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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

Online Out of School Time for MSAC review: Mama-San Stories Thank you for reviewing this online performance for addition to InterAct Story Theatre’s AiE Roster listing! InterAct Story Theatre has visiting performances for a wide range of educational and family audiences. This program was designed for students in grades PreK-1, some of whom are with a teacher in a classroom, and some of whom are at home with a family member. A tech sheet outlining the program coordination and tech rehearsal process is uploaded here; in addition to this tech packet, partner organizations also receive an electronic parent-educator resource/study guide and a link to a feedback form. Our website is currently being updated so this information will be easily accessible online. CLICK HERE FOR TECH PACKET CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Available Online! A variety of classroom workshops integrating drama, dance, and music into classroom curricula for grades preK through high school. All workshops are designed to meet state standards and objectives in both the art form and the content area being addressed. Arts Education & Arts Integration: Classroom Workshops InterAct Story Theatre conducts a variety of classroom workshops integrating drama, dance, and music into classroom curricula for grades preK through high school. All workshops are designed to meet state standards and objectives in both the art form and the content area being addressed. Scroll down for a sampling of some of our workshop offerings for different age and grade levels. Or, contact us or request more info about designing a classroom workshop for you! Many of our classroom workshops can be expanded into 2, 3- or 4-day artist-in-residence programs. See our page of Classroom Residencies for more information . REQUEST MORE INFO Early Education Elementary School Middle & High School Students < Back to InterAct in Schools

Meet Our Team: Tina Canady We’re so proud of our community of artists who share their skills and talents with InterAct Story Theatre and the communities we serve! Although we can’t gather together and do what we love—performing and creating fabulous art with kids, families, teachers, and community members—we want to take a few moments to celebrate some of the amazing people who make up our merry band of artists and educators. Today, we feature the wonderful and talented TINA CANADY! Meet TINA! Tina Canady is a black, queer theater artist. Since earning her BFA in drama from NYU, Tina has worked with several theaters across Baltimore, including Single Carrot Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, and Submersive Productions, LLC, where she serves as an artistic associate. Tina is passionate about creating new works, arts integration and continuing to cultivate her black joy! When she's not performing or teaching, she can usually be found playing board games, laughing or buying new wacky socks! 1. What do you love the most about working as a teaching artist? I love sharing my passion for theater making and creative expression. As someone who struggled academically, the arts allowed me to not only feel successful or “smart,” but it created a space for me to be myself. 2. Do you enjoy teaching or performing more? That’s so hard! But I think performing because that’s when I feel the most alive. 3. What is your favorite grade to work with? Early childhood! Early childhood classes leave me inspired because there is consistently a sense of novelty. The students are fearless in their pursuit of joy and self expression. And they remind me how to access parts of myself that too, feel wondrous, magical and limitless. 4. What have you learned from the teachers in the schools you’ve visited as an InterAct teaching and performing artist? Teachers do not get enough credit for the work they do! They create and maintain structure for these kids all while making learning enjoyable and that’s no small task! 5. Favorite story your students have created in class? I had one class create an extension about Anansi, a trickster spider that played tricks on other animals by using a magic flying carpet. That was pretty epic. 6. Favorite moment with a student/young audience member? In InterAct’s touring show “Not My Monkey!”, I played Delia the Dazzler, a bearded lady who sang an awesome song about loving yourself and accepting yourself. And I will never forget the first time an audience full of K-6th graders started singing along with me as they celebrated Delia in all of her beauty. As a queer artist, you don’t always get the opportunity to show up to work with your whole self and that was definitely a moment of pure joy and wholeness. 7. Favorite Children’s Book? I was obsessed with any book about the Berenstein bears. I’ve collected over like 70 of their books! So hard to pick a favorite! I'll say The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food because I loved to snack! 8. Must-have Quarantine snack? Brownies with vanilla ice cream. 9. Favorite Self-Care Activity? Meditating outside. 10. Something you can’t wait to do when social distancing is over? Visiting my mom and giving her a hug! 11. Dream Role? Hmm, I’m not sure because I can’t even begin to imagine the wondrous roles yet to be written! 12. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned this year as a teaching and performing artist for InterAct? One of the biggest takeaways I have as an InterAct teaching and performing artist has to do with the intersection of where preparation meets humanity. InterAct has prepared me to facilitate workshops in an academic environment while still encouraging me to bring my humanity to the classroom. I work with a vast variety of kids and they always come with goodwill and their own unique perspectives and my hope is to bring structured lesson plans and poses the flexibility necessary to bask in our shared humanness and just have fun!

Community InterActions is a four-part podcast series exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the Wheaton area. Community InterActions collects stories to tell and shares them through the words and voices of the people who are living them. This limited audio series will be taking a look at who we are in Wheaton, and focusing on some specific people in Wheaton who wanted to share their stories about the impact of the pandemic on their lives and livelihoods. Scroll Down Community InterActions Welcome to Community InterActions, a four-part podcast series exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the Wheaton area. Our Wheaton community is full of stories to tell, and we're telling just a few of them in this series. Community InterActions collects some of those stories and shares them through the words and voices of the people who are living them. This limited audio series launched in 2021 takes a look at who we are in Wheaton, and focuses on some specific people in Wheaton who want to share their stories about the impact of the pandemic on their lives and livelihoods. To access our podcast episodes, click on an episode square below or click on this link . For more information about any of our guests and contributors, click on the images in the virtual gallery below! We'd love to hear what you thought of our podcasts. Please fill-out this short survey to let us know! This project was made possible by a grant from Maryland Humanities, with funding received from the Maryland Historical Trust in the Maryland Department of Planning. Maryland Humanities’ Grants Program is also supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private funders. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Maryland Humanities, Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland Department of Planning, or National Endowment for the Humanities.

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

Bobtail BONG BONG: A Monkey's Tale Click Here to read the review by Theatre Bloom Five Stars! October 29, 2019 “It’s quite the experience, an honestly beautiful learning endeavor that engages young audiences while they think they’re having nothing but fun and games in this great theatrical show. Bobtail Bong Bong: A Monkey’s Tail Tale is the exact theatrical experience InterAct Story Theatre has been attempting to achieve in years of late, and this new highly immersive and involved format is really working toward their overall company mission.” < Back to Press

Season 4 of Wheaton Family Theatre Series Wheaton Family Theatre Series Season 4: October, 2018 through May, 2019 Season 6 Season 5 Season 11 Season 3 Season 2 Season 1 To keep up on the latest news about InterAct’s Wheaton Family Theatre Series Season 11 and get reminders about our next program dates, join our mailing list . We also invite you to check out our past seasons by clicking on any of the season buttons! < Back to Community Page Season 7 Season 8 Season 4 Season 9 Season 10 Voytto Tech: a scifi fable October 2018 An interstellar play for kids and families about bullying, conflict, and doing the right thing when the universe goes wrong. Klipp Casey travels from a planet far, far away to study at Voytto Tech, the most famous science magnet school in the galaxy. Right away, Klipp has trouble fitting in at his new school, and becomes a target for bullying. What can Klipp do? Who can he go to for help? Best for ages 5 and up. Jack and the Beanstalk November 2018 Victorian Lyric Opera Company presents a family-friendly adaptation of this classic fairytale set to the toe-tapping music of Gilbert & Sullivan. Little ones will love Jack’s adventures up the magic beanstalk, while parents will enjoy the witty lyrics. Both Jack and the Giant learn an important lesson about how to treat others in this happy ending performance. Best for ages 3 and up. Pinot and Augustine December 2018 Happenstance Theatre is a classic, family-friendly clown duo inspired by the golden age of Circus. Pinot is the authoritarian clown in fancy clothes and white cone hat. Augustine is the appealing red-nosed bumbler who punctures his pomposity. Their show bubbles over with physical comedy, virtuosity and musical surprises from the sublime to the ridiculous: from lyrical melodies on a musical saw to pratfalls and a whoopee cushion. Best for ages 3 and up. A Family Literary Fiesta: Books Alive! January & February 2019 InterAct Story Theatre's Artistic Director Ali Oliver-Krueger leads kids and adults alike in a fun-filled, interactive afternoon bringing stories to life through drama. We'll act, sing, and dance our way through a rollicking story, and maybe even create some stories of our own! Christylez Bacon & Wytold Classical Hip-Hop Remixing the Classics March 2019 A collaborative musical program featuring Grammy nominated Progressive Hip-Hop artist Christylez Bacon (pronounced: chris-styles) and six-string electric cellist, Wytold (William Wytold Lebing). Traditional elements of hip-hop such as human beatbox, rhyming and storytelling are blended with classical compositions of composers like Bach, Vivaldi and Pachelbel. Best for ages 3 and up. Marian Licha: A Magical Journey Through Latin America April 2019 Puerto Rican-born actor and storyteller Marian Licha weaves alluring and interactive folktales in both English and Spanish, including Puerto Rican “Juan Bobo” stories, her own personal anecdotes, and short bilingual songs in an engaging program that lifts the spirit with humor and life-lessons from the oral tradition. Best for ages 3 and up. 3rd Annual KidStory Theatre Festival May 2019 A theatrical celebration of stories written by kids for kids! All year long, InterAct Story Theatre artists create stories with kids, and invite kids to share their epic stories with us. Each May, we choose the best of the best and transform them into short plays, musical numbers, and vignettes performed by our InterActors. We can’t wait to see what kids dream up each year! Best for ages 3 and up.

Tom Teasley Tom Teasley, described in the Washington Post as “a multi-instrumental genius,” maintains a unique career as a solo percussionist, composer, and collaborator. He is a Drummie Award winner for “World Percussionist of the Year by Drum! Magazine. Tom is a multi Helen Hayes Theatre Award recipient for outstanding sound design (nominations in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2019). Tom tours frequently worldwide, performing and presenting clinics for the instrument companies he endorses, including Yamaha, Vic Firth, Sabian, Remo, and Gon Bops. His educational book /DVD, An American Approach to World Percussion, is published by Alfred Publishing. Tom is a five-time WAMA (Washington Area Music Award) World Music Instrumentalist of the Year. A six-time recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes grant for performances in the Middle East, Tom collaborated with indigenous musicians and gave historic performances by invitation of U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Samoa, Oman, and Jerusalem. He has been an artist-in-residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Tom has collaborated with the National Symphony as both a soloist and composer. As an international collaborator, he has performed by invitation in Europe, South America, New Zealand, Samoa, and Korea. Tom earned the Artist-of-the-year award from Young Audiences of Virginia for his creative and educational presentations. His CDs receive international airplay and acclaim. He has been the subject of numerous feature articles in Modern Drummer Downbeat and Drum! Magazines. World Music, Drumming Teaching & Performing Artist Back

Ashton Schaffer Drama Teaching & Performing Artist Back

Pete Oliver-Krueger Pete Oliver-Krueger is a master carpenter, set designer, director, actor, and classical singer ...plus a product consultant and software engineer. As Technical Director for InterAct he is tasked with constructing the traveling sets for InterAct's main stage performances, designing special effects, and overseeing anything else with a technical component. As a product consultant and software engineer he mentors startups, large organizations, and non-profits in the DC metro area, teaching them how to do more with the resources they already have. He got his start at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, and his software architectures power multiple government agencies including the FDA, NASA, and the Pentagon. He has led many high-profile teams, including the relaunch of TD Ameritrade's new online trading platform, and the first DC Metro Trip Planner. Theatrical & Product Design, Multimedia Design CTO / Technical Director Back

Penny Russell Puppetry Teaching & Performing Artist Back