Theatre News Wire

Goodman Theatre's Education and Community Programs welcomes 80 students from Chicagoland public, private and parochial schools as participants in General Theatre Studies (GTS), the free six-week intensive introduction to the theater arts. GTS provides 14 to 19 year old students the hands-on opportunity to engage with and learn from local professional theater mentors, including Bobby Biedrzycki, Amanda Delheimer, Kevin Douglas, Khanisha Foster, Tony Sancho and Paul Whitehouse. New this summer, GTS also involves members from Goodman's GeNarrations program-a writing workshop for senior citizens based on themes raised by the Goodman's mainstage productions. Participants engage in all elements of the theater-both on stage and behind the scenes-and the program culminates in a free showcase of the participants' work July 29 and 30 on the Owen stage. For more information or to make a reservation, call 312.443.3800 ext. 1432. Generous support of GTS is provided, in part, by AT&T Foundation and Quarles & Brady LLP. Additional Education and Community Engagement gifts partially allocated to GTS are provided by the Helen Brach Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, The Irving Harris Foundation and Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Principal support of Artistic Development and Diversity Initiatives is provided by The Joyce Foundation.

"This is truly my favorite time of year-when students from all over Chicago choose to spend their summers exploring different aspects of both the theater and themselves at the Goodman," said Willa J. Taylor, Director of Education and Community Engagement. "Pairing these youth with members from our GeNarrations program allows our students to learn about the power of narrative and the affect of theater on people of all ages. By sharing their stories with each other and the community they are privy to the powerful affect the theater arts are able to have in an individual's everyday life."

Themed "First Love, First Kiss," this summer's GTS program dovetails on the Goodman's recent world premiere of Stage Kiss, in which playwright Sarah Ruhl explores what happens when lovers share a stage kiss-or actors share a real one. The student participants, each of whom was selected through an audition process, collaborate with GTS Teaching Artists and senior citizen participants of the GeNarrations Program to create short performance pieces using oral history and personal story-telling techniques. The students combine the individual pieces into a single final showcase performance. GTS participants will also have the unique opportunity to interact with and learn from the Goodman's artists, including resident designers, directors and staff.

About the 2011 GTS Teaching Artists and Assistants

Khanisha Foster is a Chicago actor, writer, director and teacher, and a former teaching artist in the Goodman's Yollocalli program at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. This is Foster's fifth year as lead teaching artist for GTS. Bobby Biedrzyck is a writer, performer and educator who joins GTS for the second year. Biedryzyck is an adjunct faculty member of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago and a company member of the urban storytelling series 2nd Story. Kevin Douglas is in his seventh year as a teaching artist at the Goodman. An actor, sketch comedian and writer with his theater company MPAACT, Douglas has also performed in Steppenwolf's Traffic Series with his sketch group, kevINda, and Lookingglass Theatre Company's production of Lookingglass Alice.

Amanda Delheimer is the Artistic Director of Serendipity Theater Collective, where she runs their flagship project, 2nd Story. She is also an Artistic Associate with Collaboraction Theater Company and Adventure Stage Chicago. Tony Sancho is an ensemble member of Teatro Vista and taught for six years in Goodman's Yollocalli summer program at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. Paul Whitehouse, a former Goodman intern and teaching assistant for the past two years joins GTS as a first time teaching artist. Whitehouse is an ensemble member at Theatre Momentum, a company member at Chemically Imbalanced Theatre and the producer of Serendipity Theatre Collective's 2nd Story. He tours with the educational theater company The Morris Brothers and Improv Playhouse. In addition, former student participants Liz Gottmann, Elizabeth Nungary and Angelo Murphy Cotto return to GTS as teaching assistants.