School Partnerships with Imagination Stage

Imagination Stage is proud to serve children beyond our four walls in downtown Bethesda, offering offsite programming aimed at overcoming both financial and distance barriers students may face to arts education. Residencies are developed by our education department, which works hand in hand with each school to create a program that properly fulfills that school’s particular needs. 

The goal of in-school residencies is not only to teach students theatrical skills and concepts, but also to help shape them into full, empathetic human beings and connect our work to what they are already doing during normal class hours. A typical class session mirrors our onsite classes with a warm-up, games, drama activity or scene work, and a cooldown. Certain residencies are specifically focused on socio-emotional learning (often through puppetry!) or on supplementing students’ academic learning. 

“It's been wonderful seeing how our programming helps students to gain confidence and build connections with their classmates.” Said Bekah Elles, Imagination Stage’s Associate Director of Off-Site Programming.

And our staff aren’t the only ones who have noticed the difference our programming makes for students. Classroom teachers involved have told us how “meaningful” the program is and how they have watched the “confidence,” “participation,” “motivation,” “focus,” and “writing” of their students grow throughout our residency. One teacher even wrote:

I loved having my students in the Imagination Stage group! The puppets group helped all 3 of my students who were in the group with their self-awareness and emotional regulation. It was also very beneficial for me as the classroom teacher to have others work with these students so that we could collaborate in order to best support the students. The students looked forward to the group every week.

School partnership programs provide artistic opportunities many students would not be able to access otherwise. “There are so many students who would never even know that Imagination Stage exists if it weren't for our residency program,” said Torin Lusorio, our School Partnerships Manager.

Currently, our two main residencies are at Bancroft and Powell Elementary Schools. We have been partnered with Bancroft for nine years, providing programming in music, movement, drama, and visual arts to all six of their early childhood classrooms. At Powell, we are in our second year providing a similar style of programming to their young students, with the addition of yoga integrated into that curriculum. Both programs are Spanish and English bilingual, so our teaching artists integrate songs and books in Spanish into their lessons.

“We strive to provide an arts integration experience where students are not only getting to experience an Imagination Stage class but also utilizing the arts to delve further into school topics,” said Bekah.

To showcase what they learned, students involved in our long-term school partnership programs participate in an end-of-year performance for their families. At Bancroft last year, this performance coincided with the classes’ Trees unit, so students acted out the story of "The Busy Year" by Leo Lionni, sang songs in both English and Spanish about the changing seasons, and created backdrops of trees throughout the seasons in visual arts class. 

In addition to our elementary school residencies, Imagination Stage partners with middle and high schools, including Cardozo Education Campus. We have been working with multilingual learners at Cardozo for three years through our Theatre for Change Program Oyéme and have provided arts programming for middle school students for two years through Learning Lab Fridays. 

Imagination Stage goes beyond simply providing programming for schools to create long-term, cooperative partnerships with them, which we value very highly. We hope to spend many more years building our existing relationships with Bancroft, Powell, and Cardozo, as well as developing sustainable, lasting partnerships with other schools in the DMV area so we may continue reaching new students and breaking barriers to arts education.

Our residency programs are available for PreK-Grade 12, and details and prices are determined based on each school’s needs. If your school is interested in partnering with Imagination Stage, please contact Bekah Elles at [email protected].