ATP: Student Matinees

ATP offers subsidized tickets to select performances throughout the season, to encourage attendance by young audiences and to extend the theatre experience to those students who may not otherwise be able to attend.

Classroom Connections are made up of three LEGACY Programs. Teachers' Guides, Student Matinees and Classroom Connections are all designed with the school curriculum in mind. Below is information on the Student Matinees offered in the 2007-2008 season.

Still Desire You by Paul Ledoux and David Young. Music by Melanie Doane. A Co-Production with Western Canada Theatre, Kamloops.

Student Matinee
October 24 & November 1, 2007 12:00 p.m.

A sparkling new musical about an old story. He wants her but does she even know he exists? Can a court order keep them apart? David Stuart's obsession with young pop superstar Rose McKay has taken over his life but has he crossed the line? Featuring a live band and the songs of Juno-Award winning Melanie Doane, Still Desire You will set the Martha Cohen a-rocking with blazing music and a story that will break your heart.

Recommended for: Grade 10 up

Oliver Twist or, the Street Boy's Progress by Charles Dickens. Adapted by Michael O'Brien.

Student Matinee
December 5, 6, 11, 12 & 19, 2007 12:00 p.m.

Follow Oliver Twist on his progress through the bustling streets of London. Escape the dreary orphanage, dodge the Artful Dodger, face the fearful Fagin and join a posse of pickpockets!
In this urban adventure filled with twists and turns, Oliver discovers the true meaning of family.
In the tradition of Treasure Island and Peter Pan, our Holiday show is a high energy adaptation of a classic story sure to captivate the entire family.

Recommended for Grade 5 and up

Meg Roe in The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien
Student Matinee
April 9 & 16, 2008 12:00 p.m.

Meet the charismatic character that has captivated audiences world-wide: Elizabeth Grace, a fearless and curious little girl who conjures 22 characters and vividly explores the epic landscape of her South African childhood. One of Canada's brightest and most engaging actors, Meg Roe, returns to the Martha Cohen Theatre with her Betty Mitchell Award winning performance in The Syringa Tree. Through Lizzy's innocence, we experience the hope in the heart-wrenching story of two families torn apart by apartheid.
The Syringa Tree has played to rave reviews around the world and earned a 2001 OBIE Award for Best Play. This celebration of family and survival transformed ATP audiences previously and is not to be missed.

Recommended for Grade 7 up

Half Life by John Mighton
Student Matinee
May 7 & 14, 2008 12:00 p.m.

Donald and Anna meet in the common room of a nursing home, visiting their widowed parents. Clara is suffering from dementia and Patrick is depressed and withdrawn but they seem to remember each other from the past and happen to have fallen in love. But when this elderly couple begins to talk of marriage, questions arise about the nature of memory, love and age. Life doesn't end when the mind fades or circumstances change - the heart still thrives.
Winner of the 2005 Governor General's Award and Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, Siminovitch Award-winning playwright John Mighton has created one of the most acclaimed Canadian works of this decade. Don't miss out on this extraordinary dramatic achievement that has won the hearts of audiences world-wide.

Recommended for Grade 10 up

Notes:

• Tickets are $12 per student
• For every 10 tickets purchased, you will receive one complimentary ticket for use by chaperones
• Classroom visits by the creative artists involved in the production can also be arranged, subject to availability and your class schedule
• Study Guides and Curriculum Links available online here
• Post show chats can be organized upon request
• Scripts are available upon request

Classroom Visits bring ATP's professional actors into the classroom. In a familiar environment, students engage the actors in wide-ranging, face-to-face discussion that embraces many aspects of the creative process and the whys and wherefores of being a professional artist.

For more information please contact Lorraine Lee, Classroom Connections Coordinator at 294-7475 or llee@ATPlive.com.

Arts Learning Opportunities: Curriculum Links:

Still Desire You
By Paul Ledoux and David Young
Music by Melanie Doane
A Co-Production with Western Canada Theatre, Kamloops

Curriculum Links:

• ELA GO 1, 2, 5
• Drama Goals I, II, III

Related Themes and Questions:

• Alienation and loneliness can lead to obsession
• Society's preoccupation with public figures like actors and musicians. Do members of the public have a right to invade stars' privacy?
• Could social constructs, which encourage public obsession with stars, be culpable for individual and/or group obsession with celebrities?
• Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality
• Virtual love-imagination or mental illness

Grade Recommendation: High School

Notes:
The play was inspired by the actual trial of a fan who stalked Anne Murray because he believed they were romantically involved. Drama students will be particularly interested in the set design necessitated by the use of flashbacks in the play, which leave almost no time for set changes.

Oliver Twist or, The Street Boy's Progress
By Charles Dickens
Adapted by Michael O'Brien

Curriculum Links:

• ELA GO 1, 2, 3, 5
• Drama Goals I, II, III
• Social Studies 9 (topic A), 11 (topic A)

Related Themes:

• Plight of the poor, particularly children, during the Industrial Revolution in England
• Connection to the modern day issue of homelessness
• Child exploitation
• Greed
• Desire to make a ‘family' in whatever set of circumstances one is placed in
• Rich versus the poor

Grade Recommendation: Grades 5-12
Certain scenes may be disturbing to younger children
(The play will be of particular interest to Grade 9 and 11 students, because of the depiction of life during the Industrial Revolution and the societal problems arising during this time period.)

Notes:
This is not the musical version of Oliver. The play's dark and gritty nature makes it an honest portrayal of poverty, homelessness and urban life. Use of choral acting and most actors playing three or more parts makes this production imaginative and inventive. The director may use a contemporary Canadian take on the play.

Meg Roe in
The Syringa Tree
By Pamela Gien

Curriculum Links:

• ELA GO 1, 2, 3, 5
• Drama Goals I, II, III

Related Themes and Questions:

• The turmoil of apartheid and it's effects on both black and white children
• Growing up
• Making sense of one's childhood as an adult
• How do childhood perceptions/memories alter/inform/guide our own perception of historical events?

Grade Recommendation: Grades 7-12

Notes:
Inspired by the true story of an attack on Gien's grandparents' farm in South Africa.
Drama students will be interested in the essentially bare stage and creative use of lighting cues to help tell the story.

Half Life
By John Mighton

Curriculum Links:

• ELA GO 1, 2, 5
• Drama Goals I, II, III

Related Themes and Questions:

• Human dignity is often taken away to "protect" the elderly from themselves
• What does it mean to be human?
• The elderly are underestimated
• The relationship between aging parents and their middle aged children questions the nature of "growing up" - how do our relationships change when we parent our parents?
• The nature of memory

Grade Recommendation: High School

Note:
Nice juxtaposition of the ‘reality' of the middle aged children and the ‘reality' of the seniors.