Backstory / Project Blueprint

"These live history presentations help to portray events in a way that is so much more real than books... a great community asset!"

- Linda Hart, Librarian, BishopsAcademy at Holy Family

Backstory invites students to step back in time for an interactive classroom experience with a featured historical character portrayed by a Syracuse Stage artist-in-residence. Students take an active role in the preparation of the character’s visit, as well as interact with the character during a classroom performance.

Lockheed Martin Project Blueprint merges scientific discovery and the arts. An actor portraying a scientist/mathematician introduces students to the connections between scientific discovery and the artistic process. Students take an active role in the preparation of the character’s visit, as well as interact with the character during a classroom performance.

Backstory: “History comes to life”

The Backstory Program is an interactive, live, creative history lesson for middle-school students through adults. Actors visit classrooms and other venues to bring historical characters to life.

Each performance includes a talkback with the actor(s) and our helpful study guide for further classroom exploration. Pre- or post-show sessions with our talented teaching artists can also be arranged.

The 08-09 Backstory study guide is available on the web. The High Res Version is ideal for printing, and the Low Res Version is ideal for viewing online. The 09-10 Study Guide will be available this winter.

Now Playing:

	Rosie the Riveter (NEW!) by Lauren Port A theatrical personification of the millions of women who created social and economic change within “the greatest generation.” Rosie’s classic portrait, boldly stating, “We can do it,” recently sold at auction for nearly five million dollars.
	Anne Frank: My Secret Life by Patricia Buckley Her diary, which has been translated into sixty-seven languages, remains one of the most widely-read books in the world. Through the eyes of this remarkable girl, we see into the annex of her father’s office, and in her own voice, hear her dreams for a better world.
	Hip-Shake by Len Fonte and Reenah Golden A modern hip-hop spoken word artist. An actor from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre circa 1600. Both are masters of wordplay, rhythm, and rhyme, but can they even understand what the other is saying? Can this linguistic odd couple find the similarities in their styles? Will they find themselves in synch, or at odds?
	Dreamprints: A Conversation with Harriet Tubman by Myxolydia Tyler Called Moses by the 300 people whose escape from slavery she assisted, Harriet Tubman freed herself from slavery, then risked her life 19 times to help others.
	Zora Neale Hurston in Hopeful Horizons by Veanna Black Zora Neale Hurston is the author, anthropologist, and folklorist considered to be the prototypical authority on black culture during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s.
	Rosalie Randazzo: Child Garment Worker by Sara Ariello and Anna Cometa This fictional character is a composite based on the true stories of the millions of child laborers and immigrants working in America at the dawn of the 20th century.

Lockheed Martin Project Blueprint “Merging scientific discovery and the arts”

Merging scientific discovery and the arts, an actor portraying a scientist/mathematician introduces students to the connections between scientific discovery and the artistic process.

Each performance includes a talkback with the actor(s) and our helpful study guide for further classroom exploration. Pre- or post-show sessions with our talented teaching artists can also be arranged.

Now Playing:

George Washington Carver Born into slavery and kidnapped as a child by Confederate raiders, George Washington Carver fought prejudice and poverty in the Reconstruction period to become the first African American to receive a national monument in his honor. Best known for developing three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for other crops, Carver may have single-handedly saved the agricultural industry and botanical environment of the south. As Director of Agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute, he never profited from the patents and discoveries he made: “God gave them to me. How can I sell them to someone else?”

Contact

For more info, or to arrange a performance, please call:

Lauren Unbekant
Director of Educational Outreach
(315) 443-1150
lunbekan@syr.edu