The Towle brings theater to East Chicago schools

EAST CHICAGO | Last year, Towle Theater in Hammond partnered with Block Middle School and Communities in Schools in East Chicago to bring theater to a school with no actual theater program.

Led by mentors from Towle Theater, the program worked with 10 to 15 students in the after-school tutoring program to provide a creative outlet for young people interested in the performing arts. The students had an opportunity to play theater games with mentors, participate in script readings and even performed choreographed numbers from Broadway musicals at a special performance at the Towle Theater in May.

This year, the partnership continues and has expanded. Instead of meeting twice a week, the students meet four days a week for 90 minutes each day, working with qualified mentors from Towle Theater.

Shawn A. Smith, project manager for the Towle, is looking forward to mentoring the students. "I got the chance to help develop a similar program at the Sto-Rox High School just outside of Pittsburgh," he said. "It was amazing to see how a program such as this helped the students become more focused in classes, raise their test scores, and provided an outlet for them that really was never there before.

"I'm really excited to see what the students bring to the program."

Students will have the chance to try their hand at various skills in the theater world, including dance, acting and singing, with a few surprises along the way.

"The goal of the program is to have a complete show produced by the end of the spring semester," said Smith, "There is a lot of work to be done, but once we get the students involved in the program, I think we will have really wonderful results."

For more information about the partnership between Communities in Schools and the Towle Theater, contact Jeff Casey, managing director of the Towle Theater, at (219) 937-8780, or email Smith, project manager, at sasmith@towletheater.org.