Throughout the past several years, there have been numerous opportunities available from the Indiana Department of Education for professional development in the area of fine arts. These have included both continuing programs and newly established workshops and grant opportunities.

Even with the budget deficit that our state is facing, we will still have opportunities for our fine arts educators. With the reduction or eradication of state funds, some ongoing programs have been eliminated; but the good news is that resulting shifts in direction and resources have created new professional development opportunities. Since these are truly "new" programs, the details must be further established before publication.

Budget restrictions also limit mailings to teachers; so please be sure, if you have not already done so, to e-mail me with your name, school, and subject and level taught. Watch for information on professional development opportunities throughout the year via your e-mail, on this website and in any other creative ways we can devise to disperse important information to you.

An Open Invitation to Teachers of Spanish:

Language begins with the desire to communicate. Desire born from conditions fundamental to all human beings across all cultures. We are looking for twenty innovators. Twenty teachers eager to find new ways to reconnect themselves and their students to language’s first principals. We have designed a workshop for the curious and we are inviting you to join us in a summer of exploration.

The Marsillach Acting Academy has experienced considerable success using acting techniques to bring life and immediacy into classrooms of students struggling with a new language. Our experience has led us to design a two-fold curriculum for English speaking teachers of Spanish. In our Summer Performance Workshop set in Spain's historically rich Castilla La Mancha, teacher/participants will undertake a role by Spain’s most legendary playwright in a 3-week acting intensive. Working with Cristina Marsillach, Artistic Director of the Marsillach Academy in Madrid, as well as scholars and theatrical professionals associated with the El Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de Almagro students will receive lectures and hands-on instruction leading to a production of Bodas de Sangre - By Frederico Garcia Lorca on the stage at Almagro, a beautiful, classical theater from the 16th century.

Teacher/participants will also be attending the Playwriting Workshop led by Anne Garcia Romero. The workshop is designed to introduce students to creating original work for the theater. The workshop will explore the writing process as well as models from contemporary American and Spanish theater with the aim of presenting a variety of paths toward creating new, vibrant plays.

THE STAFF

• CRISTINA MARSILLACH the Artistic Director of MAA comes from one of Spain's most highly regarded theatrical families and has been performing on stage and television since she was five years old. She starred in a dozen movies in Spain and Italy. In her only English speaking role she co-starred with Tom Hanks in Every Time We Say Goodbye
• ANNE GARCIA-ROMERO comes from an artistic and musical Spanish family. She received her MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama. She's taught playwriting at Wesleyan University, Cal Arts and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her plays have been developed and produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, The Mark Taper Forum and South Coast Repertory. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: www.marsillachactingacademy.com

"Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau"

"Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau" is an educational performance play about the final two days Henry David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond.

This two act, one set, four character play is designed for use by high schools and colleges. The play script plus a customized lesson plan are being made available FREE OF CHARGE to 10,000 schools in the USA, Canada and around the world for performance as an Earth Day 2007 event {MARCH 20, 2007 at 7:07 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time) or 12:07 UTC March 21 (Greenwich, England)}. The play script is also available in Spanish.

Thoreau is America's original "tree hugger" and forefather of our environmental movement. He was a gentle naturalist, earth lover, author, pencil maker - and is the most quoted American writer in history. Yet, when he passed, he was more well known for having helped market the pencil than for a single word he wrote with it. Aside from the massive educational nature of this project (consider the Earth Day event, American literature, environmental and science tie-in plus conservation) Thoreau certainly matches the imagery of what Earth Day means across the country and worldwide.

“In an age of global warming, bio-fuels, hybrid cars and oil wars,” says play author Michael Johnathon from his farmhouse home in Kentucky, “the script can introduce students to Thoreau as well as environmental concerns in their own home towns at a time when, frankly, they need it.”

Beginning October 15, 2006, educators can go to the website with a provided password to access the teachers page. There you will be able to download the play as a 55 page PDF, posters, theater programs, handbills and the lesson plan. To request the password email: producer@waldenplay.com, or ask for the password from your state’s Earth Day Coordinator. Another way is to FAX your request on school stationary to 859-225-4020. Always include your name, grade, school name, school address and phone number in your email or fax request.

The project is underwritten and endorsed by the national Earth Day Network (Washington, DC) American Forests (Washington DC) and the Dixon-Ticonderoga pencil company (FLORIDA.) More information at www.waldenplay.com . Click here for flyer.