwriting and Theatre of The Oppressed techniques to craft narratives connected to real-world problems, exploring how we identify resources, brainstorm solutions, and work to en(act) brighter futures.  

 

Change Makers is appropriate for middle school students and may be tailored to specific modern or historical social movements and figures. 

Help your students unlock their public speaking and collaboration skills through acting! Using theatre games, scene work, and improvisation, students are introduced to the building blocks of theatre: self-expression, character development, text analysis and presentation skills.  

 

Acting workshops are appropriate for both beginner students and more seasoned performers. This workshop may also be tailored to specific curricular texts or learning goals. 

Discover teamwork, storytelling and spontaneity through improvisation. Using theatre games, listening exercises, improvisations, and narrative scenes, students will learn to communicate effectively and trust their impulses. Students will gain an understanding of story structure, on-your-feet problem solving, and critical listening skills that can help them be more thoughtful writers, respectful community members, confident performers, and quick thinkers.  

 

Improvisation is appropriate for both beginner actors and more seasoned performers. 

En garde! Stage Combat is an engaging and physical workshop in which students discover the fundamental tools to create the illusion of violence. Stressing safety and teamwork, students will learn from a professional fight choreographer and explore techniques including falls, ear pulls, tripping and slaps, as well as how to use stage combat as a storytelling technique. Students will learn a choreographed fight and create a scene that puts the fight in context, using partner exercises to create the illusion of violence.

Bring safe theatrical combat to your next school production! Stage combat workshops are also available as fight choreography/direction sessions for existing school performances.  

Bring stories and text to life! In this workshop series, middle and high school students create original plays, rooted in either a particular topic/novel/historical period, or a topic self-generated by the class. In this hands-on, interactive creation experience, students are taught the practical theatre skills necessary to bring a play to fruition—from acting and playwriting to collaboration and listening. This group-oriented process helps students understand how to create and perform characters while developing and structuring their own play. 

 

Performance Lab is appropriate for both first-time performers and experienced theatre students. Teachers may choose to tailor the creation process to a particular curricular text, historical subject, or theme. Performance Lab is offered as a minimum 10-hour workshop series and concludes with a culminating sharing or performance. Final play length is based on the number of scheduled workshop hours.  

There’s a future Pulitzer winner in your classroom! Immerse your students in the world of dramatic storytelling with playwrighting workshops. Through individual writing and collaborative theatre exercises, students will explore the structure of written plays, character building techniques, and methods for generating ideas. As they work to develop a basic script, students will learn how to identify and create main events, given circumstances, obstacles, motivations, and themes.  

 

Playwriting is appropriate for both first-time creative writers and experienced bards. Teachers can choose to tailor the workshop to a particular literary style, historical time-period, or studied theme. Scripts may also be focused on personal storytelling and identity. This curriculum is an excellent addition to English, theatre, social studies, and creative writing classes.  

Seeing a Berkeley Rep Show as a student group? Enhance your experience with a  pre- or post-show workshop! Before and/or after the performance, these workshops deepen engagement by introducing, exploring, and further grounding the work students see onstage at Berkeley Rep. 

Book a Workshop

Curious about if a workshop is right for your classroom? Looking for something a little different? Email outreach@berkeleyrep.org for more information.

 

Tips for teachers

We want your outreach workshop to be as successful as possible. Below is a list of tips that can help you work with your teaching artist to guarantee that you and your students get the most out of our programs.

We ask that classroom teachers:

  • Inform the School of Theatre about students with differing abilities or circumstances.
  • Remain in the classroom at all times.
  • Model active engagement for students.
  • Encourage all students to participate fully.
  • Uphold school policies, classroom expectations, and any discipline issues that may arise.
  • Review or build upon the workshop material in-between teaching artist visits (six-hour or longer workshop).

2024/25 School Year Rates

Title I Schools: $80/hr
Public Schools: $85/hr
Private Schools: $100/hr

Additional Fees and Offers

Please note that school sites further than 20 miles outside of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre radius will include a small fee to accommodate the Teaching Artist’s travel.

Additional charges may occur for organizing large school bookings, or additional curriculum development. Please email outreach@berkeleyrep.org for more information.

Special Offer

Get one free hour per public middle and high school. Based on availability.*

*Limited to one free teaching hour per public elementary, middle, and high school in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties. Free hour issued based on availability; must request at least one week in advance. Must sign and agree to Berkeley Rep School of Theatre booking agreement.

 

All Berkeley Rep In-School Residency Workshops are subsidized by our generous funders and community partners.

Lead education funders

California Arts CouncilJonathan Logan Family Foundation

Gisele & Kenneth F. Miller

The Woodlawn Foundation

Executive education funder

Koret Foundation

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