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Read reviews about past events and articles about our work at InterAct Story Theatre. Press Scroll Down Click on any of the items below to read reviews about past events and articles about our work. Read review for The Hero of Everything Read review for Bobtail BONG BONG Read review for Voytto Tech Read reviews of The Legend of Pufferfish Pat Read reviews of One Gold Coin Article: "Take Ten with Ali Oliver-Krueger Article: "Accessible Arts"

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One Gold Coin–Una moneda de oro Click Here to read the review by DC Theater Arts Five Stars! September 12, 2016 “My children loved the opportunity to sing, clap, create drum rolls, and otherwise become part of the story. InterAct does a great job of allowing children to actively participate in the theater experience, with interactive crafts set up in the lobby before and after the show and a list of discussion questions in the program for parents to use as discussion starters after the show...One Gold Coin – Una moneda de oro is a delightful show and I would highly recommend it to parents...” Click Here to read the review by Theatre Bloom Five Stars! September 12, 2016 “Working to serve the company’s mission of actively involving young audiences in the production in a way that is interactive, Director Ali Oliver-Krueger and her performance team of three achieve the high standard set by this statement and the result is a fantastical time for everyone in attendance. From pre-show Gold-Coin making activities to the chance to be a part of the plot by singing, gesturing, and other interactive moments, Oliver-Krueger ensures that everyone who sees the show gets the maximum InterAct Story experience from doing so.” Click Here to read the Preview by DC Theater Arts August 23, 2016 “It is an amazing opportunity for InterAct Story Theatre’s local artists to perform for their hometown community, and it’s a wonderful opportunity for local audiences to enjoy a play that has delighted thousands of children throughout the region.” < Back to Press

Staff Workshops & Trainings. Professional Development for Teachers, Artists, and Care Providers. Online programs available. Staff Workshops & Trainings As experts in arts integration and linking the arts with classroom learning, InterAct Story Theatre provides professional development opportunities for teachers, artists, and child care providers. For information about professional development residencies, intensives and institutes, please click here . If you'd like to know about our 60-minute, 90-minute, 3 hour or full professional development workshops, please scroll down! InterAct Story Theatre is an approved provider of Core of Knowledge training through the Maryland Office of Child Care; if you are a Maryland provider or center interested in hosting a training, please contact us or request more info about which trainings are eligible for Core of Knowledge clock hours. New training workshops are being added. Please check back soon, or contact us or request more info ! REQUEST MORE INFO Professional Development for Teachers, Artists, and Care Providers Books Alive for Little Ones: Building Language and Literacy Skills through Drama and Music Grades preK-1 and early childhood care providers With Ali Oliver-Krueger Early Childhood teachers, Head Start teachers, and child care providers are asked not only prepare children for school readiness to provide expert care, but also to implement a wide variety of classroom curricula. In this workshop, participants will explore how imaginative exploration of books and stories through drama and music can help build language and literacy skills, and will learn techniques they can use to lead children in acting out stories in their own words. (OCC 3 curriculum clock hours) Creating Casual Opera in the Classroom: Building Reading Comprehension and Writing Skills through Music & Drama Grades K-5 and 6-8 With Ali Oliver-Krueger In this workshop emphasizing character traits and motivations, mood, emotions, and interior monologue (for older students), teachers learn techniques through which they can lead students in examining text, making inferences, and then applying those inferences to create casual classroom operatic scenes. This work is especially strong for Reading/Language Arts and Social Studies, and has been implemented successfully with students from ages 4 and up. Drama Games for the Student Brain Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 Available Online! With Ali Oliver-Krueger In this training, participants learn simple yet engaging strategies that can be implemented in the classroom and adapted or expanded to address a plethora of goals and objectives. Particular emphasis is placed on articulating the rationale for drama gaming in the classroom and on providing participants with concrete strategies they can use right away to promote learning and help develop a wide range of skills. (OCC 3 curriculum clock hours) Picture This: Creating Effective Classroom Tableaux Grades 4 & up With Ali Oliver-Krueger A hallmark among strong readers is the ability to visualize and develop mental images of the actions and events described in texts. The creative drama strategy of tableaux fosters visualization skills and encourages students to develop and present strong sensory images, thereby strengthening understanding of text and allowing students to gain a deeper connection to the text. This strategy can be adapted to a variety of content areas, and is especially valuable in working with informational text. This workshop is also available as part of a professional development arts coaching residency. Reader's Theatre for Young Readers: A Creative Drama Approach Grades PreK-2 Available Online! With Ali Oliver-Krueger Readers Theatre offers students opportunities to interact with text and build oral fluency. It provides repeated reading practice, which is a key factor in building fluency. Repeated reading practice also improves students’ and enthusiasm for reading and confidence in themselves as good readers. But how to implement Readers' Theatre with young readers whose skills are just developing? In this training, Ms. Oliver-Krueger leads participants through a creative drama-based process in which teachers develop and perform engaging readers' theatre scripts with their students. In this workshop, teachers discover how to create and host an imaginary talk show, "Books Alive!", in their classrooms. Students portray characters from a book and answer questions in role. The questions encourage the students to make predictions, draw inferences and examine the theme of the text. An amazingly fun way to achieve and assess reading comprehension! Jump Start Creative Writing Through Creative Drama Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12, adult education Available Online! With Ali Oliver-Krueger Sometimes the hardest part of writing is just getting started! In this professional development workshop led by InterAct Story Theatre’s Executive & Artistic Director Ali Oliver-Krueger, participants learn by playing and creating stories on the spot, exploring strategies that spark creativity and address prewriting skills, oral composition and discourse, speaking and listening skills. We'll engage in warm-up activities for getting brains moving quickly and flexibly, and strategies for facilitating brainstorming and collaborative composition, and tips for dramatizing stories as a way to review and identify points of revision. These include concrete, easy-to-apply "bite sized strategies" that teachers can apply quickly in a few minutes, expand into full arts-integrated lessons and units, or even use to springboard students into creative projects and deeper exploration of content. Music Detectives: Practicing Inferencing Skills through Music and Active Listening Grades K-5 and 6-8 With Ali Oliver-Krueger The ability to look beyond what is explicitly stated in order to make inferences is one of the key characteristics of strong readers, and is consistently one of the biggest challenges faced by struggling and reluctant readers today. This powerful strategy combines active listening, movement, and music to give students valuable practice in making inferences. Participants will learn the process of a Music Detectives lesson: learning and applying basic elements of music to examine musical samples, searching for clues, reading between the lines to make inferences, and then citing specific evidence from the "text" to support their theories. By giving students a chance to practice making inferences away from written text, we help students gain skills in predicting, drawing conclusions, and hazarding educated guesses, so that they can bring those skills to written text with greater confidence. Reading Between the Lines: Building Inferencing Skills through Music and Drama Grades K-5 and 6-8 With Ali Oliver-Krueger This workshop combines the strategies of Music Detectives and Creating Casual Opera, offering teachers a comprehensive approach to building reading comprehension and writing skills through drama. Teachers learn techniques to prompt inferences through active listening, acting, and simple composition. These strategies can be learned and applied by non-musicians and music enthusiasts alike! Black Belt Tableaux: Advanced Tableaux Skills for Assessment and the Common Core Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 With Ali Oliver-Krueger Tableaux and Living Statues are among the first creative drama strategies that many teachers learn for integrating drama with classroom curriculum. But are you and your students getting the most you can out of this powerful and endlessly adaptable strategy?Designed primarily for teachers who have had some exposure to Tableaux, Living Statues, and/or Artful Thinking routines, this workshop explores advanced adaptations and extensions such as Conflict Webs and Statues, Internal/External Conflict, The Human Video Feed, Tableaux games, and effective uses of Tableaux as Assessment. In the half-day and full day workshops, teachers also have an opportunity to discuss and workshop ongoing work with this strategy, to brainstorm with Ms. Oliver-Krueger and their peers for ways to fine-tune and freshen up existing plans. This workshop is also available as part of a professional development arts coaching residency. A Creative Drama Approach to Reader's Theatre Grades K-8 Available Online! With Ali Oliver-Krueger This workshop introduces simple creative-drama based techniques through which teachers can lead students in developing, planning and performing Readers' Theatre presentations rooted in literary text or content curricula. Readers' Theatre offers students opportunities to interact with text and build oral fluency. It provides repeated reading practice, which is a key factor in building fluency. Repeated reading practice also improves students’ and enthusiasm for reading and confidence in themselves as good readers. The process of developing and performing original Readers' Theatre scripts also gives students a fun, creative way to not only build their understanding of a text or topic but also demonstrate their understanding to others. Informational OPERAtunities: Exploring Informational Text through Music and Drama With Ali Oliver-Krueger Informational text can sometimes feel dry, and motivating students to dive in can seem like a daunting task. How can we inspire students to embrace informational text with the curiosity and zeal of artists? Many of the best composers, playwrights and performers dive into informational text and research to create artistic work by reading between the lines to imagine the actions, emotions, motivations and conversations. In this workshop, teachers learn techniques through which they can lead students in approaching informational texts like artists: examining sources, building knowledge, making inferences, and then applying those inferences to create casual classroom operatic scenes that breathe life into the topic through music and drama. A portion of the workshop is dedicated to brainstorming and planning practical applications for the classroom; teachers are encouraged to bring an example of informational text or curriculum planning materials they might like to explore with their students. < Back to InterAct in Schools

Penny Russell Penny Russell has worked as a writer, director and performer with the Blue Sky Puppet Theatre since 1994. She performs with Good Life Theatre, with whom she just completed a three year run at Wolf Trap, and sings with the Swing Set Trio and the Roland Cumberland Orchestra. Past performing credits include Bread and Puppet Theater, The Other Opera Company, Adventure Theatre and The Puppet Company at Glen Echo. Penny has worked as a director and performer for Seize the Day: Mixed Abilities Performance, Quest 4 Arts, Camp Jabberwocky on Martha's Vineyard, Camp Tulgey Wood on Nantucket, and the Iona Community in Scotland. In addition to teaching and performing with InterAct Story Theatre, Penny is a teaching artist with the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts and with ArtsStream. Puppetry Teaching & Performing Artist Back

Nancy Krebs Nancy Krebs started her professional acting career in 1975 with The Tender Trap at the Garland Dinner Theatre in Columbia, Maryland. From there, she was part of the ensemble that won an Emmy Award for the PBS television series, ONCE UPON A TOWN in 1976. She has performed in film, television, radio and on the stage continuously since the mid-seventies. She has worked in summer stock and regional theatre, notably at Center Stage in Baltimore and Alaska Repertory Theatre, traveling all over the state of Alaska before joining InterAct Story Theatre in 1982. Currently, in addition to being a company member of InterAct Story Theatre, she teaches voice production and musical theatre at the Baltimore School for the Arts, is a certified Lessac Instructor (voice), and runs her own studio, THE VOICEWORKS. She has served as the Vocal/Dialect coach for several professional and university productions in the Baltimore/Washington area, as well as serving as the Musical Director/Vocal Coach for all productions in the theatre department at the School for the Arts. Workshops: Songbuilding, Songbuilding Parent-Staff-Child Workshop Music Teaching & Performing Artist Back

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Anabel Milton Anabel Milton (she/her/hers) is a Silver Spring-based actor, singer, and teaching artist who believes strongly in the power of the arts and storytelling to foster connection, community, and empathy among human beings. Anabel is a graduate of Skidmore College, where she earned a BS in Theater and BA in psychology. Anabel is an enthusiastic and longtime student of classical voice, and also enjoys singing jazz and international folk. Anabel has previously studied at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, and at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. She also performed at the 2018 InterHarmony Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy, and joined the Acting Company of the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Annapolis, MD in 2019. Anabel is passionate about working with young people, and has for many years in a variety of roles. Anabel especially enjoys working in early childhood, but has experience working with students of all ages and abilities and hopes to use her studies in psycholinguistics, clinical psychology, and child development to continue advocating for accessibility in theater spaces and in theater for young audiences. She is also is deeply passionate about trauma relief, crisis prevention, and promotion of mental health awareness for youth, and hopes to be an advocate in her work for individuals struggling with depression and anxiety. Drama Teaching & Performing Artist Back

Looking for opportunities with InterAct Story Theatre? We want to hear from you! Work with Us Scroll Down Call for Performing Artists and Ensembles: Wheaton Family Theatre Series InterAct Story Theatre is looking for artists and ensembles interested in performing as part of the Wheaton Family Theatre Series, a free performing arts series for kids and families produced by InterAct. The series has included theatre, storytelling, clowning, West African drumming and dance, global percussion, opera, capoeira, and more, and seeks to reflect the diverse community of Wheaton back to its audiences. Performances take place on weekends in the fall, and last no more than 45 minutes. All programs will take place virtually, and must be family-friendly. Interested performers and ensembles should submit program information including program description, photo and/or sample video (if available), and performance fee rates to info@interactstory.com with the subject header Wheaton Submission. To learn more about InterAct Story Theatre and our core values of Humans treating Humans like Humans, visit our About Us page . Thank you! Volunteer Opportunities We are always looking for volunteers to help during events and help with other projects at InterAct Story Theatre. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact at info@interactstory.com or fill out our mailing list form in our page footer and be sure to check the volunteer box!

Voytto Tech: a scifi fable on bullying Click Here to read the review by DC Theater Arts September 20, 2018 "Audience members get several chances to be part of the story, helping to propel the action onstage through physical and verbal cues." Click Here to read the review by Theatre Bloom Five Stars! September 18, 2018 "It’s a remarkable and innovative piece of theatre that addresses issues with which all children are faced in this present day and age. How to survive as an individual and what to do when your individuality gets you bullied. InterAct Story Theatre has an extraordinary show on their hands with a powerful message, and together the whole thing is simply out of this world.” Click Here to read the review by Adventure Moms September 15, 2018 "Voytto Tech combines science technology and art to breach the topics of bullying and social inequality." < Back to Press

Master Classes, Clinics, and Lecture-Demonstrations for Performing Arts Students and Developing Artists Clinics & Master Classes When they are not teaching, many InterAct Story Theatre artists are creating artistic work and performing professionally with respected companies throughout the region. Several of our artists are directors of their own arts companies, and have won recognition and awards for their craft. A masterclass or clinic with an InterAct Story Theatre master artist can be a great way to help your arts students move forward, provide real-world professional insight and feedback on student work, or to pursue specific skills and topics in your theatre, music, or dance classes. For more information about specific topics, or to inquire into artist availability for master classes and clinics, please contact us or request more info ! REQUEST MORE INFO Sample Master Classes, Clinics, and Lecture-Demonstrations for Performing Arts Students and Developing Artists Master Class leaders and clinicians, and their areas of expertise: Kelly King , dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director of Contradiction Dance and co-founder of The Movement Movement: choreography, modern dance Ali Oliver-Krueger , Executive/Artistic Director of InterAct Story Theatre: vocal music, theatre, acting/actor coaching, directing, audition preparation for actors and singers, playwriting, theatre management/arts administration. Tom Teasley , award-winning composer, world musician, and percussionist: world music, percussion, combining digital looping with live performance. Emily Townsend , Artistic Administrator, Literary Manager, and Resident Dramaturg of InterAct Story Theatre: dramaturgy, theatre criticism < Back to InterAct in Schools

World Music and Dance World Music & Dance InterAct has enchanted audiences for years with our story theatre productions, plays and storytelling performances. As we begin our fourth decade of arts for young audiences, we're celebrating the talents of our wonderful teaching artists and adding programs in Music, Dance and Multidisciplinary/Hybrid performances. We'll be adding more programs soon! Drumming Through Time and Across Cultures with Tom Teasley (programs for grades PreK-12) Available Online! Join award-winning composer and world percussionist Tom Teasley on a unique journey through the history of percussion from around the world! Audiences travel the Silk Road from Italy to China and follow the Sugar Trade Route from Africa to the Americas. This program for all ages combines ancient instruments with the most recent advances in music technology, including digital looping. Audiences are captivated as Tom creates and records performances in real time, layering elements to create virtual percussion ensembles of up to five “performers”. Described in the Washington Post as “a percussionist in the widest and most exuberant sense of the word”, Tom is a two-time recipient of the Helen Hayes Theatre Award for Outstanding Sound Design and a three-time recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes grant for performances in the Middle East. For more information Contact us or request more info . Featured Plays Stories on Stage World Music Family Programs < Back to InterAct in Schools