Educational Theatre Foundation / May 2019
Roberts Academy and Oyler Community Learning Center were chosen by the Educational Theatre Foundation for their JumpStart Theatre program, an after school musical theatre program for middle school students. The Foundation provides funding, training, and other technical assistance to provide access to quality theatre to underserved communities. Both sites performed Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. in the first year of the program and ended the 2019 school year with Annie. Teachers, partners, and community members assisted in every aspect of the production and families filled every seat of both the dress rehearsal and final production.
At Roberts Academy in Cincinnati, the student body is from 12 different countries; 65 percent are recent Guatemalan immigrants. Roberts joined JST primarily to use musical theatre to help teach
English to students. A rousing performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR.showed that it worked. Rebecca Stutzman, a Roberts teacher, says that academic performance improved in spring 2018 thanks to this first-time experience for Roberts’ students.
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