Dear Educators,
On behalf of Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, I would like to invite you to be part of our Literature Alive school field trip program for the 2022-23 season. Literature Alive is an opportunity to extend the classroom by bringing students to the theater during the day for a matinee performance. As part of your field trip experience, we are happy to provide:
See below for our offerings this season, we have shows appropriate for young children in Pre-K all the way through High School. If there is a particular date you don’t see here listed within the run of a show, please email me and we can see about making arrangements.
I look forward to welcoming you and your students!
Best,
Jill Zarcone
Director of Education, Playhouse on Park
For questions or to book your field trip, contact Jill Zarcone, Director of Education at JZarcone@PlayhouseTheatreGroup.org or 860-523-5900 x16.
Teachers and paraprofessionals chaperoning the trip attend for free!
A CHARLES DICKENS CHRISTMAS is a highly original and humorous take on A Christmas Carol that follows a young Charles Dickens, unable to find much joy in life, struggling to write the Christmas story that will become the most famous holiday tale of all time. With the intervention of a magical muse, the elements of his famous A Christmas Carol begin to take shape. Dickens learns the true meaning of Christmas and finds in his past the inspiration for his immortal holiday classic. A Charles Dickens Christmas' rich musical score is sure to put the holiday cheer into every member of the audience.
Available - December 13 - 23, Tuesday thru Friday, 10:00 am and 12:30pm
(12:30 performance unavailable on 12/14 and 12/21)
Book & Lyrics by Joan Ross Sorkin
Music by Mary Liz McNamara
World Premiere!
This musical, adapted by the children's book by Don Freeman, tells the story of Dandelion, a shy, awkward lion. He is filled with middle school angst when he is invited to Jennifer Giraffe’s impromptu party. Dandelion decides to reinvent himself, but ultimately discovers it is better just to be yourself! In addition to the theme of being yourself, the musical raises issues of bullying and social exclusion.
Available - April 25 - May 12, Tuesday thru Friday, 10:00am and 12:30pm
(excluding Wednesday, May 3 and May 10 at 12:30pm)
by Lanie Robertson
The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday’s last performances, given four months before her death. In Robertson’s Tony award-winning play, Holiday engages the audience with salty, often humorous reminiscences of her troubled life as a traveling performer in a segregated south. With the help of her piano man, Jimmy Powers, she lets music tell her story, sharing soulful and heart-wrenching songs from her memorable canon including: “Strange Fruit,” “God Bless the Child,” “When a Woman Loves a Man,” and “Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do.”
Available - Wednesday, 10/5 (though this day is Yom Kippur)
Thursday, 10/6 | Friday, 10/7 | Wednesday, 10/12 | Thursday, 10/13| Friday 10/14
@ 10am or 11am
by August Wilson
Set in segregated Pittsburgh in the 1950s, Fences depicts the life of Troy Maxson, a former Negro League baseball star now scraping by as a sanitation worker. A towering figure facing thwarted aspirations, Troy attempts to assert control in his life through his relationships with his wife and son. But even as he takes responsibility for their safety and well-being, he betrays them each in ways that will forever alter their lives. Part of August Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle, Fences explores the walls we build around ourselves and our loved ones, while also illuminating one family’s struggles in a racist society. Fences is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, two-time Tony Award-winner, and one of the most groundbreaking plays of the 20th century.
Available - Wednesday, 11/9 (10 or 11am) | Thursday, 11/10 (11am)
Friday, 11/11 (11am) | Wednesday, 11/16 (10 or 11am) | Thursday, 11/17 (11am)
Friday 11/18 (11am)