Academic Service Learning Project Contract

EMU Communication Capstone Course, Winter 2019

Project Title: All the World’s a Stage: 2019-2020 Theatre Education Workshop Planning
Agency Name and Address: All the World’s a Stage, 40027 Aynesley, Clinton Twp., MI 48038

Agency Representative Name/Contact Info: Lou Fazzini 586-243-2253, loufazzini@mac.com

Student Name/Contact Info: Emily Gilbert, 586-484-9690, egilber5@emich.edu

Capstone Professor: Dr. Jeannette Kindred, 734-487-4225, jkindred@emich.edu

Description of the Agency, Mission, and Community:

All the World’s a Stage (ATWAS for short) mission is to “teach life skills through theatre arts education
(atwas.org).” To do this, they create innovative and artistic programs in hopes to enrich and reward the
lives of young people. They hold the belief that all children have the opportunity to reach their full
potential by providing an environment that nurtures their creativity skills. The organization goals are to
promote arts education, provide professional opportunities for theatre artist, present quality theatrical
experiences for community members and develop a community with educational partnerships. ATWAS
serves the community of 1st grade to 12th grade) in the Macomb County area.

Description of the Project and the Need that the Project will fill:

This capstone will be a program development project. The main goal for this is to provide step by step
lesson plans for theatre teachers to use in the All the World’s a Stage workshops. This, in return, creates a
more consistent outcome of class skills learned (no matter who is teaching the class). Some examples of
class skills that will be research and implemented will include: Improvisation, characterization skills,
tools of a professional actor, technical theatre and guidance to outside professional theatre opportunities
The hope is to make sure that the kid who took the workshop in 2019 and the kids who will take the 2020
workshops, learn the same theatrical skills. In return, this will create more continuity for the organizations
educational components.

Student Responsibilities:

• Research most sought out acting skills to learn

• Research/create valuable (but easy to learn) games/activity to promote said skills
• Create easy to follow lesson plans that anyone could follow and understand
• Create lesson plans flexible enough for different groups of young people

Student Learning Objectives:

 Be able to identify keys skills for young actors

 Creating a lesson plan that can be used within a specific grade
 Actively apply skills learned within both majors (Theatre Arts and Communication)
 Learn what it takes to run a non-profit theatre company and how I could start my own
someday
Agency Responsibilities:

 Provide feedback to student and instructor

 Provide what has been successful in the past and advise on what hasn’t worked
(discussing limitations of the project).
 Providing student with mentors who have taught ATWAS workshops before
 Checking to make sure lessons match the organizations goals
 Provide materials that will help the lesson planning process

Timeline:

 Final Contract: February 13th, 2019

 Meeting with board on February 24th 2019 to communicate goals
 Research February 24th-March 20th
 Lesson Approval: March 22nd
 Applying lesson plans: week of March 24th
 Completion: First week of April