GOSSAMER Blog with Oregon Children's Theatre

By Julia Newby, Education Director

September has arrived…along with a touch of crisp air and the official start of the new school year—and I could not be more excited! As Education Director, I have the opportunity to work with countless teachers and students and visit numerous schools throughout the year. However, the scope of students First Stage’s Education Department serves is generally limited to those living in Southeastern Wisconsin…that was until now!

Through a unique cross-country partnership, First Stage Children’s Theater and Oregon Children’s Theater have worked together with the playwright and author, Lois Lowry, to develop the script of GOSSAMER. Now, after months of collaboration, both theaters will open their 2008/2009 seasons with world premieres of this production! This extensive collaboration has spanned across all departments in both companies, including the Education Departments and now we are expanding the partnership even further!

After multiple brainstorming discussions between the Education Departments at First Stage and Oregon Children’s Theater, we decided to set up an exclusive blog site for our school group audiences attending GOSSAMER. The intention of this blog site is to further enhance the discussion of the themes and ideas referenced in the show, as well as for students to realize and explore the artistic differences between the production at First Stage and the production at Oregon Children’s Theater. With this blog experience, it is our hope to expand this collaborative process to our student and teacher audiences, enabling them to build connections through dialogues between classrooms across the country.

Approximately ten classrooms in Milwaukee and another ten in Portland will be taking part in this blogging event between September 15th and November 14th, 2008. Both First Stage and Oregon Children’s Theater will be administering the blog site and making regular posts to the blog to initiate and continue discussions between all the classrooms. Teachers will also have the ability to post their own questions, thoughts, or comments.

We are so delighted to have the opportunity to open this partnership to our students in Milwaukee and Portland and are looking forward to being a part of these dialogues and the development of new relationships!