Welcome to the

Department of Theatre

at the

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

Outreach and Engagement

• We are currently teaching an Outreach class called THEATRE IN DIVERSION. This course, which is led by Professor Nancy Jones, is a Service-Learning Class. UK Theatre students and Prof. Jones are working with at risk juveniles in this pilot program for Fayette County Courts. Through this program, high schools students are diverted from the court system by studying in a character-building program. In this case, theatre is being used to incorporate team building, increase confidence, learn about actions and consequences, and to develop values and character enhancing traits.

• The Department of Theatre is working with GEAR UP KENTUCKY, to teach theatre to students at four middle schools in Fayette County, in an after school program that encourages college readiness in middle school students. This Service Learning course allows undergraduate theatre students to develop their theatre skills and techniques in order to teach them to others. The four middle school classes will culminate with an on-campus performance in the Guignol Theatre on the UK campus.

• The Department of Theatre produced Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in December 2006. As part of our Outreach and Education program, we offered two matinees for high school students on December 6 and December 8. Eight hundred high school students from across the region were on campus during those two days to see the performance. The director and dramaturgs provided “teacher packets” to aid the high school instructors with themes and discussion ideas based on their detailed research of the play, the playwright and the time period.

• In the fall semester The Belle of Amherst, a senior project for one of our acting students was performed as a tour across the region in area high schools.

• The Department of Theatre hosted Kentucky Theatre Association Fall Conference in November 2006. The Community Theatre Competition, as well as the High School Drama Competition for a dozen Kentucky High Schools was held during the weekend festival. In addition, the UK Department of Theatre faculty taught workshops over the course of two days to high school students.

• The UK Department of Theatre is currently developing a series of workshops, lecture/demonstrations and performances that will be offered to Kentucky high schools. These events will directly link to the English and Drama Curriculum in the schools. The Department of Theatre will offer a variety of classes and workshops such as:
  
  • Acting Workshops
  • Character Development and Scene Study
  • Make-Up for the Stage
  • Costume Design and Construction
  • Scenic Design ideas for intimate space

The Department of theatre is working with the Sanders Center on Aging at UK – to create a play that works with the African American community and incorporates themes of Alzheimers and demntia.

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