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Creede Repertory Theatre’s Young Audience Outreach Tour will come to Willits’ Arts Campus on Mondays and Tuesdays, performing a bilingual musical for Roaring Fork Valley pupils.
YAOT, whose mission is to bring high-quality musical theater to rural and underserved communities, produces an original children’s program for students in grades K-6 that tours the Southwest each year. In Season 39, YAOT presents a production called “Casa Alfonsa”, a 50-minute upbeat musical featuring song, dance, puppets and a powerful message.
This marks the second year that Creede Repertory Theatre and TACAW have teamed up to bring YAOT’s educational performances to the valley.
This year, the number of participating schools from the Roaring Fork School District has doubled from three to six – including Glenwood Springs Elementary, Riverview School, Crystal River Elementary, Two Rivers Community School, Sopris Elementary and Basalt Elementary.
Over the two-day event, more than 450 RFSD students in grades 2-4 will participate in TACAW’s YAOT program. Art Williams, TACAW’s Education and Community Partnerships Coordinator, believes that the value of the field trip goes beyond the performance itself.
“One of the reasons a partnership like Creede Repertory Theatre is so valuable to us is because it’s not just a performance, it’s a complement to education,” Williams said. “Teachers have standards that they have to teach or courses they’re trying to pass, and beyond that, it’s important to teach students how to be human — that’s where we feel very lucky to have a structure like this for teachers to do that.”
Williams went on to discuss the “Casa Alphonsa” storyline, emphasizing how the show provides students with a fun and powerful learning experience. The show follows a Latino family that owns a restaurant, and when beloved chef and grandmother Alfonsa dies, two young cousins face the grief of keeping the family business afloat.
“Casa Alfonsa” provides a “relevant structure,” Williams said, and incorporates life lessons on emotion regulation in the home environment. He mentioned that the bilingual aspect of the musical is important, while it highlights a story about the Latino community.
In addition to the actual YAOT performance, Creede Repertory Theatre has developed a mini-lesson guide with lessons ranging from visual arts activities to recipes – all designed to enhance learning of the topics presented in “Casa Alfonsa”.
TACAW has sent course materials to each participating RFSD school so that teachers can continue conversations in the classroom after the field trip.
Williams explained how the educational program with YAOT is part of TACAW’s larger mission to engage Roaring Fork students in the arts, particularly arts that address the social and emotional components of learning, he said.
“Art does provide a powerful entry point to talk about things you don’t get in a language class or a math class — art goes into all the different aspects of life,” Williams said. “So we want people, especially young people in our community, to experience art and by doing so [YAOT] “
Fair exposure to the arts is a strong feeling Williams has for nurturing at TACAW. As a Latino who goes to a private school, opportunities in the arts are few, Williams said, noting that on-campus arts programs are limited to choirs.
Williams went on to say that while some students participate in after-school drama clubs or other extracurricular arts programs, those activities often require time and money — which unfortunately prevents many from the formative experiences that the arts provide, he said.
Williams considered this equity issue when promoting TACAW’s youth arts program.
“You know, we can say we’re going to take people to an evening show for like $10, but can the students even come to the show? Can their families coordinate transportation? Maybe not,” Williams said. “So this on-campus format makes it easier for us to reach young people.”
Williams added that through partnerships with organizations such as Creede Repertory Theatre, TACAW is able to develop impactful arts education experiences for local schools at no cost.
“They just have to sign a school bus contract to bring their students here and we’ll do the rest and enjoy this really fun, engaging musical performance,” Williams said. “Then they can go back to school and carry on. Talking about these things in class — the impact doesn’t just carry over into the performance, it can really start a conversation.”
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