CONGRATULATIONS OPEN DOORS PARTICIPANTS!
“I am not a theatre person so I had a lot to learn from the many plays we attended and the lively discussions that followed. I had no idea there were so many great theatres in Arizona and that theatre was something available to me and that I would find so enjoyable.”
Brad Wood – Mountain Ridge HS
Brad Wood rarely experienced entertainment without a TV or a movie screen. He never realized she could applaud so loudly or learn so much from art. But he did and so did nineteen other students that year. Over the past eight years, the Open Doors Project has taken one hundred students who had never experienced professional theatre before to a total of eighty-four performances. And this year so many more can not only follow in their footsteps, but even surpass previous Open Doors expectations. Due to generous grants received from The Scottsdale League for the Arts and the Joseph Stanley Leeds Foundation, this exciting project will host twenty students in Tucson and sixty students in Phoenix. All participating students will see five theatrical performances and create lasting relationships with each other and the theatre.
Open Doors is a venture to take high school students to see a variety of professional performing arts events in Phoenix and Tucson. The project is named after the late playwright Wendy Wasserstein who conducted a similar program in New York City. The Open Doors project lives on both in New York City and in an incarnation here in Arizona. In keeping with Ms. Wasserstein’s original model, students are chosen who have not had any previous access to professional theatre and are not aspiring to be artists. The students are a true representation of our community, with a diversity of cultures and gender. After attending each performance, the students participate in an active discussion with the project leaders. Upon completion of the project, participating students from the each school will present a culminating project at an Arizona Theatre Company location to demonstrate their understanding of theatre in their lives. The goal is to glean insights from the young people about what impact the arts has on their lives and to give these students a chance to experience new adventures.
Information for students selected to participate in Open Doors 2010
Congratulations on being chosen to take part in Open Doors. On behalf of Arizona Theatre Company let me welcome you to this exciting program. As a participant you can look forward to seeing some of the finest professional theatre that Phoenix and Tucson have to offer.
What is expected of an OPEN DOORS Participant?
- Please be on time. The meeting time and location will be determined by your school's OPEN DOORS mentor.
- Attendance at each event. If you are unable to attend an event, please let your mentor teacher or ATC mentor know as soon as possible so that we can notify the alternate OPEN DOORS Participants.
- Appropriate behavior and etiquette. Remember, you are not going to the mall with buddies, you are attending a live theatre performance. Please dress accordingly.
- Final Project participation. At the end of this program, your school's participants will present a group final project. Your participation is expected.
- Please be active participants in each discussion. Come prepared by reviewing the play guide provided for each performance. Also, please welcome and be respectful of all ideas voiced at the discussions.
- Be open-minded, enjoy and soak up this once in a lifetime experience.
Schedules
Lose your OPEN DOORS schedule? Don't worry. Click on the name of your school below and see what event you have next.
Play Guides
Have you always wanted to know more about the playwright? What about how the musical was created? Do you long to find out about opera etiquette? Click on the performance title below to find out more about each OPEN DOORS event.
THANK YOU TO THE JOSEPH STANLEY LEEDS FOUNDATION AND THE SCOTTSDALE LEAGUE FOR THE ARTS FOR THEIR CONTINUED SUPPORT OF THE WASSERSTEIN PROJECT.
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