In-School Student Residencies

ENACT's student programs are conducted within a classroom setting for grades K-12. Using ENACT's signature role-play techniques and theatre games, students learn to create scenes and use improvisational drama to constructively address obstacles to learning. Residencies can run anywhere from a week to 15 weeks, and are customized to the particular needs of each school.

The ENACT Teaching Artists work to create a safe place for self-expression, which can, in turn, lead to self-awareness. Students learn to reflect on, and communicate, feelings, identify decision-making moments, recognize the impact of their actions, self-regulate their behavior, and navigate toward positive outcomes.

ENACT also offers programs after-school, and on Saturdays, but it prefers to work within the context of the school day, where it is easier for students to participate.

Long term Whole School Partnerships (1-5 years):

In these partnerships, ENACT teaching artists and program coordinators work as full partners with teachers, parents, and administrators to help create safe and nurturing school environments, of which students are excited to be a part. With an on-going, on-site presence in the schools, ENACT's artists and staff can create lasting mentor-like relationships, allowing them to play an important role in the students' growth into self-aware, self-confident members of their community.

One example of these Long Term Partnerships is a collaborative initiative with the United Way of New York City’s Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention program (AIDP). Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, the AIDP program gave ENACT an opportunity to help improve attendance at five New York City schools: Far Rockaway High School in Queens, Humanities and the Arts Magnet High School in Queens, New Preparatory Middle School for Technology and the Arts in Queens, IS 229 in the Bronx, and IS 164 in Manhattan.

The program is designed specifically to deal with students whose low attendance flags them as likely candidates to drop out. Through the ENACT method of theatre games and scene work, the artists help students identify the issues that keep them from attending school, and the emotions behind those issues, be it fear of violence in the building or on the way to school, or their own fears and insecurities about their ability to excel academically.

As students work on social emotional skills, they demonstrate learning outcomes in 2 to 6 mini-performances throughout the school year. These performances are often done as “open classrooms,” for which other ENACT staffers, as well as teachers and parents, serve as the audience. Later in the year, the young people get to put on a full performance for the community. The added benefit of the performances is that, by working as directors, writers, stage managers, house staff, backstage assistants, designers or actors, these specially designed performances teach the basic tenets of—and responsibilities within—theatre.