START TO STRIKE
The purpose of this educational outreach initiative is to provide a complete experience in a theatre, while integrating the experience into multi-discipline area of education. The Canton Palace Theatre and New Direction Performing Arts Academy help guide students through this theatrical Journey with activities that will teach them how to, write an adaptation, act, design, direct, market, etc. They will learn to explore the purpose of the play and the idea that desires to be expressed. The ultimate goal is to provide students with a complete guided experience, but also give them the time and space for self-discovery throughout the process. Students and directors will select a Fairy Tale that is in public domain or completely create their own story and learn to adapt the story into their own work of Art!
Students will study the historical backgrounds, plot development, storyline, character analysis and character relationships, in order to develop a story “adaptation”, designs for a set, costumes, props, lights, sound, marketing and much more. By integrating Language arts with the Theatrical arts students will be more engaged and excited to learn in class and improvements in test scores and involvement will take place in and out of the classroom. The event will culminate in the spring of each year with a live academic based production at the Canton Palace Theatre, in addition to this performance that will be open to the public, we will also offer and market to the area schools field trip opportunities that come with cross curricular study guides to help them enjoy a creative, fun academic learning experience. The study guide we provide will include integrating projects for, language arts, math and science. Example, if we adapted Rapunzel we could have a math problem in the study Guide for the class to figure out: How long is Rapunzel’s Hair, how long did it take to grow, etc. they can reveal the answer to us during the question and answer time after the play.
Since its inception in 2016, Stark to Strike has been in Canton South High School, Central Catholic High School, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Malvern Middle School and Canton Country Day School.
THEATRE ETIQUETTE
Annually, we provide a complimentary behind the scenes tour and discussion on proper Theatre etiquette for the Camp C.H.A.M.P participants. Camp C.H.A.M.P is run by Simply Youth, a consulting organization that conducts market research and develops and implements youth programs. About 75 percent of participants in the program are from low- to moderate-income families, according to Terrance Jones, director of Simply Youth.
CANTON FILM FEST
The Canton Film Festival is an annual event help each spring to connect local filmmakers and students to industry professionals from all over the country. We currently work with local film professors from area universities who have contacts in the film industry, and to partner with our area and national film festivals, to help us achieve this goal. Since 2010 we have brought over 10,000 attendees and industry professionals such as Eddie McClintock, Brannon Braga and Bruno Gunn to name a few . Through this annual event, conversations have begun about establishing a Canton Film Commission which would actively solicit production companies to film here in Stark County.
